Has anyone seen or used the new Scubapro Hydros Pro BCD

[scubadada]

I'm going to repeat myself. Too much air in the wing...

Are you saying that those complaining about this phenomena are over weighted and have too much air in their BC? Why should a BC have this problem with air trapping and floating you up on one side, regardless?

 

[tridacna]

Are you saying that those complaining about this phenomena are over weighted and have too much air in their BC? Why should a BC have this problem with air trapping and floating you up on one side, regardless?

One word: Bungees. They suck. With minimal air, the wing is fine. I only saw the problem with a 120 steel tank and 7mm wetsuit. I now only use a BPW with that setup. Literature for the Hydros also states that it can be used with twin tanks. "Sure".

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I would think the problem would be worse with LESS air in a bungeed wing not more. It would seem to me that a smaller bubble would roll around more and get hung up on the internal wrinkles that bungees create. When a wing is more full wouldn’t it be plumper thus stretching out the bungees and making it smoother giving air less nooks and crannies to get caught in?
I don’t know, I’m just speculating. I’ve never used a bungeed wing so I don’t know.

 

[tridacna]

Not in my experience. When > 50% full, I found it harder to manage than less.

 

[ladra]

From my personal experience, others may differ, when I used to have more air (b/c of more weight) I constantly had the air trap issue. Now with less weight = less air, I don't have that issue as often.

Absolutely correct that no BC should have this issue but it is what it is, bad design I guess.

To be honest, I'm glad I'm not the only one who experienced this. ha ha

 

[username0]

Conduct weight checks until properly weighted. Use minimal air in the BCD to compensate for neg buoyancy at depth. Small adjustments will allow the air moving around in the air cell to spread evenly. And, believe it or not, the bungees are set to near equal tensions - that means that this [very well-designed] BCD will actively fight to balance itself.

I've used the Hydros Pro for over a year now in warm and cold waters wearing everything from board shorts-no shirt to skinsuit to 5mm wetsuit to 7mm wetsuit + 7mm johnsuit + hood + gloves to drysuit with thermal liner. I've gone with everything from a single steel lp40 to alum80 to steel hp95 to steel hp120 with two stage cylinders.

Not once have I had an issue with this rig. It explicitly states that it is NOT designed for doubles and the Scubapro techs will readily tell you the same thing over the phone. Please carefully read the instruction manual to any piece of gear before diving. My wife (a very novice, yet disciplined and astute diver) used the Hydros with various tanks and exposure suits without issues either, and it's not even her size.

 

[mockney]

Well that told us!!. I am going straight home to read all my unread instruction manuals!. Damn.... from memory my G2 was more like a novel so a busy evening ahead.

 

[Moloch]

Thanks for the input everyone. I am still not 100% sure on this though. I had 6 kg of weight, a steel 15l and and a new 5mm wetsuit. I was intentionally overweighted by probably 2 kg (we had to make quick negative entries due to big waves and surface current all the time). The BCD should be able to handle that, shouldn`t it ?
Also another diver had _exactly_ the same loadout as me and he had no such issues on his Hydros.

 

[stuartv]

I'm going to repeat myself. Too much air in the wing...

I second too much air in the wing (which probably has to do with how much weight you have) and pulling the wings to correct it.

Not sure if these comments were directed towards me, but I did report that I have had the same issue being discussed. I'm not sure how much less air I could have in the wing. It happens when I'm neutral, in a 3/2mm wetsuit, with a steel 100 tank and no additional weight.

It doesn't happen often. Like as not, it's a case of the wing getting pulled over a little towards one side during storage/transport and then not being centered when I splash. Or maybe if I completely roll to one side and all the air rushes to the high side and maybe pulls the wing a bit over to that side.

One could look at it as a feature. For example, if I were carrying a pony bottle on one side, that bit of weight might make me inclined to tip down on that side. In that case, I could pull the Hydros wing a little bit over to that side to give a little extra buoyancy on that side, balancing myself out.

Regarding bungees and creating wrinkles and trapping air - I don't see that with this wing. The bungee design directly pulls the sides in and creates a smooth fold at the edge. It's not like some other bungee wings that go all the way around the bladder perimeter and pull sides, top, and bottom all in towards the middle (creating wrinkles and odd folds). In practice, it does not appear to me that the Hydros bungee setup creates any real concern for folds or wrinkles that trap air and make it harder to vent. Also, unlike most other wings, I don't think the Hydros has an inner bladder and a shell. The shell IS the bladder. So, no concern of a bladder on the inside that gets folds and traps air.

 

[scubadada]

As it currently comes, the bungees run all the way from one side to the other, with nothing to hold them in the middle. So, the wing can get pulled to either side, where it will then provide an uneven amount of lift and make you want to lean to one side.

The simple solution is, when you notice this happening, reach back and grab the edges of the air cell, where the bungees attach, and pull it to whichever side you need to in order to get the bungees centered.

Also, you could probably rig something with the bungees to keep them centered, so that this doesn't keep happening. I have not done that to my Hydros as reaching back to pull it centered is just not that big a deal to me.

I had a hard time understanding what was causing this problem until I went back, looked at @stuartv previous post and then looked at some photos of the Hydros Pro. I believe I can see how the bungee construction might allow the wing to get pulled over to one side or the other.

I have about 1200 dives on a Scubapro Knighthawk and have never had a similar problem, regardless of wetsuit, weight, or cylinder. The Knighthawk also has a simple bungee system, but it is secured in the middle on both sides of the plastic plate. Seems like Scubapro would want to remedy this defect in the Hydros Pro.

I wonder why this is reported by some divers and not by others?