Double HP117's? Does anyone dive them?

[Landlocked123]

Does anyone have experience with double HP117's? I have one and am thinking about buying another to band them. I am 250 and x the belly fat I am pretty strong and most of my diving is easy shore entry at quarries...

 

[CT-Rich]

I dive steel 120s and they each provide a ton of gas. As a twin set you are talking about carrying around a 100lbs on your back. I would caution against that unless you have a clear need for taking that much gas with you in the water. Climbing a ladder or walking over uncertain terrain will be tough with that much gear. And slipping on algal scum with tanks that large will make the landing very hard.

If you feel like this is must do activity, I would suggest learning side mount. It will make your center of gravity much lower.

 

[Cyborg Pirate]

I dive HP120 twinsets on s regular basis. I really like them. I just picked up another set of MP120’s as well. If you can handle the weight.... go to it! Tons of gas and bottom time

 

[Landlocked123]

Thank you to everyone for the feedback. 90% of my diving will be at the local quarry where therer is literally a 30 foot walk to a pier and easy steps down onto a floating dock. Right now I sometimes dive a 133 with a pony backmounted so the weight is less but still up there. I have no problems at all.

 

[RyanT]

@Landlocked123, what quarry are you diving? If you're diving Juturna springs, you can deep enough to make a set of double 117s worth while. For most quarry's though it would be overkill from a gas stand point. If you don't mind the weight, they are a good set of tanks. I dive a set of double 100s and they are a little heavier than I care for (around 100 lbs). A set of 117s will run about 10 lbs heavier. Also, keep in mind that when you go to a set of steel doubles, they are also very heavy in the water. Not only are you carrying an additional negative steel tank with you, but you are also adding a set of bands and manifold. You'll want to make sure you get a doubles wing with plenty of lift. Again if you're diving deep in Juturna, you'll really want to be in a drysuit and that will help with the weight issue of the heavy steel doubles.

 

[Kevrumbo]

Not sure we're talking about the same sized twinset here. . .

Check the physical size vis-á-vis Faber HP117 vs HP120:

Steel Cylinders

 

[Landlocked123]

Ryan you hit the nail on the head. I dive every weekend at Juturna. I dive wet for now. I had been diving an HP133 with a 30 cubic foot pony along with a steel single tank adapter and steel OMS backplate all season. I carry no other weight. I have no problems weight wise at all and my guess is that is close to 80-90 lbs. I am only 5-9 so the 133 does not trim out well. I dove my new HP117 this past weekend and it was perfect for me, again with a back mounted 30 cubic foot pony. I ordered another HP117 because its going to be my goto tank and originally had not really considered putting them together for doubles given the size. Even as a single tank It's a ton of air and depending on the profiles I get either 3-4 short dives to 65-70 ish , or 2 hour long shallow dives (avg depth around 20 feet). This past weekend I was diving with my buddy who has a rebreather and I put in close to 2 hours of diving in and still had 900 PSI left over. So the thought was to investigate the possibility of banding them for doubles. I am going to probably get a dry suit next season and that would help with the buoyancy concerns. I have an OMS 60 lb doubles wing now. I weigh around 255 so even with the additional negative buoyancy, given I would lose the STA, Pony, etc not sure I would be tremendously over weighted. Regarding getting in and out of the water what I have been doing is after my first dive I tie my rig off to one side of the floating dock out of people's way and I just put it back on in the water for my subsequent dives. Another reason I am not that concerned about the weight per se as I only really walk the rig in and out once a day. That said, I am on the fence and wanted to get other's opinions and that was the reason for the post. I may keep to diving them as singles for another season and hold off on doubles until the dry suit... decisions...decisions

 

[KevinNM]

Meredith Tanguay dives LP95s doubles IIRC, which are somewhat heaver than HP117s when filled to 3600 PSI. She's not a big woman, she once mentioned the rig weighs more than she does. It's perfectly doable, but you have to be strong enough and careful enough to do it. Nothing good happens fast out of the water with doubles, so move carefully.

 

[RyanT]

I dive wet for now.

Whew, you're tough!!! At 45' in Juturna this friday I felt like someone had put my head in a vice. I was wearing a 7 mm semi dry with an integrated hood. Apparently I'm not very cold tolerant!

I dive doubles because I make a handful of big deco dives each year where I need 150+ cf of gas for the dive. For the remainder of my dives, a single HP100 would suffice. My view, however, is that I like to dive the doubles on every dive because it provides redundancy and muscle memory (e.g. isolation/valve shut downs). So when I do make a deep deco dive, everything is always in the same place and my dive procedures are standardized. Another advantage is that I can make two deep recreational dives on the doubles without having to swap out tanks between dives (I'm lazy like that)!

 

[RyanT]

Oh yeah, and the ability to leave your rig clipped to the platform at Juturna is awesome!