nmdl04669
New
Hi Folks, would just like to add a "hi" to this message as it's my first post here. I hope you're all well, and maybe you folks could offer me a bit of advice relating to this post.
2 years ago, at the NEC Dive Show in the UK I purchased a Poseidon BeSea w40 wing for my girlfriend who had just started diving. The W40 looked appealing as it was nice and compact, and for her small size, it would fit well and the price, for the type of kit was right at the time.
Since owning the wing, she's completed 5 UK inland dives over those two years. Although many more dives have been completed abroad, the wing has never entered sea water, and the condition of it is immaculate.
After each UK dive, the wing has been thoroughly washed,inside and out, by me using the same care that I do to my Custom Divers Wing (which is over 13 years old and is also in the same immaculate condition).
The wing has been kept in ideal locations once it has been dried, (in a built-in wardrobe in my bedroom, hanging up). So as far as conditions go, this wing couldn't have wished for a better life (so to say).
The problem I have is this..
2 weekends ago, we went diving to Dosthill, which is a quarry here in the UK. She had problems with the wing, and it basically wouldn't maintain bouyancy. We put this down to having done so many nice warm-water dives, it was just a problem with overweighting.
When it came to washing the wing, I inflated it orally as I normally would, I always inflate the bladder after a dive just to see if there were any problems and to check the inflate/deflate buttons, etc etc..
It was at this point that I could hear hissing from both bottom edges of the bladder. I thought I had just blown a bit to hard into the wing and that I might have activated the over pressure dump-valves on the bottom of it. This couldn't be the case though as the wing wasn't fully inflated, and yet I could still hear the air leaking out through the bottom of the bladder.
On removing the bladder from the wing, it could be seen that the areas around the bottom of the bladder had.. erm.. how can I explain... Have you ever seen an elastic band that has perished and it's gone all brittle? Well, that's what I can describe the bladder edge as being.
Naturally, this lets the air leak from the wing at a rather quick rate.
We have spoken to Poseidon who don't have any W40 bladders to purchase (even if we were willing to spend money on it).
We can however purchase a new wing from the W50 model and attach it to the W40 Harness that we have. The funny thing is that if you google for Poseidon Bladder Recalls, then you are given many links to a recall on the W50 wing with certain batch numbers. Interestingly, the problem that has been identified in the W50's is exactly the same as that which has happened to the W40 that we have.
Unfortunately, the only course of action that Posiedon are offering is that we purchase a brand new W50 wing and attach it to the W40 harness, at full cost may I add.
I appreciate that the wing is 2 years old, and that poseidon don't have to do anything to fix this, but if you check the condition of the wing, it's clear that it's not been badly treated in anyway shape of form.
I'd appreciate your comments and thoughts on this, and more to the point, if you know where I can get a W40 bladder from, I'd love to hear form you.
I've searched the Internet and I can't find a source for one (nor can Poseidon).
Regards
Neil
2 years ago, at the NEC Dive Show in the UK I purchased a Poseidon BeSea w40 wing for my girlfriend who had just started diving. The W40 looked appealing as it was nice and compact, and for her small size, it would fit well and the price, for the type of kit was right at the time.
Since owning the wing, she's completed 5 UK inland dives over those two years. Although many more dives have been completed abroad, the wing has never entered sea water, and the condition of it is immaculate.
After each UK dive, the wing has been thoroughly washed,inside and out, by me using the same care that I do to my Custom Divers Wing (which is over 13 years old and is also in the same immaculate condition).
The wing has been kept in ideal locations once it has been dried, (in a built-in wardrobe in my bedroom, hanging up). So as far as conditions go, this wing couldn't have wished for a better life (so to say).
The problem I have is this..
2 weekends ago, we went diving to Dosthill, which is a quarry here in the UK. She had problems with the wing, and it basically wouldn't maintain bouyancy. We put this down to having done so many nice warm-water dives, it was just a problem with overweighting.
When it came to washing the wing, I inflated it orally as I normally would, I always inflate the bladder after a dive just to see if there were any problems and to check the inflate/deflate buttons, etc etc..
It was at this point that I could hear hissing from both bottom edges of the bladder. I thought I had just blown a bit to hard into the wing and that I might have activated the over pressure dump-valves on the bottom of it. This couldn't be the case though as the wing wasn't fully inflated, and yet I could still hear the air leaking out through the bottom of the bladder.
On removing the bladder from the wing, it could be seen that the areas around the bottom of the bladder had.. erm.. how can I explain... Have you ever seen an elastic band that has perished and it's gone all brittle? Well, that's what I can describe the bladder edge as being.
Naturally, this lets the air leak from the wing at a rather quick rate.
We have spoken to Poseidon who don't have any W40 bladders to purchase (even if we were willing to spend money on it).
We can however purchase a new wing from the W50 model and attach it to the W40 Harness that we have. The funny thing is that if you google for Poseidon Bladder Recalls, then you are given many links to a recall on the W50 wing with certain batch numbers. Interestingly, the problem that has been identified in the W50's is exactly the same as that which has happened to the W40 that we have.
Unfortunately, the only course of action that Posiedon are offering is that we purchase a brand new W50 wing and attach it to the W40 harness, at full cost may I add.
I appreciate that the wing is 2 years old, and that poseidon don't have to do anything to fix this, but if you check the condition of the wing, it's clear that it's not been badly treated in anyway shape of form.
I'd appreciate your comments and thoughts on this, and more to the point, if you know where I can get a W40 bladder from, I'd love to hear form you.
I've searched the Internet and I can't find a source for one (nor can Poseidon).
Regards
Neil
