Hard breathing by 12 feet depth

[Anthony Hayes]

Question: What is causing hard breathing (like trying to suck air through a straw) by 12' depth? Fine on the surface, but by 12' or more getting air is a major PITA

 

[EastEndDiver]

Your profile shows not-certified have you asked your instructor? Has he tried breathing off the regulator you are using?

 

[Anthony Hayes]

"this is industry standard equipment" and "it breathes a little hard, but it should be fine"

switched to octo and it breathed better, but the exhaust valve fluttered like mad, which let in water with every exhale.

totally unnerved by rental equipment on this cw dive.

 

[TSandM]

This is also the behavior of a tank that isn't turned on all the way.

 

[tbone1004]

faulty equipment is the only thing I can think of unless you have a medical condition maybe? Even faulty equipment shouldn't be too hard to breathe through at that depth though.....

Tank not turned on all the way means barely turned on to have an effect at that depth.

If the octo breathed fine then the primary needs to be serviced. The balance spring is faulty or the main lever is set too low causing the valve to not open all the way.

exhaust fluttering is normal if the reg isn't used that often, sounds like after this you need to go to a new shop.....

 

[Dive Right In Scuba 2]

In my experience, if a student has a concern about a regulator's function I will first try to discern what the issue is(tank not all the way on etc.). If at that point I cannot determine a root cause, its a simple matter of swapping rental regulator sets and putting the offending one on the bench for a check. Why argue with a simple fix?

 

[Anthony Hayes]

No known MED issues, just had my physical 2 days before starting course.

Tank was full on, chk'd and triple chk'd by me, buddy and DIA when I had "issues" UW.

This also happened on my 1st CW dive with the same model brand from a different number set (all setups are numbered).

Interesting, the Octo started breathing hard when reaching the bottom of the pool.

 

[Dive Right In Scuba 2]

Interesting. How are you feeling underwater? Excited? Nervous? The possibility exists that it's a perception issue, coupled with tuning. My wife hated the shop regulators from the place she did her OW at claiming that they felt like sucking molasses through a coffee straw. She took a puff off of my HOG's and said it was like a night and day difference.

 

[Anthony Hayes]

Interesting. How are you feeling underwater? Excited? Nervous? The possibility exists that it's a perception issue, coupled with tuning. My wife hated the shop regulators from the place she did her OW at claiming that they felt like sucking molasses through a coffee straw. She took a puff off of my HOG's and said it was like a night and day difference.

I'm pretty relaxed. At first I chalked it up to nerves, etc. A bit nervous at times and I've figured this was due to my LACK of air. I snorkel, boogie board and surfed in the past, plus I have a home pool, so I do pretty good in the water. It bothers me to no end trying to get air outta those regs.

It's EXACTLY like she describes ... "sucking molasses through a coffee straw" ... awesome ...

 

[Dive Right In Scuba 2]

Do you have any friends who dive and own a personal reg set? Maybe take a puff or two from theirs out of the water to gain a basis for comparison? I know that personally I hate diving rental regulators because I have my personal ones set up how I like them. I gather that the rental regulators you're using are non adjustable?