OK, if I understand correctly what happened (and tbone helped with the picture), you are saying that the cap on the inflator came unscrewed. Correct?
1. Notwithstanding some of the comments, what you experienced WAS a gear (inflator) failure. It was compounded by human error, but it qualifies as a gear failure. That doesn’t necessarily mean the gear was defective. That doesn’t mean it was improperly assembled / tightened at the time of manufacture, although that is possible. As Jim Wyatt said, ‘s**t happens’. It is quite possible that the cap was damaged at some point (days, weeks) before it came off – a cylinder falling on the valve could cause a small crack to develop, and loosen the tightness of the fit. With the DR dump inflator, the cap simply coming unscrewed is EXTREMELY rare. Those caps are screwed on VERY tight. But, it is not impossible. Maybe the person assembling that valve suffered a hand spasm just as they were screwing it on. Maybe they cross-threaded it. As Jim also said, it would be good to let DR know, for quality control purposes. There should / may be a serial number on the wing, which may help DR track the assembly of the particular unit.
2. You have been appropriately beaten about the head and shoulders for failure to conduct a proper pre-dive safety check, during which you would have tested the wing, and (probably) the shoulder dump. I was off the NC coast last Thursday, turned back Friday before reaching the dive site, and didn’t get out Saturday or Sunday because of sea conditions. So, I feel your pain (or nausea, as the case may be) and I can see a situation developing where the pre-dive check was pushed aside in the rush to get in the water before the hurling competition got into high gear. Still, that failure was a good example of how serious accidents ultimately develop – it is not one ‘big’ thing, it is usually a series of ‘small’, seemingly insignificant, things that make up the accident chain. Lesson learned.
3. Loctite (Threadlocker) is not the answer. Gorilla Glue definitely is not the answer. Both are completely unnecessary with gear that is properly assembled and maintained in proper working condition, and not otherwise damaged. I see divers bring gear into the shop where I feel like I need a hydraulic wrench to get a part unscrewed – that shouldn’t be that difficult. When I ask them about it they often say, ‘Oh another shop where I had a problem fixed told me they used some Loctite.’ Maybe the customer actually did it themselves and wants to blame the other shop. Loctite may seem to be a solution when the cap is actually cracked, and doesn’t tighten properly, or when the threads have been damaged from misuse. In reality, it isn’t. The answer there is to replace the damaged parts.
4. Replacing the valve with a simple elbow is a reasonable recommendation. Shoulder dumps are unnecessary if a diver is properly trimmed, and has a corrugated hose of proper length. I do frequently use butt dumps, but they are simple, and I am not potentially damaging a corrugated hose when I use them, as I would be with the shoulder dump. In fairness, I still have shoulder dumps on a couple of wings (that I bought used). But, I never use them so I haven’t run the risk of damaging the hose, nor do I feel any necessity to pre-emptively replace them. But, newer divers, particularly student divers, seem to want to yank on the hose to activate the shoulder dump – to the extent that we have taken the wire out of most of our pool BCDs that originally come with shoulder dumps.
We got certified in 1994, got our Dive Rite rigs in 2011, and have over half our career dives since getting into Dive Rite setups (we did dive every year since originally getting certified)
