Real-life Equipment Failures

[eelnoraa]

Very interesting thread.

The only failure I have so far is my computer, Aeris VT3 went out battery in a dive (in live aboard). No sign of low battery before head. It was AI is just my back up, so I still have my primary spg to monitor my air. knock on wood!!!

 

[Jim Baldwin]

I like many here grew up diving steel tanks. Some 34 years ago my first set of doubles was a pair of 50 cu. ft. tanks with a fill pressure of 1800 psi. They were initially made in the late 50's. Dove them for years without issue. Also a couple of steel 72's and again no problem.

My most recent steel tanks bought new in 2000 were a pair of PST HP 100's. Diving them hard, in salt, fresh and lots of chlorine without issue.

I did also have a set of PST HP 120's that I sold about a year and a half ago. I bought these tanks used and had them tumbled a couple of years after I bought them. Never have seen anything like you posted.
Just have to wonder what the owner was doing with these things.

 

[ianr33]

3 dead computers. Fortunately all on different dives.
Deco reg that gave more water than gas. (Deformed diaphragm. My fault for not testing it IN the water)
Unscrewed!! Dump valve on wing. (The joys of sidemount restrictions)
Failed HID (X2)

Saw a pretty funny failure a couple of weeks ago. A guy at Jackson Blue had his sidemount tanks in the water when we heard a sound like a gunshot.One of his brand new,super duper, flexible hoses had burst and threw the spg a couple of feet. Fortunately it landed on the grass,not in the water. Don't think I will be buying any of those! Tank pressure was totally normal. (For the area anyway)

 

[jbomb001]

Had a mares air integrated inflater that lost its purge button/diaphragm! Happened on my 3rd dive after my ow cert I reached down to hit my inflation button and noticed it missing and had to abort the dive. I have sense them bought a ss1 and a whole nother set of regs and a pony. Better safe then sorry

 

[Shcubasteve]

Just got an iPhone and taking pictures of broken gear will be much easier now. This fractured spring came out of an oceanic SP4 first stage- before disassemble I noticed the IP all over the place. First really low and then really high.

Dive safe everyone!

 

[Foxfish]

Aqualung Pro QD BCD integrated weights dropped out when you jumped in the water.

Aqualung Pro QD BCD handles fell off integrated weight holders.

Leaky first stage on cylinder.

Leaky BCD and BCD inflator mechanism jammed on old BCD loaned from friend. Bought my own after that.

Leaky torches.

 

[Subcooled]

"So yeah, my octo leaks a little bit and I dont know why"

Check out the lever!? Still waiting for a call back to see what exactly happened.

Picture on the left shows the broken lever and the replacement

If you have turned the lever out of horizontal position (lever=neutral; then turn it a bit and one side goes up, and a leak results) while tightening the regulator hose to the reg, then that could happen.

Or you've got some sand in the reg and a grain has hit the poppet and made a slight scratch - barely visible on a magnifying glass, but large enough to cause a leak at depth.

I've experienced both. A small leak is but a nuisance. A slow constant flow gives you a mouthfull of air and none goes wasted. Only more violent leaks pose a problem. Something is wrong, though. So service your reg.

---------- Post added November 12th, 2013 at 11:45 AM ----------

I will add an equipment malfunction, although this goes into the stupid diver class.

So... Beyond sump 5, we decided to do some digging (in dry cave) to reach a visible yet not reachable pool/lake/continuation/whatever. Laying flat in the mud in an incredibly cramped space, working with straight arms... Mud. Yes, lots of it. And no, the rubber cap was not on the suit inflation valve. Result: valve clogged with mud. Suit inflation did not work after that. We were a mile into the mountain and my drysuit wasn't working. I wasn't in my happy place, after realizing this, to be exact. I dived conservatively, and learned progressively, and that saved my day (etc).

 

[Hatul]

The way I see it though, if you're properly weighted in a wetsuit you should have a couple of pounds of negative buoyancy on the surface at most and that should only be at the start of the dive. Come the end of the dive you should be slightly positive on the surface. This should allow you to tread water even with no additional buoyancy at all. BC fails? Unless there's heavy chop you've got no problem.

I've done a few dives now without drysuit or a BC and it's very enlightening. You get your weight perfect for the depth you intend on diving and then you just rely on breathing or picking up a rock or two to balance you out as you vary depth or use up air. First off, it's surprising just how little weight you actually need. I thought I had my weighting pretty fine tuned last year when I was wearing 19 lbs. with an HP119 and a 7mm J-suit, but now I've done dives with as little as 11 lbs. and an LP72 and I find I can hover in shallow water with only 15 lbs. and a 72.

Once you get your weighting figured out like that, you find you're always buoyant on the surface.

If you're positively buoyant at the surface I don't see how you can make a controlled ascent from your safety stop, or hover comfortably in shallow water, which is what we have to do in our shore dives.

 

[Dockmaster]

I was practicing breathing from a free-flowing reg for my OWI/IE and it continued to free-flow, so I turned it into a self-rescue scenario. Once I turned off the air on the surface for a minute, the problem fixed itself.

 

[shoredivr]

A tear along the seam of OMS single bladder, which was about 10 years old and dived a lot. Fortunately pre-dive so I just used another wing.

Can light failure of electronics 30 minutes into a cold water dive.