SparticleBrane
Contributor
Dan--if you look, you'll see that I supplied links to Bob and he's already bought two. 
Halcyon SS Inflator...
- Thread starter Erik Il Rosso
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
- Messages
- 99,764
- Reaction score
- 102,638
- Location
- On the Fun Side of Trump's Wall
- # of dives
- 2500 - 4999
That is my issue too ... these things are a KNOWN HAZARD. And yet Halcyon is leaving them out there until the available stock is sold. Sure, some people like them and don't mind taking them apart every few dives for cleaning and renovation.LG Diver:
The majority won't, however. There's no company support, not even a statement that THIS IS A MAINTENANCE ITEM! It's just ignored.
Business ethics, folks ... does profit take precedent over safety?
If you leave a known, unsafe product out in the public domain ... are you really "Doing It Right" ???
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
Bob!
I agree with you on the 'business ethics"...and the unsafe gear...I had my inflator stick twice this week and once this weekend. I ended unpluging the thing to save my dives...not a very comforting thought when you are diving not to have confidence in your gear. I ordered a couple of the inflators...Dive Rite...perhaps I will PM you to learn a bit more about them for the save a dive kit...
Halcyon needs to stand behind this...I now know about 4 people that have had this issue...this could be a life threatening issue if they don't know about it...
Just my 02PSI
Lets go diving..
K
I agree with you on the 'business ethics"...and the unsafe gear...I had my inflator stick twice this week and once this weekend. I ended unpluging the thing to save my dives...not a very comforting thought when you are diving not to have confidence in your gear. I ordered a couple of the inflators...Dive Rite...perhaps I will PM you to learn a bit more about them for the save a dive kit...
Halcyon needs to stand behind this...I now know about 4 people that have had this issue...this could be a life threatening issue if they don't know about it...
Just my 02PSI
Lets go diving..
K
SparticleBrane
Contributor
My girlfriend got stuck with a runaway Halcyon SS inflator for her OW checkout dives, so she had to use oral inflation only. Granted this is a skill that everyone should be able to perform (which she did 
) but I felt a bit sorry for her--cold water, low vis, thick wetsuit...and then she couldn't use the power inflator.
I kinda look at this SS inflation issue the same way that Jeremy Clarkson summed up the new BMW M5:
"...it's expensive, [Halcyon] are the experts, they should sell a [BC] ready-made, not one where you have to go home and spent the rest of time looking through the manual: 'How do I want this?' and 'How do I want that?' ...it's almost as though they've made every button on this [inflator] deliberately complicated, and deliberately annoying..."
) but I felt a bit sorry for her--cold water, low vis, thick wetsuit...and then she couldn't use the power inflator.I kinda look at this SS inflation issue the same way that Jeremy Clarkson summed up the new BMW M5:
"...it's expensive, [Halcyon] are the experts, they should sell a [BC] ready-made, not one where you have to go home and spent the rest of time looking through the manual: 'How do I want this?' and 'How do I want that?' ...it's almost as though they've made every button on this [inflator] deliberately complicated, and deliberately annoying..."
I will repeat my standard offer. I will trade you brand new, never wet plastic inflators for your Halcyon SS ones. I have a couple of plastic ones that I removed from Oxycheq wings. I'll even pay for reasonable shipping. PM me.
Jackie
Jackie
pakman
Contributor
Jackie, if I was in the states I'd take you up on that offer...
Has anyone noticed the same problems with standard BCD's out there? It seems to me that the Halcyon SS inflator has a steady trend of problems. I haven't seen many threads about the same subject on a Cressi, scubapro, or other brand name. I have an Eclipse wing with over 60 dives. I haven't opened it up yet, but I see some orange corrosion forming in there, so it's probably due for an overhaul. I guess I've been lucky so far...
- Messages
- 99,764
- Reaction score
- 102,638
- Location
- On the Fun Side of Trump's Wall
- # of dives
- 2500 - 4999
I've had plastic inflators that leak (I've got one on a wing right now, in fact) ... but haven't had one that self-inflates or corrodes.
