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[Iguana Don]

Hmmmmmmmm,
I saw on the cover of "Dive Training" several months ago, 2 divers posed "Then & Now", the "Then" diver was wearing a latex wet suit, but the interesting thing was his tank was mounted upside down. When did this change & why?
It seems to me that this would a better way to wear your equipment. In "scuba" class 101, we had to reach back & turn our tank valve back on as if it had gotten turned off, off course we all know that this is to say the least difficult, but can be done especially if one is sucking on a dead reg. But if the tank was mounted in the inverted position this would be a lot easier. Cavers wouldn't have to worry about the knobs getting rolled off, or hitting the valves on overhead obsticals, wreck divers wouldn't have to put the cages over the valves. Only problem I see is after diving you can't stand your gear up.
"Source of Endless Questions"

[Edited by don on 09-27-2000 at 03:33 AM]

 

[King_Neptune]

don,

To tell you the truth I don't really know or have never really heard of any "technical" reason for the switch. The reason I had also been told was for the placement of the hoses. In other words, just having the hoses come from up under your arms rather than over your sholders.

Personally, I would find it annoying to drop a reg or console down and have to be fumbling around my feet to pick it back up. Additionally, I think you hit the other point right on the nose, last thing I would want to do is have the added trouble of the valves pointed at the ground when taking off my gear. Maybe one of our divers that have been around longer can shed some light on this. I've been diving since the early to mid 80's and I never placed my tank upside down, then again, I hate putting my pants on backwards too, hehe.

=-)

 

[Iguana Don]

Yeah, I've done that, but then I started turning on the lights to get dressed LOL.

 

[rainreg]

Hello Don, the only reasons That seem logical are related to safety issues. IE... if the tank valve is located on the bottom with tank inverted if you fall or drop the tank while trying to don equipment well your tank now becomes a projectile.. as well as what king neptune stated if you droped your reg you would have to fish for it around your feet or knees.. that pretty much covers the reason, there has been no real statements or documents as to verify these reasons but logically it seems they are credable and merit fact. I hope this answers your question I have done the research to find the exact reason but no documentation can be found to the best of my knowledge. take care and look forward to your next question..

Rainreg

 

[Ron Brandt]

Check out photos of commercial divers and their bail out bottles.

Valve on the bottom!

This must be a really old photo and I have not seen that issue of the magazine.I have been interested in diving since the early sixty's and been diving since 1980 and have never come accross this on a recreational diver.

I have secretly wanted to try it .

Ron

 

[norcaldiver]

I was told why awhile back by my ex-boss, but can't remember now...I asked this about SCBA(firefighter) tanks, they were them upside down. Maybe it was just a safety thing, like I said...don't remember.

So, just throwing this out there. How about the J valve? Desn't the tank have to be upright to effeciently work the reserve lever? Maybe that's when the change took place and we have never gone back to upside down...hmmm.

 

[Bob3]

Scott made some dive gear in the '50s & '60s that used FFMs & inverted bottles, just like on their SCBAs. As far as I know, their's was the only US brand like that at the time.
Interspiro started making some in the late '60s to present day. They never "really" caught on widely because they were/are 4400 psi, way beyond the range of most dive shop's compressors even today. The shop guys would look at you like you were from another planet when you asked for a fill double the going pressure. Heck, there were still a lot of 1800 psi bottles around yet then.
Hose routing on both was very clean, coming up the arm pit.
"Wandering hoses" were kept in line with a short keeper that hook on to the shoulder strap.
No problem with J-valves, they work in any position.

The scuba valves in use today aren't designed to be banged around the way the SCBA valves are, plus the scuba bottles are a lot heavier than SCBA bottles.

I wear my bailout either inverted or sometimes sideways if its a small one.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

An inverted bailout bottle alows the valve to be off until it is needed. Nothing worse than a bailout bottle that has freeflowed during the dive and is now empty.

It also makes some sense for a back mounted deco bottle with O2 for the same reason plus it eliminates the possibility of accessing the gas by mistake on the bottom and killing yourself.

The reasons for wearing the tank right side up as discussed above are pretty logical and would seem to offer ample reason. Also with double hose regs. upright was the only way to do it, and despite some attempts to do it different with the newer single hose regs, I think institutional inertia had a lot to do with keeping the tank valve on the top.

 

[DIR Tec Diver]

This topic always brings out the fire..

Without getting into anothe heated debate there are some details.

If you have the tank positioned properly at no time in either singles or doubles configuration is it hard to reach your valves.

Having your tanks upside down is a very old configuration, and one plagued by problems and mishaps. Usually it has come from damage to the valves and the subsequent inability to hear or see the problem until too late. That is why a lot of people started putting cages and guards around their valves, but that was a solution to a prroblem that should not have existed to begin with. All that did was increase the difficulty to get to the valves to shut thm off and provided an additional entanglement hazard.

It also caused an increased amount of hose to be used to cover the distance up and around the body, which has addtional problems as a result as well as decreasing your streamlining and trim in the water.

A lot of commercial divers still do that, but lets leave those guys to their own style of diving, it is not very applicable to what we normally do.

Now we will probably get the normal posts from those who invert their tanks, but that's ok. That's their choice.

 

[double125's]

I think finding a lost reg is not an issue. If you inverted your tanks it would dangle by your knees but you reach back and grab the 1st stage and follow the hose. By the way I think that is the best method even if you are wearing your tanks traditionally. The real problem with inverting your tanks would come from suiting up and gearing down. I have to set up my rig, sit down to strap it on then stand up. I could not due this in a valve down situation. To take my gear off I loosen my belt sit down then hop out. Once again no can do if valves are down.

As far as the hoses go, I would not want to have a 5' bc hose and a 3 ft drysuit hose. I am giving myself a headache trying to imagine the mess that would create for hose routing!