DIR- GUE power inflator failure T1

[jadairiii]

My mom had an at-pac. The marble shot system was interesting.

Still have mine! With the Water Gill Regulator. Used it from 1978 into the early 2000's for recreational. Did a lot of early Tech Dives with it too with doubles. Trust me, it was not optimum for doubles.....trim was a tad off....(but not with the shell, only did a few dives with that off the beach)

 

[rjack321]

Of course, you could always teach a student how to properly care for a power inflator and remove that risk altogether.......

Actually the two incidents I know of were traced to diaphragm first stages with high IP. For whatever reason the 2nd stage didn't vent (because it was detuned or?) and the power inflator leaked. I personally froze up a power inflator in Plura, 2C water will also do it. I believe the fatality in the Saint Lawrence river about 12 years ago was a frozen power inflator too. He died from impact with the ice overhead.

Orally inflating would remove the risk of runaway inflation but not many people do that as a routine thing and its got its own problems.

 

[kensuf]

There was also Garrett Weinberg in 2001.

 

[rjack321]

There was also Garrett Weinberg in 2001.

It was never clear to me if this was a power inflator or a drysuit problem. I lived here at the time but was just getting back into diving.

 

[Jack Hammer]

Sometimes maintained things just fail randomly. Years ago my buddy added air to his wing as he dropped from 140' to 150' in 39f water and for whatever reason the inflator stuck wide open. I was at 130' about 30' away taking a picture of him and unable to assist in any way. The hose froze onto the inflator, the few seconds he took trying to unhook it was enough for the wing to get ahead of rear dumping. I was recall being impressed how quickly he was rising. Last I saw him that dive he was well above me calmly dumping the rear and shutting the post down. He ended up on the surface luckily with no issues. Inflator was rebuilt a few months before, regs IP were good, all quality gear.

 

[rjack321]

Sometimes maintained things just fail randomly. Years ago my buddy added air to his wing as he dropped from 140' to 150' in 39f water and for whatever reason the inflator stuck wide open. I was at 130' about 30' away taking a picture of him and unable to assist in any way. The hose froze onto the inflator, the few seconds he took trying to unhook it was enough for the wing to get ahead of rear dumping. I was recall being impressed how quickly he was rising. Last I saw him that dive he was well above me calmly dumping the rear and shutting the post down. He ended up on the surface luckily with no issues. Inflator was rebuilt a few months before, regs IP were good, all quality gear.

A few weeks ago I was sitting around at 20ft on a shore dive with about 20mins of deco to do. Suddenly was rising and not sure why, hit the scooter trigger and 90lbs of full thrust in my genesis wasn't even pulling me back down. Corked from 20ft despite the scooter. I fairly quickly figured out that my suit inflator was stuck on, but had no capacity to deal with it in the 5 seconds I had to respond before it was too late. Now on the surface, I shut down the inflation bottle, vented my suit, disconnected the suit hose and dropped back down to 20ft for the rest of my time. Start to finish was less than a minute. Had never happened before, hopefully won't again. I rebuilt the (suit) inflator but there was nothing obviously wrong. I think a fleck of sand got stuck in the edge of the button to housing area but I honestly don't know. The inflator has been fine since.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

But the reality is, (excluding ice issues) a properly maintained "standard" inflator wont fail.

I wish that were true. It is like winning the lottery. Statistically it is practically zero, but it is never zero.

 

[Ayisha]

...I believe the fatality in the Saint Lawrence river about 12 years ago was a frozen power inflator too. He died from impact with the ice overhead...

Yes, that fatality at the Kinghorn in February 2006 was due to a power inflator that was frozen open, and the impact with the ice ceiling apparently immediately knocked him unconscious.

After that incident, many people around here started ice diving or extremely cold water diving with the power inflator disconnected or with Tobin's Hose Hat, myself included.

 

[rjack321]

Yes, that fatality at the Kinghorn in February 2006 was due to a power inflator that was frozen open, and the impact with the ice ceiling apparently immediately knocked him unconscious.

After that incident, many people around here started ice diving or extremely cold water diving with the power inflator disconnected or with Tobin's Hose Hat, myself included.

As far as I can tell, there are very few attempts at running line under the ice in the river since then too. The current certainly was significant and made that dive more perilous than your average ice dive.

 

[jadairiii]

I wish that were true. It is like winning the lottery. Statistically it is practically zero, but it is never zero.

This is a topic, like others, that we all seem to go down a rabbit hole on. As divers we "train" every time we dive on disconnecting the inflator and shutting down our gas (rec or tech). We set up our gear, connect the inflator at the start and disconnect at the end. This should be a "skill" that needs no training for.

Second, I have found that most divers do not properly clean the inflator after every dive, and that leads to the problems. They may rinse it, but they fail to reconnect the inflator to a tank and blow it out, completely clearing all water/grit/grime from the part. Letting that little bit of moisture stay in the inflator is death to it, and often what leads to that "it failed and I always keep it clean" issue. Worse, many divers go years without overhauling their inflator.

And what does it take to clean the inflator? 5 min and a dab of silicon grease. Heck, I pull mine out a few times a year just to give it a good lube and visual on it, that takes seconds. Solve the problem at the dock.