My hose exploded. Has anyone experienced this?

[blue-barracuda]

I had my regulator set (2001 Dacor Viper Metal + Viper Octopus) serviced by a local dive shop who has been doing them for the last 3 years. When I got them back I attached them to a tank to do a pre-check before I went out diving and my main 2nd stage started free-flowing uncontrolably. Needless to say I took them back for adjusting and got them back about a week later. The next time I attached them I had the same free-flow problem plus after about 3-4 minutes one of my low pressure hoses just exploded and blew completely apart about a quarter way down from the first stage. In all the years I've been diving I've never seen anything like this and am very glad this didn't happen underwater. As far as I know the hose was in great condition. Has anyone had a similar experience to this? If you have, I'd really to hear from you.

 

[Ben_ca]

I'm never heard of it happening...

Have them check your IP in front of you.... (maybe you should step back a few steps...)

 

[Charlie99]

The problem may have been failure of the 1st stage, which increased IP enough to cause the 2nds to free flow. The hose rupture may have been caused by further failure in the 1st stage that created even greater pressure in the LP hose. This scenario is more likely than it being caused by a weak or defective hose.

Did you take back both 1st and 2nd stages for adjusting? Or just the 2nd stages?

I've seen both LP and HP hoses fail underwater. The LP hose was much more violent and emptied the tank rapidly. The HP hose failure (or more specifically, failure of the spool in the SPG) just put out a huge cloud of a very very fine mist of bubbles and only slowly drained the tank.

 

[blue-barracuda]

I took the complete set back for adjusting. It gave me a good scare when it exploded. It was very loud.

 

[Stu S.]

Years ago the LP and HP ports were the same thread size. I believe this changed around 1990. Anyhow, I got those reversed on my 1977 regulator once, and it did not blow anything up. Yours must have seen real high pressure, like the 1st stage wasn't regulating.

 

[Mako Mark]

LP hose failure underwater can be spectacular. I had it happen to a student once a few feet away from me. It made a bubble ring about ten feet accross. Awesome.

 

[The Chairman]

A first stage failure will do just that, ESPECIALLY if you kinked (bent) the hose to stem the free flow. I can't believe it took you THREE trips to rectify this.

 

[daniel f aleman]

Make sure that your hoses are rated to at least 400lbs. Cheaper hoses are just that, cheaper, including those that come from the major manufacturers.

 

[chrispete]

I've seen LP hoses go too, above water they'll make people "prairie dog" throughout the area. What bothers me is that even if you kinked one of the hoses to either 2nd stage, the other stage should have let off the extra pressure. It kinda sounds like they "fixed" the free-flow problem by tightening down the crowns on the 2nds to stop the free flow and didn't address the actual problem with the 1st stage, or bother to check the IP before attempting a fix.

 

[blue-barracuda]

Thank you everyone for your input and insight. The hose was only rated to 250 psi so this is an interesting point but I beleive the problem has got to be in the first stage. The hose has never been bent sharply and I've always taken care very good care of my equipment. I'm not sure if I understand all the technical aspects of what went wrong but I beleive my dive shop has got to take some responsibilty. The regs were working fine prior to my taking them in for their regular service. Perhaps somewhere along the way a serious mistake or oversight occured. Is it the replacement parts; the repair technician; or something else? The hose basically went bang without warning. It happened very quickly. An image is attached.