Pony Bottle

[TheGraveyardDiver]

I use a 13 CuFt. It will get me from 100 feet, do a safety stop, and still have 2 CuFt left.

Now I'd probably skip the safety stop in a real emergency. I see all these guys carrying 40 cuFt cylinders. When the SHTF, I'm not there to hang around and sightsee. From recreational depths, a 13 is just fine unless you plan on abusing it and using it as just "extra air" for your sightseeing dive.

If you're hauling a 40 Cu Ft, and aren't a tech diver, just go ahead and get doubles and be done with it IMO.

 

[Dusty123]

I know this is a weird question. Has anyone dove with two pony tanks. I've been thinking about getting a steel 120 and attaching two aluminum 19cf tanks to the main tank with shark mfg pony bottle attachment kits. Setup would be primary reg, spg, and air control BCD octopus on main tank. Then use my Mares 25XR kit for the left and right pony tanks. Clip the left pony 2nd stage off nicely to left side of my BCD and clip the right pony 2nd stage off on the right side of my BCD. Before you say run doubles. I know I can but my go to setup is currently an aluminum 80 with a 19cf pony attached. Super quick and easy setup. The 19cf pony is super light and adding another would help balance distribution of weight and let me have better piece of mind if I have a failure at 120 feet. One 19cf is better then nothing at 120ft, but it's not enough air to do a safety stop. So my question is have you seen anyone dive with two pony's, do you see potential problems I'm not seeing, etc. I'm also primarily a solo diver.

I dive a rebreather with one 40 sidemount and have noticed its alot more comfortable diving two 40’s especially when im very neutral almost feel off balance with one

 

[Dusty123]

I have the reg bungeed to the bottle and an inline shutoff at the regulator gas is all the way on when i splash but the valve avoids any unintentional bubbles

 

[Divectionist]

I've been out with a 2l 232bar 16cuft steel pony, slung on the right side. It's compact at just 36cm long and 10cm diameter on land/boats and out of sight out of mind when diving.

I'd recommend it to anyone, especially a small but sufficient bailout if it is not meant to double as a stage. The benefits are clear and scuba equipment is no more or less of a hassle with the extra step of taking 5 seconds to clip two bolt snaps on, really.

 

[caruso]

From recreational depths, a 13 is just fine unless you plan on abusing it and using it as just "extra air" for your sightseeing dive..

If a diver chooses to carry a pony bottle for the purpose of using the extra air to extend a dive, and they maintain proper reserves between one or both tanks, then there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. It certainly isn't "abusive".

I carry a 19cf pony on most dives, whether solo or with a buddy or group. I don't plan to breathe from it (and rarely have I done so). I consider it a backup, redundant gas supply during most of the dive and towards the end of the dive as I work my way out of the wreck and back to the line (if any), I allow my main tank to drop to lower than typically recommended reserves since I've got the reserve in the full pony. I'm often at my safety stop at around 300 psi and on the boat with a 100 psi or less in the main tank. Once or twice I got close to 0 psi during the stop and when the breathing got hard I switched to the pony for a few breaths and then surfaced.

Sometimes another diver will post - or say to me in person - "You're going to die with that strategy" or as @TheGraveyardDiver posted, "It's abusive" or "It's a crutch". Some will say "well you can do it that way but then you must call it a "stage bottle", as if the nomenclature means anything. And yet they can never say why, other than "that's what they read in a book somewhere" or "You're not supposed to use a pony bottle like that". Meanwhile I've got a redundant gas supply the entire dive and I typically surface with more than 19cf of gas, more than most divers on the boat.

Those extra few minutes on each and every dive add up to hours of additional dime time over the years.

A variant of this technique might be to breathe off the pony when the main tank gets close to a predetermined reserve, such as 1000 psi, and then when the pony gets close to empty, switch back to the main and end the dive. But then you gotta keep refilling it.

 

[barth]

If a diver chooses to carry a pony bottle for the purpose of using the extra air to extend a dive, and they maintain proper reserves between one or both tanks, then there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. It certainly isn't "abusive".

I carry a 19cf pony on most dives, whether solo or with a buddy or group. I don't plan to breathe from it (and rarely have I done so). I consider it a backup, redundant gas supply during most of the dive and towards the end of the dive as I work my way out of the wreck and back to the line (if any), I allow my main tank to drop to lower than "typically recommended reserves" since I've got the reserve in the full pony. I'm often at my safety stop at around 300 psi and on the boat with a 100 psi or less in the main tank. I figure that I get an extra few minutes on each and every dive which adds up to hours of additional dime time over the years. Once or twice I got close to 0 psi during the stop and when the breaths got hard I switched to the pony for a few breaths and then surfaced.

Sometimes another diver will post - or say to me in person - "You're going to die with that strategy" or as you said "It's abusive" or "It's a crutch". Some will say "well you can do it that way but then you must call it a "stage bottle", as if the nomenclature means anything. And yet they can never say why, other than "that's what they read in a book somewhere" or "You're not supposed to use a pony bottle like that". Meanwhile I've got a redundant gas supply the entire dive and I typically surface with more than 19cf of gas, more than most divers on the boat.

