Recommendation for a Reliable Power Inflator

[kablooey]

BTW: What does "failing" mean to you in this case?

Sticking on flow regardless of being cleaned, rings changed, and lubed. (at least once by me).
One experienced buddy checked it and thinks there's something wrong with the spring.

The good one is on MY wing. I rinse and-hose flush after every dive day, and hang the wing up with the inflator
elevated so the salt doesn't drip down into the mechanism.

Can't say my friend with the bad one follows the same regime, but it fails on every trip.
The last trip she had a pro technician do a full overhaul and it still failed.
Wants to buy a new one. Can you blame her?

 

[JamesBon92007]

BTW: What does "failing" mean to you in this case?

I seem to resemble that remark...

By "fail" I meant that it would no longer function as intended. Aside from the buttons just plain getting stuck, one common problem is that the power inflator valve will not seal completely and it's constantly (though usually slowly) filling up the BC with air. That can be very annoying when you are trying to maintain neutral buoyancy

 

[Chris H]

I really like the Scubapro inflators. I have them on all of my wings, Scubapro or not.

 

[JamesBon92007]

I really like the Scubapro inflators. I have them on all of my wings, Scubapro or not.

I have what is probably one of the first ScubaPro power inflators and it still works fine! The problem is that the power connector is not standard and there is no way to change it.

 

[rhwestfall]

The SP power inflator commonly seen (at least since the 1980's) uses the same connection as most qd assemblies, the combo (Air2) is not.....

 

[2airishuman]

The last trip she had a pro technician do a full overhaul and it still failed.
Wants to buy a new one. Can you blame her?

You can either just replace it with the DGX one or replace the valve cartridge.

You can buy valve cartridges, or just buy the DGX inflator and pull the cartridge out of it. (Right now I can't find good prices on the cartridges. They come up on ebay occasionally however)

I don't try to replace the o-rings anymore because I too have run into problems with the valve sticking afterwards. The valve stem corrodes easily.

Inflator Guts

45-degree Oral Power Inflator

 

[2airishuman]

The advantage of just replacing the cartridge is that you don't have to get the corrugated hose off, which is sometimes a hassle, or deal with the pull dump wire, which if you have one is always a hassle. Also, they are smaller and easier to carry in your save a dive kit.

 

[fmerkel]

this one is supposed to be the gold standard if you want to pay for it...
BX Power Inflator
YMMV

My first Zeagle BC had an inflator recall. We got these. I also got some overhaul kits. After the 2nd one split in half where it was glued together I threw the lot away and have been using the DGX one's ever since. They are great, they do need some maintenance, and will seemingly last forever if you take a little reasonable care of them.

IMO this is a product that should be standardized-same on all BC's.

 

[JamesBon92007]

I hope these aren't the ones that were recalled...

This one appears to come with the female end of the oral inflator hose too and looks like it should fit into a standard 1" corrugated hose:

Zeagle Bx Power Inflator Handle Dive Regulator Scuba Diving 112-1001BX 692759022206 | eBay

 

[txgoose]

Titanium standard in inflaters has to be the Atomic. Atomic AI Power Inflator - only $220 lol.

Sweet Mary!! I will say that it comes in red. So there is that.