I am going to post this in Basic, if it needs to be moved, please do. So then, I was diving a just serviced (by me) G250, brand spanking new Mark 11 (around 50 dives since new) and new DGX BCI on a night dive in Cozumel, Paradise Reef. Shallow, maybe 30 feet, 40 maximum maybe. Dive was going well seeing the usual critters and on the look for the elusive octopus. Nothing unusual. Nitrox 32% mix, regulator performing wonderfully for previous four days. I found a little critter and began to photo and of course, my group moved a little off due to the current. I decided they (and buddy) were getting too far so I left the critter and began moving their way, not that far. Noted my spg was reading 1200 psi so I wanted to group up before ascent. Then no air, none. Just like that. The last breath, I may have noted a flutter but thought nothing of it. Hmmm, well, hmmm. A moment of disbelief, third dive of the day so I did want to do a bit of a safety stop. Am I imagining this? Inhaled again, absolutely nothing. Okay, let's not delay switching regs like in my other event (not going into here from a few years back, much deeper though) so I went to my BCI, got one little bit of a breath and nothing. Started up. Got to 15 feet, now about a minute since last full breath. Checked my Shearwater, it was in safety stop and was counting down. Tried to inhale again and got another little bit of air. Now about a minute and half since last good breath. I wanted some air really bad by about then so now at 2 minutes approximate since last breath I decided to surface and hit the surface I would say at 2:15 since last breath. Hit inflator button and very little to nothing. Spit reg out and clipped it off, took some sweet breaths, orally inflated and just hung there a moment resting and ventilating and mulling the event over. Boat swung over and picked me up. Tank was at 1000 psi on the boat. Double checked with another regulator with both spg and AI, 1000 psi! No doubt. Oh, yes, we did check the valve to be full on and it was. No roll off, no partial valve. And with the reg removed air flowed from the tank as normal.
It being dark now I did not see anything wrong and after turning the tank valve on and off the regulator began to function again but with a huge spg drop with each cycle. So I get back to the room, toss the reg aside and grab my Mark 17E and G260 set for the next day of diving and went to eat. Next day after dives complete I got back to looking into what went wrong. Guess what I found? Two things actually. One, the LP regulator hose was loose and the O-ring was partially extruded but not leaking. Then I looked at the regulator sintered filter to see if there was some sort of crud or FOD. Yep, there it was, a destroyed tank O-ring was completely shoved into the cone of the sintered filter obscuring the inlet of air.
So, there was an O-ring on the tank and it passed pre dive leak check. Pre dive spg check there was no unusual spg drop or indication nor during the 45 minutes in the water until the sudden no air event. So where did the O-ring come from, well, beats the cxxp out of me because it was NOT in there before the dive. The tank O-ring was in place before, during and after event. My two guess are that the O-ring may have come from the previous tank when the crew blew out the cap and that it was not seen in the dark when the regulator was installed and then somehow getting into the filter cone? Or, at the fill station an O-ring was accidentally shoved into the valve during fill and was in the valve dip tube and that the "flutter" I noted on the last good breath was that O-ring being shoved into my regulator filter. Or, I am at a loss.
After several tests and checking the Mark 11/G250/BCI on a near empty tank the regulator was performing normally and I resumed using it. Of course having removed the destroyed O-ring. The cleaning custodian unfortunately wiped the counter and I do not have the O-ring. I guess if one dives long enough weird things can happen. It was not such a big event due to being on a shallow reef with no deco obligation. Had I been on the wall, in a deep swim through, who knows. I do look at and check my regulator prior to diving. In the dark I guess I did not see the O-ring there but that is unlikely therefore I favor the hypothesis that the O-ring was not there but was inside the tank. Because I did look, but, you know, I did not have my glasses on, it was getting dark, everyone was ribbing each other, the usual distracting fun banter we all love. So -----.
My take aways:
Check filter before installing the regulator
Check hoses tight during pre dive checks
Make sure valve is full on
Test for spg drop when cycled
XHopeX there is no FOD in the provided tank
Well, we could dive doubles always or have Y valves with two complete regulators or have an auxiliary pony bottle type system. I am not advocating for any of that. Or keep your buddy at arms length. That right there is on me because the critter was much more cute than my sorta-buddy and I wanted a good picture, which turns out the photo sucked as usual. There you go.
It being dark now I did not see anything wrong and after turning the tank valve on and off the regulator began to function again but with a huge spg drop with each cycle. So I get back to the room, toss the reg aside and grab my Mark 17E and G260 set for the next day of diving and went to eat. Next day after dives complete I got back to looking into what went wrong. Guess what I found? Two things actually. One, the LP regulator hose was loose and the O-ring was partially extruded but not leaking. Then I looked at the regulator sintered filter to see if there was some sort of crud or FOD. Yep, there it was, a destroyed tank O-ring was completely shoved into the cone of the sintered filter obscuring the inlet of air.
So, there was an O-ring on the tank and it passed pre dive leak check. Pre dive spg check there was no unusual spg drop or indication nor during the 45 minutes in the water until the sudden no air event. So where did the O-ring come from, well, beats the cxxp out of me because it was NOT in there before the dive. The tank O-ring was in place before, during and after event. My two guess are that the O-ring may have come from the previous tank when the crew blew out the cap and that it was not seen in the dark when the regulator was installed and then somehow getting into the filter cone? Or, at the fill station an O-ring was accidentally shoved into the valve during fill and was in the valve dip tube and that the "flutter" I noted on the last good breath was that O-ring being shoved into my regulator filter. Or, I am at a loss.
After several tests and checking the Mark 11/G250/BCI on a near empty tank the regulator was performing normally and I resumed using it. Of course having removed the destroyed O-ring. The cleaning custodian unfortunately wiped the counter and I do not have the O-ring. I guess if one dives long enough weird things can happen. It was not such a big event due to being on a shallow reef with no deco obligation. Had I been on the wall, in a deep swim through, who knows. I do look at and check my regulator prior to diving. In the dark I guess I did not see the O-ring there but that is unlikely therefore I favor the hypothesis that the O-ring was not there but was inside the tank. Because I did look, but, you know, I did not have my glasses on, it was getting dark, everyone was ribbing each other, the usual distracting fun banter we all love. So -----.
My take aways:
Check filter before installing the regulator
Check hoses tight during pre dive checks
Make sure valve is full on
Test for spg drop when cycled
XHopeX there is no FOD in the provided tank
Well, we could dive doubles always or have Y valves with two complete regulators or have an auxiliary pony bottle type system. I am not advocating for any of that. Or keep your buddy at arms length. That right there is on me because the critter was much more cute than my sorta-buddy and I wanted a good picture, which turns out the photo sucked as usual. There you go.
. Do not just sit there like a dunce wondering why my new regulator is not giving me any air, like WT_!
