Primary Donate - Hose Length

[S7ewie]

I'm looking to purchase my first set of regulators for recreational diving. From what I've read and been told by speaking to other divers, I'm thinking of getting a couple of Apeks XTX50s and setting them up in a primary donate configuration.

My biggest question is hose length.. it seems quite common with this setup, for a primary hose of 5-7ft.. why?

I would hope that in 99% of my dives (if not more), I wouldn't need to use my secondary.. so 99% of the time (or more), isn't all that extra hose length just annoying?

I get it for cave diving where you may need to swim one behind the other but I have no interest in cave diving so I imagine, in that situation where you do need to share air.. you'd be no more than an arm's length away from each other.

I travel a lot for diving so ultimately I want a pretty streamlined setup where possible.

I'm curious to know how people have their regs setup and why.

 

[Boarderguy]

Get a 40" primary line and put a 110° swivel on it. Route the hose under your right arm and enjoy the diving. The red hose is my 40" primary and I've donated it while scootering. The swivel makes a huge difference for comfort. I have mine setup this way for primary donate and I use an air2 (boogeyman noises) as my backup. I also have a pony on every dive with a 36" hose routed to my right chest d-ring...

 

[stuartv]

For what you are doing, you use the same hose lengths as you would for secondary donate.

I.e. around a 22" hose and a 40" hose.

The only difference in setup is, if you are doing primary donate, you want a 110 degree angle adapter on the reg on the long hose, and no angle adapter on the reg on the short hose.

For secondary donate, I prefer no angle adapter on the long hose reg, and a swivel adapter on the short hose reg. If the long hose reg is going to live in an octo holder or similar, just waiting to be donated, having no angle adapter allows it to hang/stow more neatly.

Swivel adapter:

Cave Adventurers - Swivel - Marianna, Florida USA - Never Undersold!

Swivel

www.caveadventurers.com

Personally, when I first started diving, I read a lot on SB and became convinced to use primary donate on my single tank reg set.

Now, I teach scuba (OW to Tech) and I have gone back to what they taught in my original OW class - short hose reg in my mouth. Long hose reg attached to my chest and ready to donate.

Primary donate makes sense for technical diving. I really don't see any benefit to it in a recreational sport diving single tank situation.

I DO like having my short hose reg on a bungee necklace, though, so it's always easy to find after taking it out for any reason.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

I've donated my seven foot hose three times. It is so much easier to swim side-by-side without having to hold onto the other diver.

 

[Brett Hatch]

I do rec diving with a 84" foot longhose primary and a necklaced shorthose secondary. I do not find the extra length to have any downside, and the hose routes very nicely and cleanly. The few times I've donated it, the extra length has been very helpful. I also tried the standard 36" primary + octo setup, and the 40" primary on a swivel + short necklaced secondary setup. For both of them, I did not find that the hoses routed well, and while there was enough length to do a vertical ascent safely, there was not enough length to donate comfortably for any horizontal distance.

Maybe I'll do tech diving some day, maybe not, who knows. I'm not diving this config so that I can practice for the future or because I've drank the Kool-Aid, I am diving it because it is the best config I have tried. I have not yet tried the 60" hose primary + short necklaced secondary, but would be open to giving it a shot. One of my buddies dives that way, and I can see that the routing looks clean, and it looks like it would have enough length for an exit with horizontal swimming.

 

[Capt Jim Wyatt]

A five Foot hose has a lot of benefits. If you have to donate gas the diver will not be right on top of you and provides room to work and makes the ascent easier.

 

[stuartv]

I do rec diving with a 84" foot longhose primary and a necklaced shorthose secondary. I do not find the extra length to have any downside, and the hose routes very nicely and cleanly. The few times I've donated it, the extra length has been very helpful. I also tried the standard 40" primay + octo setup, and the 40" primary on a swivel + short necklaced secondary setup. For both of them, I did not find that the hoses routed well, and while there was enough length to do a vertical ascent safely, there was not enough length to donate comfortably for any horizontal distance.

Maybe I'll do tech diving some day, maybe not, who knows. I'm not diving this config so that I can practice for the future or because I've drank the Kool-Aid, I am diving it because it is the best config I have tried. I have not yet tried the 60" hose primary + short necklaced secondary, but would be open to giving it a shot. One of my buddies dives that way, and I can see that the routing looks clean, and it looks like it would have enough length for an exit with horizontal swimming.

I've donated my seven foot hose three times. It is so much easier to swim side-by-side without having to hold onto the other diver.

If you are diving in an overhead environment, then you should definitely have a 7' hose.

If you are not in an overhead, then an OOA situation should mean an immediate ascent from wherever you are.

I did try a 5' hose on my single tank rig for a while. It did not work well for me. It was way too short to tuck into my waist belt or loop around anything on my belt. But, it was long enough that the big loop under my right arm was annoying. It tended to catch on stuff on my shoulder strap - like the light head of the light clipped to my right chest D-ring and tucked through a bungee loop further down the same shoulder strap.

A 7' hose is barely long enough for me on my doubles to hog loop it and have enough to tuck into my waist belt. It tends to pull out (of my waist belt) occasionally and I have to tuck it back in as I go. I don't like any more "stuff" in my chest area than I need (e.g. a reg hose running up and across). A 7' hose on my single tank reg set is definitely a no-go for me.

I have never needed to donate air to anyone. I hope to keep it that way.

 

[Oldmanmatt]

I use a 2m primary hose, with a bright yellow primary reg cover and a very short hosed secondary on a quite tight necklace; so that I can get it into my mouth without using my hands. I use the same configuration regardless of being OW, Overhead, Twins or single tank. I don’t have a problem with the excess hose, I just tuck the spare in my waist belt when using single tanks (having a fabric sheathed hose helps to stop it sliding out during the dive).
Why? Because I have had to deal with out of air divers.
Both occasions, the panicked diver grabbed the reg from my mouth (the first time, I had a conventional recreational rig, both occasions the diver was not my buddy and I didn’t even see them coming).
I like all the described advantages of having a long hose, but, primarily, I like being able to keep a panicked diver at arms length or further.
The hose I always have a problem with snagging (and it happened again entering a wreck last Sunday) is my SPG.

 

[stuartv]

Why? Because I have had to deal with out of air divers.
Both occasions, the panicked diver grabbed the reg from my mouth (the first time, I had a conventional recreational rig, both occasions the diver was not my buddy and I didn’t even see them coming).

So, the next time a panicked diver whom you don't see coming grabs the reg out of your mouth, you'd prefer that reg to be on a hose that is wrapped around your neck?

 

[S7ewie]

Wow thanks for the response everyone! I wasn't expecting so much so quickly!

@Oldmanmatt What you said about the panicked diver grabbing the reg from your mouth is one of the primary reasons why I'm leaning towards a primary donate setup. I've luckily never had to do it outside of training yet but everyone I've spoken to who has, almost always says that the OOA diver instinctively goes for the one you're breathing from. That and the fact that the second is usually handing around your neck so it's very quick and easy to swap makes me feel like primary donate is a great configuration for everyone.

A few of you said you've had to donate air a few times, I'm curious to know how many dives you've done or how often you've had to do it?

And those of you that opt for a longer hose, how do you route it to keep things comfortable and avoid getting tangled in hose?

I'm still a relatively new diver and can only see myself doing OW stuff for the foreseeable future so in an OOA situation I imagine we'd stick to training and ascend straight away so I can't really see the benefit of a longer hose than the standard octopus hose but hey, that's why I'm here