DIR- GUE Spool to SMB attachment

[happy-diver]

Jersey Line or Up Line use?

Joisey upline!

 

[Wibble]

I have no time attaching or clipping spools underwater, diving and drilling have nothing in common

View attachment 682869

How are the spools tied up? Is it both secure and easy to 'untie' in cold water with thick gloves? Where’s the double ender for each spool to clip it up?

 

[Wibble]

I gave up with spools after using them for about five years. They’re completely the wrong technology and inferior to using the right tool for the job — a ratchet reel.

Drop a spool and it continues dropping until the end of the line. You’re faced with either leaving it — polluting and a hazard — or spending goodness knows how long to recover the thing (20 minutes in my most recent case).

Along with this, a spool is a load of work to clip off the line once at a stop. You cannot just clip it to the spool's reel as it will unclip when it bounces due to surface waves. You have to do all sorts of complex knitting to ensure the double-ender is secure (have another set of photos if you want).

A ratchet reel, available in convenient pocket size as well as man-sized, is the right tool for the job. Wind up and it clicks and locks as you go. Drop is and…. nothing happens. Stop at a deco stop and just leave it bouncing in front of you. Arrive on the surface and, again, nothing more to do. Just hand the SMB up to the boat.

I have a backup Halcyon SMB connected to a small pocket sized Custom Divers reel in my pocket. My primary SMB is attached to a large 100m/330' reel which is clipped to my waist D-ring (actually it’s clipped to my rebreather) and is well out of the way and never snags. I have another small yellow SMB loose in my other pocket. This has a bungee loop which is easy to hook on the upline and doesn’t come adrift when bouncing on the surface.


TL;DR
Spools are toys and shouldn’t be used for deploying SMBs. Use the right tool for the job, a ratchet reel.

 

[Wibble]

Clip knitting...

This is the incredibly irritating problem with spools; they self-unclip when they bounce. The clip hits the spool and with the leverage opens the gate and the spool drops into Nelson's locker.

BTW this is exacerbated by the shiny, expensive design of the Apeks spools. They use a flat string which is great (the reel pictured has 60m/200' of line), but it slips through the boltsnap.

The only way I found to stop this happening was to assemble the clip like this.

 

[seeker242]

Drop a spool and it continues dropping until the end of the line.

That is why a lot of people prefer neutrally buoyant spools, like from Halcyon. I've dropped one before, nothing happened. They are also quite easy to clip off on ascent. Even if it does unclip, it's not going anywhere. However, when I'm holding it, is impossible for it to unclip to begin with. If you show up at a GUE class with a ratchet reel instead of a spool, you will not pass the class.

 

[Wibble]

That is why a lot of people prefer neutrally buoyant spools, like from Halcyon. I've dropped one before, nothing happened. They are also quite easy to clip off on ascent. Even if it does unclip, it's not going anywhere. However, when I'm holding it, is impossible for it to unclip to begin with. If you show up at a GUE class with a ratchet reel instead of a spool, you will not pass the class.

Just as well there's no chance of that happening then. Not that they'd let anyone dive solo with a rebreather and sidemounted bailout cylinders (one either side), three computers and a CO2 SMB on 100m of line whilst running the dive using the TTS + dive time

It was fundies that started me with a spool. It was experience that taught me how flawed they were and got rid of them in favour of the right tool for the job: rachet reels


It's only a matter of time before you drop the spool. Took me years and hundreds of dives to see sense -- I seen the light

 

[rddvet]

Clip knitting...

This is the incredibly irritating problem with spools; they self-unclip when they bounce. The clip hits the spool and with the leverage opens the gate and the spool drops into Nelson's locker.

View attachment 683238 View attachment 683239




BTW this is exacerbated by the shiny, expensive design of the Apeks spools. They use a flat string which is great (the reel pictured has 60m/200' of line), but it slips through the boltsnap.

The only way I found to stop this happening was to assemble the clip like this.

View attachment 683240

That's why you don't clip them that way. Same thing can happen with a reel if you clip the double ender on the wrong. Sadly too many people aren't taught this and learn when they lose a spool or reel.
Ratchet reels have their own issues. They can seize up. If I'm not going to use a spool, I'd go to a traditional reel.

 

[seeker242]

It's only a matter of time before you drop the spool. Took me years and hundreds of dives to see sense -- I seen the light

Like I said I already did drop it and nothing happened. if I dropped it again nothing would happen again.

Spool are entirely appropriate for the type of diving that is discussed in this forum. Which obviously is not solo rebreather diving so solo rebreather diving isn’t really relevant.

 

[flymolo]

those apeks lifeline spools are way too expensive, and too heavy. apparently they aren't designed all that well either.

 

[Wibble]

those apeks lifeline spools are way too expensive, and too heavy. apparently they aren't designed all that well either.

They're small for the length of string. They also deploy extremely well with a very usable 'hole' shape. When winding in, they don't bunch up like a lot of the plastic spools do (which use the round string).

But when they drop, they go just faster than you can descend to catch them!