pony vs large tank and h valve

[yardpro]

I solo dive a lot as i spearfish.

i am very comfortable being solo and many times prefer it as i feel more at peace than worrying about whatever instabuddy i get stuck with.

My question is... i run lp120's with h valves. i have two first stage. one first has my primary second stage and my wireless transmitter for my air integrated.

the other first has my octo and my analog spg/depth. I also use a redundant watch as a timer to control ascent and track bottom time in case of computer failure.

i, of course ahe the smb, reel, etc....


why would a smaller tank with a pony be better?

with the plus rating i get overfills and have about 150-160 cuft.... so volume of air would be the same as a 100 and a 40 pony

 

[lowviz]

If you extrude the 120's neck O-ring, somewhat unlikely, you will begin losing all your gas. You will, however, have time to surface. The biggest PIAs that I have found with the H-valve is rolling the outside valve open in the car and reaching them underwater as they are not centered on you. What I love is that you can just swap your regsets onto doubles without any fuss.

The more stuff you hang on yourself, the worse of a hunter you will become...

 

[dumpsterDiver]

I solo dive a lot as i spearfish.

i am very comfortable being solo and many times prefer it as i feel more at peace than worrying about whatever instabuddy i get stuck with.

My question is... i run lp120's with h valves. i have two first stage. one first has my primary second stage and my wireless transmitter for my air integrated.

the other first has my octo and my analog spg/depth. I also use a redundant watch as a timer to control ascent and track bottom time in case of computer failure.

i, of course ahe the smb, reel, etc....


why would a smaller tank with a pony be better?

with the plus rating i get overfills and have about 150-160 cuft.... so volume of air would be the same as a 100 and a 40 pony

The function of a pony bottle is primarily to provide redundancy for a failure, not to simply bring a larger volume of gas on the dive.

Depending on how many tanks you have, it may be cheaper to own a pony bottle than to put h-valves on all your tanks. I prefer to use a pony bottle because I feel it is a little safer. How deep do you spearfish? Are you considering a 40 cu-ft pony bottle?

 

[lowviz]

The function of a pony bottle is primarily to provide redundancy for a failure, not to simply bring a larger volume of gas on the dive. ...

This is an important concept. A pony is a truly redundant air supply that is never intended to be used.

 

[Max Speed]

Pretend he called it a stage bottle. You will sleep better...

 

[lowviz]

No prob, I'm good...

 

[yardpro]

lol... thanks for the responses.
the only event that i can see the pony being safer for is in the event of a tank failure, which is an odd that i am willing to accept.

I ask because i was talking with a divemaster about solo diving. he went on and on about how i would die without a pony....
i could not come up with a likely scenario that made sense why it was safer.. i could however see the pony being entangled, etc....

The more i dive the less crap i want to carry

 

[dumpsterDiver]

lol... thanks for the responses.
the only event that i can see the pony being safer for is in the event of a tank failure, which is an odd that i am willing to accept.

I ask because i was talking with a divemaster about solo diving. he went on and on about how i would die without a pony....
i could not come up with a likely scenario that made sense why it was safer.. i could however see the pony being entangled, etc....

The more i dive the less crap i want to carry

you can have a burst disc fail, you can have a tank neck O-ring fail... These could happen. Also, you have to realize that part of the danger of using an H-valve solo is that you MUST shut down one of the sides in a failure. Do you know how to do that? What happens if your hands are full of fish? What happens if you are fighting a fish, it drags you under a wreck and you cut one of the reg hoses at the first stage? How will you determine WHICH valve to shut down? You are alone and can not see what is happening?


I'm not telling you that "you are gonna die", but the H-valve is less safe AND REQUIRES you to do some analysis blind in a true emergency... screw it up and you may die.

If these or other scenarios do not come to mind immediately, then you shouldn't be solo diving...

 

[knotical]

The obvious: - If you run out of air, an H-valve will provide no relief. A pony will.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

The obvious: - If you run out of air, an H-valve will provide no relief. A pony will.

There's that too....