I'm a believer now...

[OneBrightGator]

I always saw myself as "Hogarthian", backplate, single piece harness, good hardware, long hose, bungie backup, lonely and bare SPG, simple lower dump valves, short corrogated hoses and an elbow on my doubles wing, but a pull dump on my singles. Came on the wing, not what I asked for but no biggie, right? My single tank diving is pretty tame, no deco, no overhead, piece of cake.

Well, this weekend I was teaching an OW class and one of my students reported problems with his inflator, the end cap on the pull dump had come off and would no longer hold air, luckily we were extremely close to being finished, so I just had him swap out with another student to finish. Anyway, after the class I stopped into the shop on-site and with the tech there we went through a bunch of bits and pieces to find out it was a unique piece and we still had diving to do the next day! So I grabbed a basic elbow off the wall and threw it on there for the next day, but before I returned the gear I put the old pull dump back on, that elbow is going on my wing now!

So I think I'm gonna grab another elbow assembly and a cap to stick in my save-a-dive kit just in case this happens again or worse, to me on a boat in the middle of nowhere!

 

[Doc Intrepid]

I watched one come apart on a dive also, Ben. It made quite an impression as I recall.

No need to have it there to begin with, it isn't hard to find other ways to vent the wing without it there. And then it can't break on you.

 

[David P]

I have one of those stupid pull dump thingies on my wing, I think it took me about 9 months to find out if I tug on the inflator it dumps air. Who the hell thought that up? "hmm, I know! I'll make a gizmo where you have to yank and pull on a life support system (and hope you dont pull too hard) instead of simply pushing a button! Damn I'm brilliant!"

 

[Halthron]

I have one of those stupid pull dump thingies on my wing, I think it took me about 9 months to find out if I tug on the inflator it dumps air. Who the hell thought that up? "hmm, I know! I'll make a gizmo where you have to yank and pull on a life support system (and hope you dont pull too hard) instead of simply pushing a button! Damn I'm brilliant!"

I agree, redundancy is stupid. That button will never break or stick so it's not like I'd ever need an alternate method of venting the wing.

/sarcasm

 

[FIXXERVI6]

I agree, redundancy is stupid. That button will never break or stick so it's not like I'd ever need an alternate method of venting the wing.

/sarcasm

thats what rear dumps are for, not only for dumping while staying in a horizontal trim but also redundancy, pull dumps are retarded, thats not my opinion, I feel that is fact.

 

[PfcAJ]

I have seen a pull dump fail, as well. Not bad, but it could easily escalate into a major problem if it was unscrewed a bit more.

 

[dherbman]

I saw a student rip an inflator hose completely off while operating a pull dump.

 

[Halthron]

Ah, confusion of terminology. Most of the time that I've seen the inflator version it's referred to as a "rapid exhaust", where the pull dump (as referenced in the quote, yes I missed "inflator") refers to the rear dump. I agree that the rapid exhaust system, activated by pulling/tugging on the inflator can be a problem area.