Do I want a Spare Air

[Boston Breakwater]

short answer no.
long answer, you don't want a pony bottle either. You want to plan your dive properly so you don't have to worry about such things.
If you are not going to want to rely on a buddy, then there are other options out there for proper redundant air, but I don't think pony bottles are the answer and a spare air certainly isn't.

That's the first time....in 20 years.
I've ever heard someone recommend "Not to get a pony bottle." Please, enlighten us and tell us "ALL." the other options.
Cheers.

 

[UTscuba]

I am soliciting opinions on carrying a Spate Air secondary air source for emergencies. I am a relatively new diver that is starting to dive down 70 to 90 feet. My primary fear is equipment failure and needing to rely on a buddy. How common are equipment failures at depth? Is the Spare Air a good option for deeper dives?

if your fear is equipment failure then you do not want a spare air.

I had one, dove with it once, surfaced with bottle full of water.

Bought a pony the next day, never had a problem since.

 

[RyanT]

I've ever heard someone recommend "Not to get a pony bottle. Please, enlighten us and tell us "ALL." the other options.

First, good buddy system. Second, back mount doubles. Of course BM doubles are not a normal recreational set up, but a good option indeed.

 

[tbone1004]

That's the first time....in 20 years.
I've ever heard someone recommend "Not to get a pony bottle. Please, enlighten us and tell us "ALL." the other options.
Cheers.

You must not have met any technical divers, certainly not any DIR divers. Within that realm, you trust your buddy and use your buddy as your backup for recreational level diving, it's part of the team mentality. Once you need true redundancy for things like decompression/overhead then you are into sidemount/doubles where you have proper redundancy.
If you don't trust your buddy, then you are basically diving solo which is not relevant to this part of the forum. That said, even when solo diving, with proper planning, you shouldn't ever need one because of reasons I mentioned above on why I don't use one.

Again, one important thing. Pony bottles are great for selling gear. If they were truly that beneficial for safety, then they would be required by the agencies when teaching because as an instructor you are inherently solo diving. No agency requires or even recommends that instructors dive with a pony bottle and in fact, most mandate that you are in similar equipment to your students. I.e. I'm not supposed to teach open water students in backmount singles while diving sidemount. If you dive a pony properly, then you don't have a secondary second stage on your main tank because 3 second stages is ridiculous, and at that point you are no longer diving similar to students.
Pony's are also not required nor recommended for deep training. Since not a single agency advocates their use, then we have to look at why people feel the need to use them and fix those reasons. For solo diving, it's a different discussion, but solo diving is not appropriate to discuss in depth in the beginner forums

 

[Bob DBF]

I had one for a while, it seemed to work fine but did not hold up well to the conditions I subjected it to, which were severe. Since I never actually used it for the purpose I bought it for, I finally sold it and went back to no redundant air.

Eventally, as I got older i picked up 19 cuft pony for backup on my deeper solo dives. I picked that one because I got a deal on it, and some on the board will say it's not big enough for my dives, and I think it's bigger than I needed.

The issue for me is not the size of the SpareAir, but the unreasonable expectations some have of its usefulness. If you know it will only give a few breaths on a csea from 120', and that's all you need then it's fine. If you want to continue your rec dive as if little had happened, then buy a set of doubles. Figure out what you require to deal with your emergency scenario to your satisfaction, and buy accordingly.

 

[BRT]

I agree. I've never dragged my 6cf pony on holiday in the Caribbean or elsewhere. I sometimes took it along on deeper local solo dives. It's a neat little package, but the trouble involved in air transport of cylinders and the improbability of refilling it after arriving at a remote island destination makes lugging the thing a non-starter. I agree about the .32 as well.

We fill our SA's first test dive. Test them underwater last dive. They are extremely reliable, never seem to leak down. I prefer the pin type pressure indicator because you can even check it by feel. I've never run out of air since 1985 and don't plan on it. But if I am out of air at any depth I'd rather have a little air than none.

 

[BRT]

I had one for a while, it seemed to work fine but did not hold up well to the conditions I subjected it to, which were severe. Since I never actually used it for the purpose I bought it for, I finally sold it and went back to no redundant air.

Eventally, as I got older i picked up 19 cuft pony for backup on my deeper solo dives. I picked that one because I got a deal on it, and some on the board will say it's not big enough for my dives, and I think it's bigger than I needed.

The issue for me is not the size of the SpareAir, but the unreasonable expectations some have of its usefulness. If you know it will only give a few breaths on a csea from 120', and that's all you need then it's fine. If you want to continue your rec dive as if little had happened, then buy a set of doubles. Figure out what you require to deal with your emergency scenario to your satisfaction, and buy accordingly.

If I run out of air at 100' I may not have the thing out before 80'.

 

[BRT]

if your fear is equipment failure then you do not want a spare air.

I had one, dove with it once, surfaced with bottle full of water.

Bought a pony the next day, never had a problem since.

Three of us use them, have hundreds of dives with them with no problems.

 

[UTscuba]

Three of us use them, have hundreds of dives with them with no problems.

that's great, very happy for you

but I wouldn't again trust a screw-thread that can only be hand tightened again. One careless knock and you have a bottle full of water.

And I did

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

You all knew I was going to do this, right?