DIR- GUE segregate deco regs from stage regs?

[tursiops]

I guess you're right. There's no harm to switching to oxygen at depth accidentally.

So you think joking about oxtox is funny? Sad.

 

[p_kos]

 

[jborg]

GUE doesn’t care about the colour of hoses. GUE says colour coding should not be used, for a variety of reasons. Hence a GUE trained diver will follow the gas switch procedure regardless of the colour of the hose or regulator.

Whether that means they’re all black or random colours boils down to personal and team preferences. The principles of minimalism, standardisation, and interchangeability might shift the choice towards one end of the spectrum, but there’s no hard rule.

 

[Lorenzoid]

You can -- and should -- trace the O2 reg back to the cylinder, even if the hose is green. Seeing the color is not likely to be a problem at 20 ft, where it will be used. If it is not visible at 100 ft if doing an incorrect gas switch, what is the harm? Think of the color as redundancy...isn't that good?

I suppose. The GUE gas-switch procedure is color-agnostic and has several points at which errors should be caught. I’m guessing any additional redundancy from color wouldn’t add much.

 

[Manatee Diver]

Not color coding but when your suit gas hose is tangled and stuck behind your back its WAY easier to find a non-black one. Either communicating to the deckhand "hey dude can you pull that red hose out of my waistbelt?" Or if you end up for whatever reason with it disconnected underwater. Same if for whatever reason a stage reg hose comes loose from the bungies and is all twisted in your deco bottle. Or your leashed O2 bottle reg comes loose and ends up between your hip Dring and stage etc etc. You absolutely can see "anything but black" way easier at any depth and its far easier for your helper either on the deck or underwater to solve the problem.

As far as I know there's no reason to stick with black other than the hose hides in pictures better

I use different colored hoses, mouthpieces, covers etc for MX tracking.

I have five Mk25s, sure I can check the serial numbers I guess. But it is a lot easier to just look up my yellow Mk25 which is set to an IP of 140 vs the white one which has an IP of 135. Where as green I replaced the HP hose June of last year.

I still do the full gas switch procedure including tracing the hose, because I don't use hose color for tanks at all.

 

[BlueTrin]

I use different colored hoses, mouthpieces, covers etc for MX tracking.

I have five Mk25s, sure I can check the serial numbers I guess. But it is a lot easier to just look up my yellow Mk25 which is set to an IP of 140 vs the white one which has an IP of 135. Where as green I replaced the HP hose June of last year.

I still do the full gas switch procedure including tracing the hose, because I don't use hose color for tanks at all.

Why do you set slightly different IPs?

 

[Manatee Diver]

Why do you set slightly different IPs?

What the shop set them to. I do minor maintenance, but I leave the larger things to my shop.

 

[Kendall Raine]

We generally rig our deco and stage regs the same way, and there is nothing visually distinguishing them. Do you have dedicated deco regs that you only use with O2 or EAN50 and dedicated stage regs that you only use with your stage bottles (e.g., EAN32), and if so, how do you distinguish them? Or are you not bothered by interchanging them between deco and stage use if all receive O2-compatible service at normal intervals?

I use Mk 10/G250s on all stages and deco bottles. They're all O2 clean for O2 service so it doesn't matter, but I have a brass DIN hand wheel on one (all others plastic) that I only use on 100%. That serves as a backstop against unlikely contamination (since it only sees 100%) and also serves to identify the 100% bottle by feel in case all the lights go out.

 

[Matan]

We generally rig our deco and stage regs the same way, and there is nothing visually distinguishing them. Do you have dedicated deco regs that you only use with O2 or EAN50 and dedicated stage regs that you only use with your stage bottles (e.g., EAN32), and if so, how do you distinguish them? Or are you not bothered by interchanging them between deco and stage use if all receive O2-compatible service at normal intervals?

happened to me once following a T2 dive - Only when looking at the photos taken during deco later on I noticed that the reg I "usually" put on my o2 was swapped with the reg on my bottom stage. They are not the same model so actually could have noticed this pre-dive.

However - it doesn't matter since:
1. We+Buddy verify during a gas switch - so would never change gas based on "oh this seems like my o2 reg".
2. Like you mentioned - I tend to go through the same cleaning procedure of all my regs to avoid this exact issue - The extra cost is negligible/totally worth it if you ask me.


Matan.

 

[Celt]

For accelerated decompression at high oxygen I use a dedicated green oxygen cleaned setup. Similar to this.
View attachment 803831

Great colour underwater,