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

[Lorenzoid]

Never seen a yoke first stage dislodged, seen them get plenty smacks overhead and if it was hard enough a burp of air would be expelled but they'd seal back up again, bailouts were yoke as the valves could take serious knocks.

"Overhead" meaning inside a wreck or what?

 

[MarkA]

Same. Never seen a first stage being "dislodged".
I have seen several O-ring extrusions with yoke regs.
Almost 20 or 30 on the boat and at least 4 while diving.
In all 4 cases it was not a big issue. The diver or his buddy closed the affected valve and the diver continued breathing from the alternate reg mounted on the other valve.
In our diving center all tanks had double valves with reserve and it was mandatory to have two fully independent regs.
Of course nowadays most tanks have instead a single valve, as deco dives are not anymore practiced.
But the single valve is DIN compatible, which really mimimizes the risk of O-ring extrusion.

Have I seen an A-clamp first stage dislodged. No
Have I seen an A-clamp first stage o-ring extrusion. No. Leak yes, that needed o-ring replacing.
Have I seen the potential for an A-clamp first stage to be dislodged. Yes. It was on a cylinder with an old style aluminium pillar valve (not crossflow). It had a groove for the o-ring but none for the part on the first stage that seals with the o-ring. The guy who owned the cylinder said be careful while filling it. This cylinder valve must have been from the 70’s or earlier. Not an issue with modern cylinder valves.

 

[MarkA]

In '97, when I was conducting a dive course in a hotel in the DR, twice the yoke of a fleet reg couldn't hold the pressure of the tank and the yoke screw slipped through the yoke threads with a loud bang (outside the water).
That was pretty embarrassing, because it happened at the hotel pool with lots of guests around it.
The first time I was just stunned, I didn't have much experiences with yoke fleet regs, I just put it aside, forgot about it and just used another reg.
A couple of days later it happened again with another reg, this time preparing for a dive while checking the equipment ( again outside the water).
This time I checked all our fleet regs ( Sherwood) and found out that a local 'specialist' seemed to have cleaned the threads of the yoke and yoke nut so aggressively with a steel brush that some of the yokes had real play between the nut and the yoke , so the nut could slip.
Those were very old and worn regs, so I explained my boss what had been the problem and that we would need new regs , which we received pretty soon.
I checked all dive center reg yokes for play and used in the meanwhile only those where I was pretty sure that they wouldn't be a problem.
I had been diving only DIN regs up to then, and that incident didn't really convince me to change to use yoke regs.......

Sorry. I don’t know where DR is.
I used cylinders with A-clamp cylinder valves for 10 years before changing to DIN cylinder valve. The regulator I was using had a din to A-clamp converter (cyklon 300). By the time I stopped using this converter, it had a serious amount of slop between the knob and the A-clamp. Looking back I should have scrapped this converter years before.

 

[Jonn]

My regs are yoke for compatibility with rental tanks and I’ve never had any trouble with them. Always thought it was a goofy setup though, way more bulky and complex than it has any need for. Din is obviously superior in every way. One of those technical legacies like qwerty keyboards or American units that we just can’t seem to ditch together even though we all know we should. Sometimes good enough is just good enough to last forever.

 

[Celt]

"Overhead" meaning inside a wreck or what?

Structure overhead, any tight area. I understand people's love of the old A clamp regs, I'm definitely one of them. But are they the right choice for a new diver I'm not so sure. Some of the new din firsts are really sweet and tidy.

 

[axxel57]

Sorry. I don’t know where DR is.
I used cylinders with A-clamp cylinder valves for 10 years before changing to DIN cylinder valve. The regulator I was using had a din to A-clamp converter (cyklon 300). By the time I stopped using this converter, it had a serious amount of slop between the knob and the A-clamp. Looking back I should have scrapped this converter years before.

DR is Dominican Republic.....

 

[rexman24]

Why I, and I'm pretty sure tech divers use din. It would be almost impossible with a din system for it to happen. Some very substantial steel threads would have to fail.
Threads very similar to the ones that hold 225 bar of pressure in your tanks.

 

[berndo]

I have only heard others say that oh yes it can happen, likely based on something they heard or read rather than firsthand knowledge.

I feel like that's the case with 90% of the stories you hear from divers when it comes to stuff like this.

 

[berndo]

One of those technical legacies like qwerty keyboards or American units that we just can’t seem to ditch together even though we all know we should. Sometimes good enough is just good enough to last forever.

Are yoke regs an American thing? I don't know who came up with the design but I thought it was french since they build the fist regs, didn't they?

 

[mattfish]

This happened to me pre-dive on the boat. The bungee that I hooked on to the yoke knob slipped off, and in a wave the fully-kitted tank fell off the bench and hit the deck. It dislodged my first stage significantly enough that the air was escaping fast enough to frost everything up by the time I got the air turned off (maybe 20 seconds?). The first stage and yoke looked ok visually, and I was able to continue diving with the regulator for 6 more dives.