Pony Bottle for Bail Out AND for Drysuit

[B.L. Justice]

Okay, this may sound silly but, I don't really know what I don't know and my drysuit course isn't until March.

Can I use a 19cf bottle as a bail out bottle AND to add air to a drysuit? Seems like you don't use a bunch of air to equalize a drysuit so, it I needed the bailout bottle at recreational depths, I would be good to go.

Is this a reasonable strategy? Or, is it just silly and overly complicated?

 

[mikeguerrero]

Your 1st stage regulator on the 19cf has options. It has a hose that connects to your drysuit known as LP and what ever else you want to connect to that first stage say another LP to a second stage regulator or a HP hose for a SPG etc...

But having ssid that do you want to drain your 19cf down to a level that you would make your bailout bottle useless beyond 100 feet?

Just doesn't make sense if you ask me... keep things simple and secure,,, don't channel two lifelines to one source...

Hope this helps you out....

 

[Jorgy]

I would not use a pony for both; from my perspective a pony is a completely redundant system for emergencies only, not ment to part of your routine dive (or dive planning) at all.

Three issues that I can see:

Hose routing, a dry suit hose coming off your "back gas" first stage has nice, out of the way hose routing under your arm to the center of your chest. I sling my pony form my left hip D-ring to my left chest right D-ring so the pony first stage is very close to the dry suit inflator valve, short of wrapping the hose around my body under my arms I don't see a good hose routing. If you back mount your pony then hose routing may be easier.

Donating it to buddy, if you use it for your dry suit you can't give the pony to someone else if they need it (at least not easily).

Slowly using the air in the pony over multiple dives, eventually you might get to the point when you might not have enough gas to make the pony worthwhile. Truth is that I use very little air to offset the suit squeeze. Folks who use argon bottles for their dry suits only use a 6 cf bottle (I think, others may be able to confirm).

More on why I sling it, it is cheap (no fancy mounting bracket), last item I put on before hitting the water (after all else is in place), easy to give away underwater if needed and finally right in front of me it is both out of the way and I can keep an eye on it, I have a small pressure gauge on it.

Hope this helps.....M

 

[gcbryan]

Okay, this may sound silly but, I don't really know what I don't know and my drysuit course isn't until March.

Can I use a 19cf bottle as a bail out bottle AND to add air to a drysuit? Seems like you don't use a bunch of air to equalize a drysuit so, it I needed the bailout bottle at recreational depths, I would be good to go.

Is this a reasonable strategy? Or, is it just silly and overly complicated?

Literally you could but why would you would be my response. If you sling the bottle then it would be cumbersome to have a hose reaching from the bottle to the drysuit inflater valve. It doesn't take a lot to inflate a drysuit but 19 cuft isn't a lot either. You wouldn't use enough probably to feel the need to top off your bottle after each dive so after a few dives the drysuit air usage would creep up on you.

As you said it's overly complicated and there is no reason to since it's very easy to do with your main tank.

 

[dave4868]

Can I use a 19cf bottle as a bail out bottle AND to add air to a drysuit? Seems like you don't use a bunch of air to equalize a drysuit so, it I needed the bailout bottle at recreational depths, I would be good to go.

Is this a reasonable strategy? Or, is it just silly and overly complicated?

If you can answer gcbryan's "why would you?", you'll probably answer your own questions, I think.

"Is it overly complicated?" is always a good question to ask yourself. Keeping things as simple as possible is usually best.

"Silly?" That depends on what you're trying to accomplish and if there are simpler methods.

What's your goal here?

Personally, I can't see any advantage in using the pony instead of the main tank for suit inflation.

I'll just add that my diving includes things that might be considered "silly" by some, but they accomplish goals that are important to me.

So don't feel like you have to be locked into the "norm", just have a good reason for being "silly".

Here's a good book to find out about the "norm" of drysuit diving:

Dry Suit Diving: A Guide to Diving Dry by Steven Barsky, Dick Long, and Bob Stinton.

http://www.amazon.com/Suit-Diving-Third-Steven-Barsky/dp/096743050X

Dave C

 

[B.L. Justice]

Thanks very much for the advice. It all makes sense.

BL