Horrible Customer Service Experience

[mike_s]

The OP's stance is that he did nothing to "pinch it".

perhaps.

but if he put it in luggage that got checked by airline crews, I can see them throwing it around hard enough to make that happen.



while it might not be the OP's fault that happened (by baggage crew, etc), I don't see it as the manufacturers fault either.




Someone hit my car in the parking lot a few years ago and crunched in the side. It wasn't my fault. But I didn't blame Honda either. But now I want Honda to give me a new car anyway.

 

[djtimmy77]

Would putting rubber edge trim on the outer edges of the BP reduce/eliminate the pinch flats?

 

[ktomlinson]

This is a bit off topic, but as was pointed out earlier...this is ScubaBoard. Why are wings made with such expensive bladders if they are still susceptible to pinch flats? I have a dry bag that has had the hell beat out of it, tossed around, stretched with heavy stuff in it, generally abused...it cost me $30 retail and it still holds air. Why cant you make a bladder out of that?

 

[redacted]

Would putting rubber edge trim on the outer edges of the BP reduce/eliminate the pinch flats?

Sure. And if you wore a helmet all the time you would reduce the chance of a head injury. The exercises reasonable care is enough for most divers to avoid that type of wing damage. I would not want unnecessary components like that on my plates.

 

[Jax]

If someone had a lousy dive boat experience on another boat and I gave them a free trip to make up for it, we'd sure have lots of lousy dive boat experiences, wouldn't we.

Damnit, Wookie, you destroyed my plans!!!






:joke:

 

[GrumpyOldGuy]

Well Frank, we won't really know Patrick's likely response until one of his bladders fail.

Maybe. The Oxycheq has a zipper and access to the bladder, so a quick user patch job is possible or likely rather than send it back to the factory.

 

[mike_s]

Would putting rubber edge trim on the outer edges of the BP reduce/eliminate the pinch flats?

that actually might help. say an old garden hose slit lengthwise. Or maybe "insulatube" foam pipe protector. (it comes already slit).

I will say that this will make me be more careful when packing my plate/wing in the future after reading this. After all, I think the owner of the plate/wing has SOME responsibility in ensuring it's packed properly for travel not to be damaged.

I'd love to see Patrick's response has this been an Oxychek issue.

:spit:

you owe me a new monitor for that one...

 

[Pullmyfinger]

Interesting opportunity for a competing manufacturer to "invest" and steal a customer. Though I notice Halcyon and/or Dive Rite (others) aren't stepping up to give this guy a wing and earn his business forever.

That assumes anyone from Halcyon or Dive Rite spends much time in other manufacturer's sub-forums.

Besides, I doubt any of them are in business so they can give things away. They wouldn't be around long if they did.

 

[Pullmyfinger]

I'd love to see Patrick's response has this been an Oxychek issue.

Tobin makes a great product. My next wing will be a DSS. I think we can safely assume that the OP will not be buying any more DSS wings. Maybe I'll make up for the lost business.

I own a few Oxycheq products, a wing, an analyzer, and a light. As you know the Oxycheq customer service response is well documented here.
Such as the lengthy light threads.

I'll make up for any lost business also. We have 3 DSS wings among our dive gear, my next one will be a DSS.

I understand the feeling of having gear damaged, especially on a trip. I understand where the OP is coming from, hopefully he'll get his wing repaired again and never have another issue.

-Mitch

 

[cool_hardware52]

This is a bit off topic, but as was pointed out earlier...this is ScubaBoard. Why are wings made with such expensive bladders if they are still susceptible to pinch flats? I have a dry bag that has had the hell beat out of it, tossed around, stretched with heavy stuff in it, generally abused...it cost me $30 retail and it still holds air. Why cant you make a bladder out of that?

A well designed wing will vent gas easily. Design choices that trap gas should be avoided. Trapped gas means the diver needs more ballast, and more ballast means more gas volume in the BC during all phases of the dive.

This my primary complaint with bungeed wings, the bungees create a series of convolutions that trap gas.

Wing bladders are "2D", i.e. two flat pieces of material are RF welded together with all the welding in the same plane. Think about a mylar balloon, mylar doesn't stretch, and birthday balloons are always puckered around the edge.

Sewn Wing shells are not 2D, but are 3D, multiple pieces are sewn together to create the finished shape.

If a fabric / urethane laminate or fabric PVC laminate (typical of dry bags) is used for a wing bladder it will need to be substantially larger than the shell in order to fully fill the shell. This will result in internal puckers and convolutions.

OTOH if a urethane film is used, which can stretch, the bladder will fill the shell much more smoothly, and reduce the "pucker factor"

There are other advantages to heavy gauge urethane films vs fabric laminates with thin urethane coatings, and these include better more reliable welds, no risk of delamination and to some extent the ability to patch small holes, but it is the smooth fit that dominates.

Having said all of the above I'm pretty sure if I dropped a Stainless Steel back plate from 6 to 8" high edge wise onto your dry bag it would no longer hold pressure.

We made a precision impact tester. A 1" diameter steel bar about 10 inches long fitted with a 3/4" diameter hardened ball bearing is the impactor. A hardened and ground steel plate is the striking surface, and a series of PVC pipes cut to various lengths provide repeatability on drop height.

The sample is placed on the steel plate, a given length of PVC pipe is held upright over the sample and the impactor is dropped through the tube on to the sample.

We tested a quite a few combinations of materials and all failed at fairly modest drop heights. When lots of energy is directed to a very small area, something is going to fail.

Tobin