'O' rings do let go at the wrong time!

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texdiveguy

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Rest in Peace
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Location
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I was cruising CSSP at 160ffw (bs) , well maybe 33ffw I was slinging my Al80/EAN80 and all the sudden got a blast/rush of gas in my chin and face. My first thought was since I was moving slow and some 3 feet from the visual bottom, a diver in a rush and in violation of standard diver protocals decided to go under me and his exhaust had hit me. When all cleared no diver so I take a quick glance at my bungeed second stage for a free flow and all well. !!!!! Then the light clicked on......look at your deco bottle qauge.....maybe 10psi, so I recharged the system several times on the acsent. Got back to camp/car and the smaller inner 'o' ring had given up.....quick fix and was back in service. Thanks to Scott the shop manager/Instrc./tech at Tiger Shark Scuba and his kind offer to the use any tools I might need from the trailer! I found my save a dive kit worked out fine. So I am going to check ALL my Din fittings and their 'o' rings! This is the trapped ring that went south also. Glad I had not been in a real deco situation were this would have made for some tactical chanes.
 
Ryan......good seeing you passing through......and CONGRATS on the acadamy.....have a great time with those driving couses!!!!!
 
Ryan......good seeing you passing through......and CONGRATS on the acadamy.....have a great time with those driving couses!!!!!



Thanks Alan, I am sure I will definitely have a great time with the driving course. :D
 
You have a couple options. You normally plan to have 1.5 times the deco gas you need so that you have a healthy reserve. In that regard an AL 80 of EAN 80 is overkill so, if near full, you'd have a lot in reserve.

(An AL 80 of EAN 80 is a lot as using most of it on a single dive, would mean a LOT of deco and would put you over the single exposure O2 limit on a dive with a back gas with a PP02 of 1.2 to 1.4 on the bottom. Divers using an AL 80 with a high precntage deoc gas usually do so with the idea of using the same deco bottle over a few dives on a single trip.)

Option one would be to just roll the valve on and off for each breath to minimize the leakage as with a healthy reserve you could porbably offset the gas lost through the leak.

Option two would be to just go to your lost gas contingency deco plan. If diving on a single deco gas schedule, you ensure you have enough reserve backgas gas to do the longer deco required on the back gas. If you are on a dive with two deco gasses, you would have a deco schedule for each of them independent of the other. Either way, you always have a plan to complete the deco in the event you lose a deco gas. It works pretty well as when the deco gets too long to comfortably do it off the back gas reserve (normally a third of the total backgas) the dive is usually deep enough or long enough where a second deco gas makes sense in terms of shortening the deco obligation.

A third option is team dependent but would involve borrowing your buddies deco gas. That would put you both on a hybrid schedule, in this case, of splitting the deco on back gas and EAN 80. It's not my approach but some divers plan it that way.

-----

As an aside, I am not 100% clear on what o-ring failed - the DIN o-ring on the face fo the connection, or the o-ring inisde the regulator body that seals the DIN retainer to the reg body?

In the case of the former, the only failures I have seen occur ocurred when the reg depressurized during the dive and the fitting spun itself loose a turn or so - but it can normally be corrected by just tightening the fitting again as the o-ring does not normally get dislodged.

In the latter, the failure would be exceptionally rare as it is a static o-ring. If a large leak like that occurred, I would suspect a loose DIN retainer that created the gap required for the o-ring to extrude and fail.
 
Last edited:
DA... all good answers to the posters question.....I carry an Al80/EAN80 for that reason of 'multiple dives' and plenty of reserve for a buddy....not overkill---this we disagree on if I read your statement correct above. We each carry what meets our needs and within certain common protocals. I like Al80's for some gas.

There are 3 o-rings of this DIN valve (all static). The outer ring that we all see each time we place the DIN into the tanks valve,,,,,and very large 'cushion' o-ring, and the smaller more traditional size o-ring hidden from view once the DIN is cleaned and assm.. This is the ring that failed, had the more micro of a razor type angle cut that we experienced divers have all seen before on various o-rings. Feathering the EAN80 in this case would be the choice. :wink:

You have a couple options. You normally plan to have 1.5 times the deco gas you need so that you have a healthy reserve. In that regard an AL 80 of EAN 80 is overkill so, if near full, you'd have a lot in reserve.

(An AL 80 of EAN 80 is a lot as using most of it on a single dive, would mean a LOT of deco and would put you over the single exposure O2 limit on a dive with a back gas with a PP02 of 1.2 to 1.4 on the bottom. Divers using an AL 80 with a high precntage deoc gas usually do so with the idea of using the same deco bottle over a few dives on a single trip.)

Option one would be to just roll the valve on and off for each breath to minimize the leakage as with a healthy reserve you could porbably offset the gas lost through the leak.

Option two would be to just go to your lost gas contingency deco plan. If diving on a single deco gas schedule, you ensure you have enough reserve backgas gas to do the longer deco required on the back gas. If you are on a dive with two deco gasses, you would have a deco schedule for each of them independent of the other. Either way, you always have a plan to complete the deco in the event you lose a deco gas. It works pretty well as when the deco gets too long to comfortably do it off the back gas reserve (normally a third of the total backgas) the dive is usually deep enough or long enough where a second deco gas makes sense in terms of shortening the deco obligation.

A third option is team dependent but would involve borrowing your buddies deco gas. That would put you both on a hybrid schedule, in this case, of splitting the deco on back gas and EAN 80. It's not my approach but some divers plan it that way.

-----

As an aside, I am not 100% clear on what o-ring failed - the DIN o-ring on the face fo the connection, or the o-ring inisde the regulator body that seals the DIN retainer to the reg body?

In the case of the former, the only failures I have seen occur ocurred when the reg depressurized during the dive and the fitting spun itself loose a turn or so - but it can normally be corrected by just tightening the fitting again as the o-ring does not normally get dislodged.

In the latter, the failure would be exceptionally rare as it is a static o-ring. If a large leak like that occurred, I would suspect a loose DIN retainer that created the gap required for the o-ring to extrude and fail.
 
I had "O Ring" troubles this week too.

It's amazing how dependent we all are on those cheap little things.

We all have Thousands $$ in the dive gear we use.
Some of my wrist watches are worth at least twice the price of all
the dive gear I own and they have lots of special gaskets and O Rings.
Flashlights, Your BCD , SPG and the list goes on and on........

Gaskets are super important and while they don't cost much we sure do expect a lot out of them.
 
I will remind everyone, the shuttle Challenger had an o-ring problem.
 
Seals are always a problem.
I've often said we should do away with Seals but every time I do PETA comes after me.

First it was the over worked Jack Asses that we used to haul our gear to the dive sites that got them all worked up. .. There is a special detective still looking for me today because of that. Then........ some how, now they say we are interrupting the sexual life style of the Central Lamar County Cave Cricket.
Shoot !!!! We never even had caves till we dug then in the first place.

But yea.... Seals are always a problem
 

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