No steel tanks with wetsuits?

[realdiver7]

I dive a single steel Worthington 100 all of the time with a 3mm wet suit, 30 lb. wing, plastic BP, Hog harness, and no ditchable weight in open blue water as a recreational diver. With this configuration, I am properly weighted (not overweighted) and can swim my gear to the surface with a fully deflated wing.

I also follow the buddy system strictly and carry an SMB on every dive. In a real pinch for more buoyancy, I could slowly add air inside of my wet suit through a wrist or neck seal, provided I still have an air supply, but that is not taught in recreational diving and I'm not recommending it, especially when it makes more sense and is safer to use my buddy if needed.

Like DA Aquamaster stated, it's best to take in to consideration your overall system configuration and the type of diving you decide to do. Recreational rules and techniques will differ from technical rules and techniques.

 

[Colliam7]

How do you get a 100% dead BC? ... I have seen a hose broken off, but only on a boat or on land due to handling problems. I have never seen a hose broken off underwater.

I have. My dive buddy and I recently changed rigs for a quick dive, so he could try my double steel 120s. Our rigs have single bladder wings, but we found that our drysuits have different inflator hose connector sizes (same mfg, same suit, different vintage). Since we were diving a quarry, we decided to go ahead and submerge, but stay shallow. At 20 feet, the wing on my rig, that he was wearing, stopped inflating. He found himself holding the inflator valve (still attached to the LP inflator hose) in his hand, while the corrugated hose end floated lazily nearby, but definitely no longer connected to the valve. The ty-wrap had failed, at just the time he had no redundant bouyancy, and heavy doubles on his back. Wasn't a big deal, as it was easy to swim / crawl up the gentle bottom slope and stand up. But, it caused us to think more about pre-dive inspections, redundancy, dual ty-wraps on hose connections, etc.

If you are thousands of feet back into a cave, with twin 130's there may be a reason to worry about the whole steel/wetsuit issue, but for the vast majority of divers it is a non-issue.

And, that is key. Diving single steel 130s in a 3mm wetsuit in salt water does not appear to pose a signficant risk. Inconvenience, if the BC fails, - yes.

 

[Gilldiver]

OK, you have pointed out one way, and it can happen. Did anyone try to put it back on the elbow, get some air into the BC and then keep yourself in a left shoulder down attitude to keep the air on the right side of the BC? It can work, but you have to think about it a bit to make it work.

As for the changing of configurations that Aquamaster suggested, that is the main problem I have with many in the DIR crowd. This religious mind set to always have the exact gear configuration on all dives.

When I'm up north, I use an SS backplate and either a single 125, twin steel 72's, aluminum 80's, steel 100's, or steel 130's depending on the dive.

In Long Island Sound in the summer I will be in a 7mm farmer john wet suit, an SS backplate and use the 125, 72s, 80s, or maybe the 100s. But the 130s are over kill as the max depth on most of the wrecks is 130-150'. You just don't need all that gas for a standard dive at those depths. In the cooler months or out in the blue water I put on the dry suit and choose the tanks that best match the planed dive.

Down south off of NC or further south I may be found with a 3mm shorty or long sleeve top and a cheap pair of painters paints for abrasion protection on my legs. The back plate is now plastic and the tanks are choosen for the dive. I rarely have to put any weight on with the steels and only maybe 4# with the aluminum as the manifolds, regs, and bands will have the tanks just about neutral at 500 PSI.

Know what you need to be neutral in you suit and know how your tanks completly rigged swing from full to 500-300 psi, and you should be able to tune your weight.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Gilldiver:

I had a total BC failure while diving solo in 180 feet while wearing a dive skin and a 125 lp steel tank. I have no lead, no ditchable weight and the rig is heavier than I would like (probably 9 lbs negative). I was stupid enough to continue the dive (even though the BC failure was evident on the decent) and shot a couple of large fish. The second fish, turned into a problem and put me into a little deco. I swam up, did my deco and was about out of air and energy when I hit the surface. I am sure that some people would have a very hard time doing a swimming deco.

My bc failed when the over-pressure relief spring corroded and failed. When this spring fails at the top of the BC, the bc will hold zero air. When was the last time everyone checked their springs? My BC worked fine on the weekend before. There are a number of ways for a BC to fail.

The advice of avoiding very negative double steel tanks with a wetsuit is good advice.

Also, the old timers' double 72 steel tanks are not as negative as the single big steel we use now.

 

[Dan Gibson]

Why not change position so whatever failure point isn't the highest point. It's hard to believe one can experience absolute total failure. It may not be pretty, but some lift is almost always possible.

Gilldiver:

I had a total BC failure

My bc failed when the over-pressure relief spring corroded and failed. When this spring fails at the top of the BC, the bc will hold zero air.

 

[Kim]

I don't think that this is a "one size fits all" thing...... so a general statement that you shouldn't dive steel in a wetsuit is not true.

Sure, there are some situations as have been mentioned above where it's not a good idea, but the REAL thing to be aware of IMO is ditchable weight. I dive a soft harness Transpac (no plate) and a 5mm wetsuit with a 14 liter steel tank. It's absolutely no problem as I also carry 6 kilos on my belt (and I am most certainly correctly weighted!). I've actually had a total wing failure at depth with a nearly full tank, and while I noticed I was slightly less buoyant than usual it was really no problem to swim against/up. At all times I also had the belt that I could potentially lose - plenty in reserve.
I personally much prefer steel to alu tanks - maybe because it's what I'm used to. I don't like the alu tanks at the end of the dive, too buoyant. Then I get that slight tipping forward on the surface because the relative weight on my back is less than with a steel.

The thing is though, you always need to make sure you have ditchable weight to play with in an emergency.