Noisy Mask
- Thread starter WrmBluH2O
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We can do the class in Bonaire...after you've got 100 logged dives and some good experience!Ha! I would like to take the other half. Do you happen to teach in 82F+ ocean waters w/great viz & minimal current? I am a wimp!Thanks again for the great suggestion.
The Chairman
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That would be MY course! (I live in the Keys)Ha! I would like to take the other half. Do you happen to teach in 82F+ ocean waters w/great viz & minimal current? I am a wimp!
OrangeCountyScuba
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@WrmBluH2O
This is highly unlikely however since it seems your issue may be obscure here we go.
When you mentioned you heard the noise, you checked your gauge to see if the needle was moving and it sounds like it wasn't. I ask again, did you watch your gauge while you inhaled and exhaled for more than a few seconds?
This is what I am thinking, I have seen people have their tank valves opened just a crack, where when you inhaled the needle would drop but go back up on the exhale. If the tank was in fact open all the way as far as you could tell, it could be a possibility that the seat inside the tank valve was stripped or worn enough that it wasn't providing full flow to your hoses. The noise that this makes is really loud and rather annoying, but it is very distinctive. It sounds like the noise your equipment makes when you first initially turn your air on and pressure the scuba unit. But it happens over and over making the same noise.
No idea if this was anywhere close to the noise that you were hearing. IMHO, I highly doubt your mask would make any type of noise that is that loud to make you concerned.
This is highly unlikely however since it seems your issue may be obscure here we go.
When you mentioned you heard the noise, you checked your gauge to see if the needle was moving and it sounds like it wasn't. I ask again, did you watch your gauge while you inhaled and exhaled for more than a few seconds?
This is what I am thinking, I have seen people have their tank valves opened just a crack, where when you inhaled the needle would drop but go back up on the exhale. If the tank was in fact open all the way as far as you could tell, it could be a possibility that the seat inside the tank valve was stripped or worn enough that it wasn't providing full flow to your hoses. The noise that this makes is really loud and rather annoying, but it is very distinctive. It sounds like the noise your equipment makes when you first initially turn your air on and pressure the scuba unit. But it happens over and over making the same noise.
No idea if this was anywhere close to the noise that you were hearing. IMHO, I highly doubt your mask would make any type of noise that is that loud to make you concerned.
Hey OrangeCountyScuba,
I looked at my dive computer for more than a few seconds as I inhaled and exhaled. Not much more than a few seconds though because I wanted to keep an eye on my instructor, given he was my dive buddy and in case he asked me to perform a given skill.
Admittedly I hadn't been looking to see if the needle would drop on an inhale and go up on an exhale (didn't think/know to do that at the time), but rather wanted to confirm that the tank pressure wasn't dropping rapidly. That said, I have zilch recollection of the number going up. I was simply thankful that whatever was causing the noise did not appear to be causing me to run through air. Again it sure sounded like bubbles. Bubbles as opposed to the sound the gear makes when I first turn on the air and pressure the unit. So that may rule out seat inside stripped or worn valve reducing flow to hoses...
Tank valve was fully open. I did it myself. Neither the instructor, nor the dive master on the post-cert dive, touched the valves after I did. I don't back off the valve a 1/4 turn. The instructor had advised me from the first day to keep it fully open.
I know you said what you described was highly unlikely. Nonetheless, thanks for your help!
OrangeCountyScuba
Registered
@WrmBluH2O
Well I suppose you can mark that one off the list of possibilities, haha. I am out of ideas especially since the other posters have hit all the best theories. Maybe you can chalk it up to the most radical case of Nitrogen Narcosis that follows no rules or any substantiated science. That way you dont need to worry about it, ha. Or do you…….
Well I suppose you can mark that one off the list of possibilities, haha. I am out of ideas especially since the other posters have hit all the best theories. Maybe you can chalk it up to the most radical case of Nitrogen Narcosis that follows no rules or any substantiated science. That way you dont need to worry about it, ha. Or do you…….
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oh jeez there are a lot of theories! I hear weird stuff once in a while shore diving in Nova Scotia. At this point, after 10 years, I'd think it's not an equipment thing, but who knows. And there isn't a lot of weird stuff to hear in NS, like boats or crackling fish, etc,. If you're OK, maybe let it go?
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