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
- Messages
- 1,410
- Reaction score
- 2
- # of dives
Bob,
I don't think this is quite right. The original ss inflators were recalled. All stores were informed to return their stock and inform customers and new ones would be shipped out. If those still exist in stores (the original SS version, not the second version) then shops chose to ignore the recall. Personally, my shop effectively demanded I bring mine back in even though I didn't want to since the only problem I saw was the sharp edges on the nipple and I just corrected that with an emory board. Mine were exchanged very quickly. My guess is many are seeing the second version of the ss inflator (of which I have 4) in stores which was not recalled but has since been replaced with the nickel version.
I don't think this is quite right. The original ss inflators were recalled. All stores were informed to return their stock and inform customers and new ones would be shipped out. If those still exist in stores (the original SS version, not the second version) then shops chose to ignore the recall. Personally, my shop effectively demanded I bring mine back in even though I didn't want to since the only problem I saw was the sharp edges on the nipple and I just corrected that with an emory board. Mine were exchanged very quickly. My guess is many are seeing the second version of the ss inflator (of which I have 4) in stores which was not recalled but has since been replaced with the nickel version.
NWGratefulDiver:
- Messages
- 99,764
- Reaction score
- 102,638
- Location
- On the Fun Side of Trump's Wall
- # of dives
- 2500 - 4999
I am not referring to the original SS inflators ... I'm referring to version 2. They still corrode. They still stick in the inflate position.Dan Gibson:
Halcyon did indeed recall the first version of these inflators ... however, the second version still has problems. And Halcyon is not addressing those problems.
How do I know? Well, I taught students in Halcyon wings for the past year. Do you have any idea how frustrating it is to be in the deep end of the pool when your OW student's wing suddenly starts inflating all by itself, and you have to make a snap decision whether to go catch a student who's helplessly heading for the surface or stick with the rest of the class? Even worse, now you have to explain to a class of students that your shop is hoping you'll sell wings to that they have to unplug their inflator hoses and manually inflate their BCDs because the power inflator has a tendency to fail ... that's a real fine selling point!
I got in that position too many times ... truthfully, once is too many times. As an instructor, I should NEVER be in a position where I have to decide (because of malfunctioning equipment) to abandon a class in order to go "save" someone from a runaway ascent. Out of concern for my students' safety, I finally refused to teach students in Halcyon wings anymore ... which isn't a good thing when you're working for a Halcyon dealer.
To reiterate ... this isn't the recalled inflators I'm talking about. It's the ones they replaced them with. It's the SS inflators that are still out there on LDS shelves.
I own three Halcyon wings ... the last one was purchased in March 2006. It's an Evolve, which was introduced to the market well after the recall. The SS inflators on all of them eventually started self-inflating. When they failed, Halcyon refused to take them back. The response I got ... through the dealer I was working for at the time ... was that it's a customer maintenance item, and that I should clean them regularly.
OK ... if handled properly, that's a response I could live with. But how does Halcyon get that information to their customers? Is it on their Web site? Is it in their product sales literature? I can tell you definitively it's not in the maintenance manual. Uh uh ... you learn about it after the fact ... after you've experienced a failure. Or you read about it on Internet forums like this one. Halcyon has said not a word about the tendency of these things to corrode, or the need to pull them apart and clean them regularly. Their manual only talks about annual maintenance and O-ring failures.
And THAT is my complaint. They need to address the corrosion issue.
I like the wings ... both of my Eclipses and my Evolve perform as well as I could possibly expect.
I don't like the fact that they each came with an inherently unsafe inflator mechanism. I especially don't like the fact that Halcyon has chosen to not make it clear to their customers that this inflator requires constant care or else it will corrode and self-inflate.
Yes, they did recall the first version. However, their second version did not fix the problem. At that point, it appears to me that they made a cost/benefit decision to just ignore the issue and make it the customer's problem. To my concern, that's a decision that will someday come back and bite them in the *** ... probably in the form of an injury lawsuit.
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
Similar threads
