Question Have you (or anyone you know) ever seen a yoke regulator dislodged while diving?

[rhwestfall]

as usual, we are muddying the discussion with "only an o-ring" failure...

 

[Divin'Papaw]

I guess it is possible, but I've never seen it nor heard of it happening 2nd hand. I am and always have been a DIN user. But the fear of the yoke reg being sheared off the tank while in use is not a primary reason. My reasoning is rather the stability of the captured o-ring design and the fact that I have only one o-ring to monitor. I far prefer having the sealing o-ring on the reg itself. That way I just have one to monitor and easily replace if ever needed. It is also "captured" by the valve itself when the reg is screwed into the valve. I see leaking or bubbling yoke regs ALL THE TIME. Pretty much every charter. IMO DIN is simply a better design. Since I dive my own tanks pretty much exclusively and do very little dive travel (my dives are almost 100% drive to dive), DIN was a no-brainer for me. I made that decision over 17 years ago when I bought my first regulator and I've never regretted that decision. Every single reg I've ever owned has been DIN.

 

[Edward3c]

To be clear, this poll isn't about blown yoke O-rings. It is about the yoke being knocked loose or broken off by impact when it was otherwise operational.

Was the one you saw an impact failure? Or an O-ring on it's last legs gave up?

Not doubting, just clarifying.

Respectfully,

James

It was just an O-ring failure.

However, I have had my rig fall out of a moving vehicle and land on the pillar valve. The yoke survived but the high pressure hose was broken off.

 

[James79]

I guess it is possible, but I've never seen it nor heard of it happening 2nd hand. I am and always have been a DIN user. But the fear of the yoke reg being sheared off the tank while in use is not a primary reason. My reasoning is rather the stability of the captured o-ring design and the fact that I have only one o-ring to monitor. I far prefer having the sealing o-ring on the reg itself. That way I just have one to monitor and easily replace if ever needed. It is also "captured" by the valve itself when the reg is screwed into the valve. I see leaking or bubbling yoke regs ALL THE TIME. Pretty much every charter. IMO DIN is simply a better design. Since I dive my own tanks pretty much exclusively and do very little dive travel (my dives are almost 100% drive to dive), DIN was a no-brainer for me. I made that decision over 17 years ago when I bought my first regulator and I've never regretted that decision. Every single reg I've ever owned has been DIN.

Absolutely. I appreciate the input, and the clarification about what drove your decision not being pertinent to the poll. I'm a huge fan of everyone making their own decisions based on their situation... I use yoke valves because I dive a lot of vintage gear. Din isn't a real option. But owning my own tanks allows me to be in control of the valve and o-ring condition.

 

[James79]

It was just an O-ring failure.

However, I have had my rig fall out of a moving vehicle and land on the pillar valve. The yoke survived but the high pressure hose was broken off.

I don't see who voted what in this poll..... does the fact that yours was an O-ring failure, not a yoke failure change your vote?

 

[James79]

I haven't seen first hand a yoke regulator dislodge (I have seen o-ring failures). There are stories from back in the day before DIN was commonplace in cave diving where yoke regulators became dislodged or sheared off due to impact with a cave ceiling.

This is the type of hand-wavy I'm hoping to get to the bottom of. Stories from back in the day..... I don't so much doubt they exist, but how much have they grown in the telling. How far down the telephone game is it and how much has been lost or altered in the telling (not maliciously, but the nature of passing stories by word of mouth). Do you know any specific stories of it happening (genuinely curious)?

Respectfully,

James

 

[Bigbella]

I am no great fan of yoke systems, having largely used DIN for decades for 250+ bar tanks, where yokes have typically been limited to lower pressures; but the world over, yoke still trumps DIN, and for good reason. It's far cheaper for cattle boats and the valves are less prone to compression, distortion, or crushing damages -- and the regulators that I regularly see in trade magazines and shops, most everywhere, are still of a fixed-yoke design.

Because they work.

In what will soon be forty-six years of diving and having worked many boats as a kid, I have seen all manner of equipment failure -- blown gauge faces; IPs suddenly soaring into the stratosphere; second stages detached from hoses; freeze-related free-flows; all manner of o-ring extrusions; but I have yet to see a properly pressurized yoke attachment somehow get "cleaved" from a tank, on some wreck dive or anywhere else.

200-250 bar makes for a tighter than a frog's arse seal . . .

 

[NaCl H2O]

Didn't do the poll, no applicable option.
Saw a yoke rig still attaced, somewhat, to the valve in a dive shop, was a while back.
Tank came out of the boat rack, first stage caught something and it was under pressure.
The knob was sheared off and the frame was bent, so mangled they couldn't get it off. As I remember tank neck was maybe questionable too.

 

[James79]

Didn't do the poll, no applicable option.
Saw a yoke rig still attaced, somewhat, to the valve in a dive shop, was a while back.
Tank came out of the boat rack, first stage caught something and it was under pressure.
The knob was sheared off and the frame was bent, so mangled they couldn't get it off. As I remember tank neck was maybe questionable too.

That would fall under the "Saw it happen (unpressurized pony/stage, or at surface.. i.e. tank fell over), maybe? I didn't think to add a "heard about it at the surface" option. Give me a moment to see if I can add that.

 

[James79]

Heard about it second hand (unpressurized, or at the surface.. i.e. tank fell over) option added.