Aviatrr
Contributor
Last weekend I had a regulator on my stage bottle blow an O-ring in the cave. The bottle had been turned on and I had been using it for the previous few minutes. Suddenly, a boatload(caveload?) of air started coming out from around what appeared to be the rubber knob on the valve, so I shut the valve down and exited on back gas. Upon surfacing, I realized that it had been an O-ring and that the air was coming out a small hole in the side of the valve, which I ASSUME is designed to vent gas in the event of an O-ring failure. I have to admit - I never noticed that little hole in the valve before. It's on the same side as the knob. It's a Thermo non modular 200 bar DIN/K. The insert was removed and the reg is a 300 bar DIN.
What exactly is this hole in the side of the valve for? I have not seen this on any other valves. Is this strictly on the Thermo line? I plan on ditching this valve and going with a 300bar non modular, not sure which brand yet. Can somebody tell me, from experience, what kind of air loss you're looking at when you blow a regulator O-ring on a 300bar DIN?
I can't figure out why the O-ring decided to go RIGHT then, or why there was enough of a gap to allow that much air to escape....but there had not been any impact on the valve/reg that would have prompted this. The valve/reg had been pressurized for well over an hour, but turned off for about 30 minutes. I turned the valve back on and started breathing off the reg a few minutes before the O-ring went.
Mike
What exactly is this hole in the side of the valve for? I have not seen this on any other valves. Is this strictly on the Thermo line? I plan on ditching this valve and going with a 300bar non modular, not sure which brand yet. Can somebody tell me, from experience, what kind of air loss you're looking at when you blow a regulator O-ring on a 300bar DIN?
I can't figure out why the O-ring decided to go RIGHT then, or why there was enough of a gap to allow that much air to escape....but there had not been any impact on the valve/reg that would have prompted this. The valve/reg had been pressurized for well over an hour, but turned off for about 30 minutes. I turned the valve back on and started breathing off the reg a few minutes before the O-ring went.
Mike