Regulator Failure and Thermo Modular Valve - H Connector

[UaVaj]

Regulator is a piece of machinery and it is inevitable that it will eventually fail.

Aside from (1) a bad hose (leak) or (2) a frozen 1st stage. What are other ways that a regulator can fail?



Reason for asking this question is - the desire to skip the pony cylinder. A few hours ago - I stumble onto Thermo website and saw the offering of the H Valve. Bascially can mount two regulators to a single cylinder.

Modular Valves

What are the weakness in this setup? when compared to an independent main cylinder and separate pony cylinder setup?

 

[redacted]

the biggest weakness is the tank neck o-ring.

 

[USCScubaboy]

the biggest weakness is the tank neck o-ring.

If I'm not mistaken, the H valve would address that weakness by allowing the air to travel through the other regulator setup. (just thinking from an engineering pov).

But if the o-ring was busted, wouldn't water leak in and mess things up anyways?

 

[RJP]

What are the weakness in this setup? when compared to an independent main cylinder and separate pony cylinder setup?

H valve provides ZERO, ZIP, ZILCH, NADA, NONE, NO gas redundancy; separate pony cylinder does.

 

[fppf]

Regulator is a piece of machinery and it is inevitable that it will eventually fail.

Aside from (1) a bad hose (leak) or (2) a frozen 1st stage. What are other ways that a regulator can fail?



Reason for asking this question is - the desire to skip the pony cylinder. A few hours ago - I stumble onto Thermo website and saw the offering of the H Valve. Bascially can mount two regulators to a single cylinder.

Modular Valves

What are the weakness in this setup? when compared to an independent main cylinder and separate pony cylinder setup?

If you ever run out of air, you wont get any air from the backup reg either

Tank neck orings, burst disks, and valve stem failures are rare, but they could happen and again, you would be without gas.

 

[UaVaj]

Let me make this clear. Equipment failure EXCLUDED - I will never ever run out of gas during a recreational open water profiles dive. I have yet to understand how some folks actually manage to accomplish this feat.

No fish, treasure, gear or whatever is worth pushing the limit on available gas. I will asend when the needle reaches 100lb/10ft. (I have seen some of the biggest AJ laughing at me on my asend - obviously they lived to tell their tales.)

Currently my gauge is on my wrist at all time. Super easy to keep track of data. Only if the DataMask or CompuMask would fit properly. I wouldn't might owning one of those.



Thanks for the pointers. Looks like a separate independent pony is still the best way to go for TRUE redundancy.

 

[halocline]

If I'm not mistaken, the H valve would address that weakness by allowing the air to travel through the other regulator setup. (just thinking from an engineering pov).

But if the o-ring was busted, wouldn't water leak in and mess things up anyways?

The H valve does nothing in the event of a tank o-ring failure; maybe you're thinking of a valve o-ring. As far as water leaking in, don't forget you have high pressure air leaking out. Water could only leak in once the tank is completely empty, or technically at lower than ambient pressure. If that's the case, believe me you're not too worried about your next tank inspection.

 

[shoredivr]

An H-valve is useful in cold water. If you have a freeflow, you can shut down that reg and switch to the backup. As pointed out by other posters, there is no redundancy in gas supply.