Exg Inflation Gas selector?

[Steel_Stalk]

That's an interesting perspective. When I dove in Monterey Bay, the shops in the area had air and 32. If you wanted to get anything else, you'd have order in advance or go to San Francisco. Compared to Cave Country, Monterey Bay Area is a gas desert. That's why I surprised to hear that people get argon. I know I never got it.

Last fall I asked about trimix and got the following responses from the prominent scuba shops in Monterey:

- What is trimix?
- Oh, no, we don't carry any but if you drive 1.5 hours north...

Air Fills & Nitrox Fills

aquariusdivers.com

Argon is $1 cheaper than an air fill at Aquarius.

 

[inquis]

Air Fills & Nitrox Fills

aquariusdivers.com

Argon is $1 cheaper than an air fill at Aquarius.

But the air fill is presumably ~80 cf and the argon is 6 cf. Personally I would just take the 200 psi hit to top up my suit bottle from my air/nitrox tank (or less if spread across 2 tanks). That's effectively free.

 

[mr_v]

Air Fills & Nitrox Fills

aquariusdivers.com

Argon is $1 cheaper than an air fill at Aquarius.

Ah, I stand corrected. There is argon but no 10/70 in a place where you can actually use 10/70 on shore dives...

 

[macado]

I don't really know anyone who uses argon in New England anymore. To be completely honest I never found it made that much of a difference. Admittedly I didn't use it much. I was always told that you had to really flush your drysuit with it to get any sort of maximum benefit. I'm sure someone will argue with me that it's warmer but honestly I'd rather not keep argon around for the minute chance of accidently introducing trace amounts of argon into another bottle when having to boost or transfill things. I dive in 38-39f (~3.5-4c) water pretty regularly and I just do not see the need. I'll stick with air..

More layering, better undergarments and the ubiquitous use of heated vests seems to have replaced argon.

Back on topic, A lot of us tend to joke about diluent usage but really the majority of it is wing inflatable especially if you're even slightly overweighted and doing deeper dives or saw tooth profiles. I think this adapter is a pretty awesome solution. In the grand scheme of things the gas is "cheap" but it always feels wrong dumping 15/55 or 10/70 into my wing.

I'm really not a fan of running both wing/drysuit inflatable off a single regulator in the ocean but this seems like a pretty interesting solution. I'm going to pick one up and experiment.

I know some people who saved a significance amount of money in places like Truk by not putting trimix in their wing. It made a quantifiable and significant difference to their helium/gas bill at the end of the week compared to others.

 

[lizardland]

I don't really know anyone who uses argon in New England anymore. To be completely honest I never found it made that much of a difference. Admittedly I didn't use it much. I was always told that you had to really flush your drysuit with it to get any sort of maximum benefit. I'm sure someone will argue with me that it's warmer but honestly I'd rather not keep argon around for the minute chance of accidently introducing trace amounts of argon into another bottle when having to boost or transfill things. I dive in 38-39f (~3.5-4c) water pretty regularly and I just I just do see the need. I'll stick with air..

More layering, better undergarments and the ubiquitous use of heated vests seems to have replaced argon.

Back on topic, A lot of us tend to joke about diluent usage but really the majority of it is wing inflatable especially if you're even slightly overweighted and doing deeper dives or saw tooth profiles. I think this adapter is a pretty awesome solution. In the grand scheme of things the gas is "cheap" but it always feels wrong dumping 15/55 or 10/70 into my wing.

I'm really not a fan of running both wing/drysuit inflatable off a single regulator in the ocean but this seems like a pretty interesting solution. I'm going to pick one up and experiment.

I know some people who saved a significance amount of money in places like Truk by not putting trimix in their wing. It made a quantifiable and significant difference to their helium/gas bill at the end of the week compared to others.

