Pull Dumps — lose them

[Steve_C]

So the instructor in panic mode did not dump his weights?

 

[kelemvor]

Years later I saw *exactly* what happened to me happen to a diver at a deep offshore reef in Egypt. He pulled his inflator clear off on the surface and away he went..... Thankfully he had the presence of mind to throw off his weight belt and return to the surface. He had pulled too hard on the inflator and pulled it right off..... The bottom where we were diving is more than 120m deep and drops off on a slope from there.... That could have ended badly.

I have seen a buddy do that once. He didn't have a pull dump, though. It was a shore dive, so we just swam back in a little bit and screwed it back on.

If you don't check your gear before diving, bad things can happen.

 

[Diver0001]

Or just learn to properly use your gear...He must've been yanking on it pretty hard to do that

In the case I mentioned in my previous post it was a combination of factors. The tie-wrap holding the inflator hose onto the valve was missing (poor maintenance and/or a poor self-and-buddy check) and the fact that I did indeed pull pretty hard on it.

Those were the same factors at play for the diver I mentioned who had the same problem.

I think the issues can be spotted in time with sufficient discipline but at the time I lacked that discipline, as do a great many people.

I was wondering how common this problem is, actually. I think we need a poll.

R..

 

[rsingler]

I've been watching this thread since Jim posted it, and my sentiments varied.
I initially thought to myself, why would I get rid of a functionality on my BCD? I would never be stupid like the guy he wrote about...
But then I got to thinking about complacency , and neglected maintenance, and old rubber. And then I saw @Diver0001 's post.

I'm going to disconnect my wire. I've concluded that the theory behind having an extra valve in a high shoulder position is good. But the basic design is flawed in every manufacturer's execution.

Having the valve opening depend upon a high resistance element like a corrugated hose and a spring-loaded valve set against a big muscle like your triceps means that fine control is just about impossible. Add in a little rotting rubber or a single zip tie, or a missing zip tie, and a deep bottom or a wall? Asking for disaster. Diver0001 confirmed it.

I've decided I can live without it, nice to have or not. If I REALLY don't want to raise my hose, and I REALLY need my left shoulder dump, lol, then I can push the little tab on my shoulder valve instead of lifting my arm.

Good post, @Capt Jim Wyatt !

As for that "Instructor", +1 to reporting him.
I know, I know..."There but for the grace of God go I", but really!

 

[kelemvor]

I have seen a buddy do that once. He didn't have a pull dump, though. It was a shore dive, so we just swam back in a little bit and screwed it back on.

If you don't check your gear before diving, bad things can happen.

I remembered the incident slightly wrong. Fortunately, I had a gopro rolling at the time. The power inflator came off of the courrogated hose, it wasn't a case of the courrogated hose coming off of his BCD.

In this case, it was the exact same cause as the incident @Diver0001 described (except no pull dump installed). Zip tie failed.

I'm thinking a replacement for zip ties on power inflator hoses might be needed.

 

[Dan]

I have pull dump on my BCD, but have never used it. No problem with raising the inflator hose during descending with positive entry or pulling the cord of the butt dump during descending with negative entry.

We are creatures of habit. I try not to do such “bad habit” of pulling a “rubber” hose, which can lead to a premature failure. Haven’t encountered such problem in 700 dives, 13 years of diving (knock on wood(

 

[Capt Jim Wyatt]

Yeah... there's that!

Yea....

 

[shurite7]

Why would one report to the Agency? What exactly is one going to report? This wasn't a training situation in which students were involved, it was a diver who did not understand his gear. Lelemvor has eluded to this.

Just because the diver was an instructor doesn't mean he knows everything, although he should know his own gear. I will also point out that it hasn't been established if this was his gear or if he was trying out different gear. Was he using a BCD that he wasn't familiar with?

 

[johndiver999]

I've been watching this thread since Jim posted it, and my sentiments varied.
I initially thought to myself, why would I get rid of a functionality on my BCD? I would never be stupid like the guy he wrote about...
But then I got to thinking about complacency , and neglected maintenance, and old rubber. And then I saw @Diver0001 's post.

I'm going to disconnect my wire. I've concluded that the theory behind having an extra valve in a high shoulder position is good. But the basic design is flawed in every manufacturer's execution.

Having the valve opening depend upon a high resistance element like a corrugated hose and a spring-loaded valve set against a big muscle like your triceps means that fine control is just about impossible. Add in a little rotting rubber or a single zip tie, or a missing zip tie, and a deep bottom or a wall? Asking for disaster. Diver0001 confirmed it.

I've decided I can live without it, nice to have or not. If I REALLY don't want to raise my hose, and I REALLY need my left shoulder dump, lol, then I can push the little tab on my shoulder valve instead of lifting my arm.

Good post, @Capt Jim Wyatt !

As for that "Instructor", +1 to reporting him.
I know, I know..."There but for the grace of God go I", but really!

I wonder if you really want to disconnect the internal wire If you or someone else pulls on the inflator than the only thing taking all the stress is the correlated hose and it’s associated connectors - often old brittle zip ties. The internal wire protects the correlated hose and prevents any real stress being applied to the hose when force is applied

 

[Umuntu]

I wonder if you really want to disconnect the internal wire If you or someone else pulls on the inflator than the only thing taking all the stress is the correlated hose and it’s associated connectors - often old brittle zip ties. The internal wire protects the correlated hose and prevents any real stress being applied to the hose when force is applied

I think in most elbows there's a pin across the top. You disconnect the wire from the dump valve connector and attach the wire to the pin.