To Boot or not to Boot.

[Mark Vlahos]

I recently removed mine. My first stage has the ports on a basically horizonal orientation, not around the axis of a circle, so sharp bends are not a problem with my particular regulator. For me the boots were more of an obstacle than a help, so I ditched them.

Mark Vlahos

 

[DA Aquamaster]

From reading some technical threads, seems like many folks with doubles dont use boots because they interfere with hose configuration. I have also heard mention that the boots are only needed by clumsy recreational divers like us....

JAG

The "interfere with proper hose routing" issue is pretty much synonomous with "can't get the hose to bend tight enough with them on". This is ok only if you are willing to replace the hoses every couple years as preventive maintenence at $20-$30 each. For the rest of the world, hose protectors make a lot of sense.

Technical divers also tend to avoid tank boots on doubles to reduce a potential source of snags and restriction. This obviously means the tanks are no longer self standing.

Both issues are very much a cost benefit thing and like all cost benefit analysis issues they make sense in some situations and don't make sense in others. An individual diver really needs to take an informed look at the costs and benefits in their own diving and make their own decision.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

I guess i've been using the wrong boots as mine wouldn't slide back. in fact they were quite difficult to remove. i fear i would do more damage to the hose connector by regular "sliding" of the boot vs. leaving it alone.

There are some older designs around that are very stiff and very snug making inspection difficult. These also tend to have limited water flow through them are are the type most likely to cause salt buildup and corrosion issues. Most of these type are heated in water to install and are intended to be cut off if ever removed. Removal is usually needed on some to inspect the hose properly as they will hardly slide at all.

A softer hose protector with larger channels for water flow makes a lot more sense and should be used instead. The downside is that you may have to slide them up over the fitting now and then as they don't stay in place as well.

 

[CBulla]

I personally use soft boots that I can pull back when I clean my gear. I've seen the effects of the "bent to far" hose first hand when one of those hoses basically collapsed and my BC didnt inflate when I expected it to.. it was the only hose without a boot on it. Fortunately it wasn't an emergency situation and after a few breaths into the manual inflate I was doing what I wanted - just floating on the surface for a minute to get my bearings before swimming in.

 

[SueMermaid]

My gear is not always under my control, there is generally some boob gearing up next to my stuff, so you never know who's going to knock your tank over and kink the hoses. I use boots and make sure I rinse under them after a SW dive.