I've gone through phases of trying to use just my suit and counterlung for buoyancy control and wing just for surface floatation. It really did surprise me how big a difference it makes to dil consumption. The thing that always got me when I started CCR cave diving was just how much dil you can churn through if you start micro-adjusting your wing. Learning to swim around stuff rather than over was a big lesson to learn and it makes you realise just how less than optimal a lot of permanent line is for the rebreather diver.

As for argon, I don't think I've used it this century. I never really found it made a huge difference ieither but likewise I wasn't fully flushing my suit with it. Air and an extra layer or two did the job for less cost, less hassle and gave me a bottle I could at least scrounge some dil from if I needed it shallow. I did my trimix course in Stavanger and everyone there swore by it. But it was the 90's, everyone was trying to be as technicool as possible.

 

[kensuf]

I don't really know anyone who uses argon in New England anymore. To be completely honest I never found it made that much of a difference. Admittedly I didn't use it much. I was always told that you had to really flush your drysuit with it to get any sort of maximum benefit. I'm sure someone will argue with me that it's warmer but honestly I'd rather not keep argon around for the minute chance of accidently introducing trace amounts of argon into another bottle when having to boost or transfill things. I dive in 38-39f (~3.5-4c) water pretty regularly and I just do not see the need. I'll stick with air..

More layering, better undergarments and the ubiquitous use of heated vests seems to have replaced argon.

Back on topic, A lot of us tend to joke about diluent usage but really the majority of it is wing inflatable especially if you're even slightly overweighted and doing deeper dives or saw tooth profiles. I think this adapter is a pretty awesome solution. In the grand scheme of things the gas is "cheap" but it always feels wrong dumping 15/55 or 10/70 into my wing.

I'm really not a fan of running both wing/drysuit inflatable off a single regulator in the ocean but this seems like a pretty interesting solution. I'm going to pick one up and experiment.

I know some people who saved a significance amount of money in places like Truk by not putting trimix in their wing. It made a quantifiable and significant difference to their helium/gas bill at the end of the week compared to others.

Can I just argue with you? It doesn't have to be about argon, it could be about the differences between pork and steak tacos.

 

[Fat old english bloke]

Here’s mine, about to get its first use.

 

[rjack321]

Air Fills & Nitrox Fills

aquariusdivers.com

Argon is $1 cheaper than an air fill at Aquarius.

I love how there is *one* shop with some kind of 1995 era gas contract for Argon at $0.50/cf and they continue to use argon 'cause it makes folks feel like they got *something* for their $6 suit gas fill - so half of California is still using argon despite it's dubious efficacy for decades.

Ah, I stand corrected. There is argon but no 10/70 in a place where you can actually use 10/70 on shore dives...

No trimix at all, might as well put a suit hose on your backgas, but that would negate the whole point of upselling $6 suit gas fills lol.

 

[suricatasuricata]

When I moved from the Midwest two months ago, no one. Out here on the west coast, seems like everyone.

To be accurate, it is very much a Monterey/Bay Area thing. Most definitely not a general west coast thing. When Zen Dive in SoCal was still around, it was ~$17 to fill a 6CF bottle with Argon. I don't know of any people in SoCal who were using Argon.

Almost no one I know uses Argon in much much colder Seattle or Vancouver Island. I think some people use Argon in Alaska, but I ran air or 32% in my suit inflation bottle for a week of diving.

I know loads of people in Monterey with their very old BZ400s, wet gloves, no heat systems who will passionately argue about how Argon works. Yet, I'd be curious to know whether they'd still use it at $20 a 6CF bottle.

For full disclosure, I use argon while diving in the Bay, but I happily use air or 32% elsewhere. I personally prefer heat, a newer 400 gram, dry gloves and a nice thick yamamoto neoprene hood over Argon. And I run cold too. Far more than most people I meet.

 

[Steel_Stalk]

I didn’t realize that all of the old farts on this sub would be so fired up over argon. Out of all topics scuba this one feels like a dead horse reserved for Scubaboard.