UFGatorDiver
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could someone please explain this term in context of regulators and how it relates to the ports on a first stage? thanks.
redundancy
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...actually means two first stages, each having one second stage, which is a typical setup on doubles. You can also get an H or Y valve for a single cylinder so you can mount two first stages on it.
Doubles give you complete gas and regulator redundancy as long as you have an isolator valve between the two cylinders or completely separate cylinders. In the case of a burst disk or tank O ring letting go, you can isolate the remaining cylinder from the first and breathe off of that cylinder as the original one with the problem drains away.
[Ok, really you'd continue to breathe off the reg on the "leaking" cylinder until it's exhausted and then switch to the "good" cylinder"]
An H or Y valve only gives you regulator redundancy, not gas supply redundancy like doubles. Regulators are so reliable these days that Y and H valves are typically used by folks who move back and forth between doubles and singles fairly often and don't want to reconfigure their reg hoses all the time, not for any kind of redundancy.
Is this what you were looking for?
Roak
Doubles give you complete gas and regulator redundancy as long as you have an isolator valve between the two cylinders or completely separate cylinders. In the case of a burst disk or tank O ring letting go, you can isolate the remaining cylinder from the first and breathe off of that cylinder as the original one with the problem drains away.
[Ok, really you'd continue to breathe off the reg on the "leaking" cylinder until it's exhausted and then switch to the "good" cylinder"]
An H or Y valve only gives you regulator redundancy, not gas supply redundancy like doubles. Regulators are so reliable these days that Y and H valves are typically used by folks who move back and forth between doubles and singles fairly often and don't want to reconfigure their reg hoses all the time, not for any kind of redundancy.
Is this what you were looking for?
Roak
OP
UFGatorDiver
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i guess so. thanks. let me see if i understand. redundancy is the ability to have 2 first stages so that if one fails the other is there? sorry if i did not get it.
Hey UF Gator,
Roakey is right in all that he wrote.
However, I think you were asking a more basic question. Lets step back and look at redundancy for a sec. As an open water diver, your need for redundancy increases with the type of diving you might do. Your redundant air on most dives for example, does not reside with you, but with your buddy. So it makes more sense for each buddy to have two methods of breathing off of the same first stage without having to "buddy breathe", or to take turns breathing. If you run out of air, he has one second stage in his mouth and you secure the other in yours... both of you then make a safe, unhurried ascent to the surface and end your dive.
If you start to get into tech/cave diving, then redundancy takes on a far more serious conotation. You don't have easy access to an air supply (the surface).
As for all those ports on the first reg. They are there for different configurations, like using a dry suit, multiple BC bladders, running things backwards to what you are used to, etc, etc. In their wisdom, the manufacturers have tried to make the first stages as versatile as possible. Hope this helps.
Roakey is right in all that he wrote.
However, I think you were asking a more basic question. Lets step back and look at redundancy for a sec. As an open water diver, your need for redundancy increases with the type of diving you might do. Your redundant air on most dives for example, does not reside with you, but with your buddy. So it makes more sense for each buddy to have two methods of breathing off of the same first stage without having to "buddy breathe", or to take turns breathing. If you run out of air, he has one second stage in his mouth and you secure the other in yours... both of you then make a safe, unhurried ascent to the surface and end your dive.
If you start to get into tech/cave diving, then redundancy takes on a far more serious conotation. You don't have easy access to an air supply (the surface).
As for all those ports on the first reg. They are there for different configurations, like using a dry suit, multiple BC bladders, running things backwards to what you are used to, etc, etc. In their wisdom, the manufacturers have tried to make the first stages as versatile as possible. Hope this helps.
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