A variant of this technique might be to breathe off the pony when the main tank gets close to a predetermined reserve, such as 1000 psi, and then when the pony gets close to empty, switch back to the main and end the dive. Again, not "abusive", the end result is still the same as far as remaining gas, the only difference is the longer dive.

If you are a solo diver it doesn’t matter what other divers tell you about that. It’s you own decision.



But if you dive with a buddy which regulator should he/she use when your buddy is out of gas? Will you have enough gas for the stressed diver? And which regulator are you using at that moment?

 

[caruso]

But if you dive with a buddy which regulator should he/she use when your buddy is out of gas? Will you have enough gas for the stressed diver? And which regulator are you using at that moment?

In an air sharing situation I would be breathing from the pony. I carry the pony reg bungied around my neck on a short hose so it's not shareable for practical purposes. My buddy would be using my main tank which has enough to bring them to the surface with a slow controlled ascent, as it does for me on each and every dive, including a 3 minute safety stop which would likely be omitted in such a scenario.

A typical dive will end and the advent begins when a diver has around 1000 psi remaining in their tank (more or less depending on dive particulars). That allows for 500 psi in an AL80 for each diver should one be OOA at the worst possible moment. My pony bottle technique provides that much in the main tank for the OOA diver and I've got at least that much in my pony bottle.

If you are a solo diver it doesn’t matter what other divers tell you about that. It’s you own decision.

It's not about it mattering what other divers say, it's more about debating the point on it's merits, just like every other topic on ScubaBoard.

 

[jlcnuke]

If a diver chooses to carry a pony bottle for the purpose of using the extra air to extend a dive, and they maintain proper reserves between one or both tanks, then there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. It certainly isn't "abusive".

I carry a 19cf pony on most dives, whether solo or with a buddy or group. I don't plan to breathe from it (and rarely have I done so). I consider it a backup, redundant gas supply during most of the dive and towards the end of the dive as I work my way out of the wreck and back to the line (if any), I allow my main tank to drop to lower than typically recommended reserves since I've got the reserve in the full pony. I'm often at my safety stop at around 300 psi and on the boat with a 100 psi or less in the main tank. Once or twice I got close to 0 psi during the stop and when the breathing got hard I switched to the pony for a few breaths and then surfaced.

Sometimes another diver will post - or say to me in person - "You're going to die with that strategy" or as @TheGraveyardDiver posted, "It's abusive" or "It's a crutch". Some will say "well you can do it that way but then you must call it a "stage bottle", as if the nomenclature means anything. And yet they can never say why, other than "that's what they read in a book somewhere" or "You're not supposed to use a pony bottle like that". Meanwhile I've got a redundant gas supply the entire dive and I typically surface with more than 19cf of gas, more than most divers on the boat.

Those extra few minutes on each and every dive add up to hours of additional dime time over the years.

A variant of this technique might be to breathe off the pony when the main tank gets close to a predetermined reserve, such as 1000 psi, and then when the pony gets close to empty, switch back to the main and end the dive. But then you gotta keep refilling it.

So you treat your 80+19 tanks as if they were just a single 100 cu ft tank? Except you can't air share with your pony setup as it is and you don't mind bleeding your back gas dry(ish) so that it would be useless if your buddy ran out of air as you were coming up to the safety stop? Doesn't seem like the most responsible gas management technique to me, but to each their own..

 

[caruso]

So you treat your 80+19 tanks as if they were just a single 100 cu ft tank? Except you can't air share with your pony setup as it is and you don't mind bleeding your back gas dry(ish) so that it would be useless if your buddy ran out of air as you were coming up to the safety stop? Doesn't seem like the most responsible gas management technique to me, but to each their own..

I'm thinking you didn't interpret my post correctly. My current set up allows me to share my gas with an OOA diver- in a worst case scenario, they will have at the very least 500 psi that remains in my main tank, which is exactly what they would have with any other diver who has 1000 psi in the AL80 at the start of their ascent.

The short version: There is no difference in gas available to an OOA diver between my set up and air sharing an AL80

 

[jlcnuke]

I'm thinking you didn't interpret my post correctly. My current set up allows me to share my gas with an OOA diver- in a worst case scenario, they will have at the very least 500 psi that remains in my main tank, which is exactly what they would have with any other diver who has 1000 psi in the AL80 at the start of their ascent.

The short version: There is no difference in gas available to an OOA diver between my set up and air sharing an AL80

I guess when I read:

I'm often at my safety stop at around 300 psi and on the boat with a 100 psi or less in the main tank. Once or twice I got close to 0 psi during the stop and when the breathing got hard I switched to the pony for a few breaths and then surfaced.

it implied to me that you often don't have hardly any gas left (much less "at least 500 psi), and sometimes practically none, during the stop. Which implies that often you likely have inadequate air for a buddy if needed. I'm not sure how they'll get that "at least 500 psi that remains" in your main tank from you tank with 100 psi or less, but sure...