Regulator failure: possibly Nitrox?

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Thanks. It's creeping me out a bit because something very much out of the ordinary obviously happened with my reg on that dive and it could have been a disaster (my buddy wasn't right beside me at the time, I had to swim for it). I had enough breath and didn't panic but it just gives me the creeps.

My valve was fully open because I always check my reg and look at my gauge at the same time and during the dive I was constantly checking. I had 50 bar left, and my gauge reads zero when I'm out of air. Am really looking forward to seeing what the service guy says when I eventually get hold of one.

Thanks, Annie
 
I found out what happened with my reg if anyone's interested - just had it serviced and the guy says it's salt encrusted inside.

Now I have always made a point of washing and soaking my gear myself and I never forgot the dustcap. I've done everything I felt I could to avoid salt water drying on all my gear.

I asked the technician how it could be so encrusted and he said that in some countries with dodgy compressors, or on some liveaboards, the compressor can be faulty and fill the tanks with damp air, which can then introduce water into the reg. I was in Indonesia, did some diving on a liveaboard. He also said that although the guideline is to have it serviced yearly, there's also a guideline of having it serviced every 50 dives and I've done 150 on it in the past year.

So there you go. I had no idea that I could end up with a totally salt encrusted reg like that, even if I never ever let anyone else wash my reg. Any thoughts? Has anyone ever heard of compressors doing that to regs?
 
I kind of doubt that it came from a compressor, water yes, SALTwater- no. My best guess is it came from water accidently introduced into the first stage when you (DM's on liveaboard maybe??) changed tanks. We see a lot of waves here and waves breaking onto the diveboat will often get all over the spare tanks. If there is a drop or 2 of saltwater on the valve, it's very easy to get that into the reg if you don't check and clean off the valve before installing the reg on the tank. Same goes for the reg cap, make sure it's dry before putting it back on the reg. It takes very little saltwater to mess up a reg.
 
One good practice if you're not SURE that the valve is completely clear is to crack it before attaching the reg - blow any accumulated crap out of there. It only takes a split-second, and if you have water in there, you'll see the cloud of vapor when you crack the valve as it is expelled.

Also, make sure your "dust cap" on your reg actually seals the inlet. Many don't do it well - or at all!

Salt water doesn't come from a compressor unless something REALLY BAD is wrong with it, even on a boat. FRESH water can, along with oil, if the filter stacks are not properly maintained (or the compressor water traps aren't drained properly) and that can cause other, far more serious air-quality problems - including potentially CO (since the hopcalite that catalizes it stops working if it gets wet!) and other nasty contamination problems.

If you had salt crystals in the second stage upstream of the seat, and it was also found in the first stage, its a good bet that you got seawater in the valve before the reg was attached and it was then blown through the reg when the air was turned on.
 
I think that's a piston reg isn't it? Most piston regs let water in. If the reg isn't cleaned well enough after diving some salt will remain.
 
I'm pretty sure the Mk18 is a diaphram. But in either case, it seems to me that the only reason that a reg that was delivering gas on a tank that has gas would stop all flow in the middle of a dive would be a total blockage of the filter or air inlet. Any other regulator failure (for downstream designs) should be in the form of some type freeflow, even if it is from the first stage.

Pressed submit and had another though. Dirt and/or failing filter could have blocked the HP opening between the filter and the HP chamber.
 
annie if it makes you feel better I have mine serviced every 50 dives for that very reason even with the best of care there is no promise that it wont get some salt or other forign objects in them, just a good rule to follow speaking of shop just called my reg ready great news can go diving this week end after all !!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Huh?

No they don't.

I've never seen any evidence of water in any of my BP 1sts, other than in the environmental area (where its SUPPOSED to be)

You'd have to submerge one TOTALLY depressurized for water to get IN, and have completely WASTED O-rings, at which point you'd also be leaking air (and probably lots of it) from the balance chamber. Getting SALT water beyond the seals into the interior of the 1st would be quite a trick unless it was visibly leaking air while in use.

The Mk18 is a BD design anyway, so none of that applies to this particular reg in any event. Its also got a lot of little piece-parts and while it seems to work well I don't personally care for it; if I wanted a BD design I'd buy something else.
 
Genesis once bubbled...
Huh?

No they don't.

I've never seen any evidence of water in any of my BP 1sts, other than in the environmental area (where its SUPPOSED to be)


The "environmental are" is in the reg. yes?
 

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