Diving Without an Inflator Hose

[Mike1967]

Just a wild Saturday-night consideration at the moment.

Are you drunk?

 

[certainmisuse]

Are you drunk?

Haha, nah not quite, on my second drink and falling asleep.

 

[TMHeimer]

My YOUNGER brother dived a lot in the '80s and in recent years just once yearly with me. He said he had to get used to the power inflator, and didn't much like it at first.

 

[dlofting]

Simplification. I really like the idea of eliminating failure points. Again, not for every dive. Just a wild Saturday-night consideration at the moment.

So to eliminate the failure point you would remove the hose and plug the LP port not just disconnect the hose.

 

[clownfishsydney]

I have done heaps of dives with the inflator hose disconnected. Why? Because the inflator on an old BCD I had would routinely decide to stick on, so I had to pull the hose off to stop becoming a polaris missile. Water will not enter the BCD, and even if it does, there is nothing much that can be hurt. As I always then had to pull the inflator apart and clean it to stop if sticking (only worked for 20 dives or so), I know that it was not affecting it (the sticking was not caused by the water but a poor design).

It makes no sense to dive with the inflator disconnected just to remove a possible failure point. If things torn to sh!t and you need to inflate quickly or on the surface, you may be in trouble with it disconnected.

 

[W W Meixner]

Would there be any issue diving without the inflator hose attached? Other than not being able to power inflate of course. And not forgetting to plug the first stage mind you. I know very little about the connections on the wing. Is water likely to enter the wing with the hose off I suppose is the big question? If not, can it be easily sealed?

If possible, I'm considering removing the hose for very shallow dives. Looking to do a great deal of pool practice first. That is if this isn't ridiculous.

Thanks.

David

David...

There's lots of things you shouldn't do and this is a primary example...

As a diver you need to know how to rapidly recover from an uncontrolled ascent...and just as important you need to be able to recover from a rapid uncontrolled descent...caused by being overly negative...either with task loading...or a possible gear flood...eg. flooded dry-suit...flooded rebreather...

You can't successfully do either by sucking from your reg...and manually trying to orally inflate your BCD/wing...before you know whats happening...you'll end up sucking when you should be blowing...gulping water...panicking...and you're in trouble...and all the while descending deeper and deeper...

On a lot of OW level wall dives...the bottom of the wall may be visible from the top...or it could be 6000 ft below...you need to be able to stay neutral for your desired depth...and not suddenly finding yourself plummeting into the abyss...

Ensure your gear is regularly cleaned...inspected...maintained and serviced at required intervals...if you start eliminating critical sub-components that you're afraid ''may fail''...you'll be naked and gearless in no time...

What ''experienced'' and/or technical divers may or may not be doing as far as specialized gear configuration is concerned...is not where your profile indicates you are currently at...follow your training...stay on track...

Best...

Warren

 

[JohnnyC]

Damn, thank god we had BCD's before we even had the on-demand regulator, to save us from ever diving without adjustable buoyancy.

 

[chillyinCanada]

Warren? Uh,

 

[herman]

No offense Warren but this is exactly the problem the BCD created, not solved, for normal rec diving. Properly weighted, neither situation can occur outside of some technical diving where a lot of gear is being carried. I can't comment on rebreathers as I don't dive them. Diving was happening way before the BC came on the market, in that time, proper weighting and breath control was taught, today, the BC is used as a tool to cover for poor diver training/skill. While I do keep my BC hose connected (when wearing a BC) during a dive I almost never use the BC, I am properly weighted so there is no need.......just about to fly home from a week of diving, never touched the BC once. My "normal" diving rig is no BC at all when diving where the scuba police are not around. I am properly weighted and know breath control so I don't need one. We seem to forget it is a buoyancy COMPENSATOR , it's job is to compensate for small changes in buoyancy caused by gas use and exposure suit compression, not to compensate for excessive/improper weighting (outside of tech diving). These are relatively small changes and never happen quickly so there is never a need to quickly adjust for them.

 

[tbone1004]

our students spend nearly all of their pool time without the power inflator hoses plugged in and are taught oral inflation as the primary method of managing their buoyancy. There's no problem with doing just about any dive without one, they do make rapid descents nice though since it can be hard to "catch up" with a rapid descent without one.
With regards to water, no water will come in unless you press the button since it is a closed valve. Even if you hold the button down, you would have to have the nipple at the highest point for any water to come in and you'll have infinitely more water coming in from pulling on a dump valve with an empty wing or jerking the inflator above your head to descent. It's a nonissue