Upgrade to a longer primary hose

[jringold]

My wife and I both have Scubapro BCD’s (Bella and Glide X) with Air2’s. When we practice sharing air, the procedure is not really smooth. I am considering changing out both stock primary hoses (using Scubapro MK21/S560) to a 40” (and add a right angle adapter on the 2nd stage end). Then we would route the hose under our right arm. It seems like this would make sharing air much smoother. Just wondering if anyone else has done this or is this a moronic idea?

I know that some people take issue with the length of the Air2/inflator hose. It works well for us though. It just seems like passing the primary and the need to say within a couple of inches keeps it from being a really smooth procedure.


Take care!

 

[Rusty Roo]

have seen people do this, not 100% on primary hose length but you do what works.

 

[leadduck]

I see no problem with putting a 40" hose to the primary when you want to donate that; DIR cave/wreck divers have even 5' or 7' hoses there. The longer the hose the more convenient it is, but air sharing divers better stay very close when going up. There were accidents when a stressed receiving diver bailed out and pulled the helpless donating diver to the surface on the regulator hose.

By making the hose longer you won't get rid of the potential hazards of the donating diver having to switch his regulator when passing the primary in a non-training, real, stressful air sharing situation: the donor may fail to switch correctly; the receiving diver may want to take the regulator quickly instead of waiting for it to be given to him, but there's no octopus that he can simply take without endangering the donator. Air2 is a convenience that makes travel gear lighter by combining the secondary regulator with the inflator. But there are safety reasons why the concept hasn't become morer popular in open water diving since it was introduced in 1979.

 

[uncfnp]

36 to 40 inch primary hose becoming more and more common for recreational diving, especially in divers that use Air 2 type alternates or bungeed backups. I started with elbow then switched to swivel. Both work well.

 

[g1138]

44in is the max length you can go universally, so I would recommend that.

40in is great, but you're still separated pretty close during an air share that UW swimming and maneuvering will make you slightly wish you had an extra inch or two.

You'll want to tie a bolt snap to it with either length, so when you're walking, gearing up, or surface swimming it won't be loose and dangling everywhere.

I don't recommend swivels if you were thinking that. OmniSwivel is the most durable in my mind and cost $80. They recommend servicing every 200 dives or 2 years, which get's pricey and not all shops know of this or have the tool kit. Generic ($20) doesn't seem to fair as long at all comparatively, from what I've heard.

Additionally you don't utilize all swivel points in a swivel for your purpose. You really only need 2. Routing a hose over the shoulder, a swivel will come in handy for a very short hose and utilize all 3 points of swivel, that's the intended purpose.

Angle adapters take 1 single -010 oring for servicing and you can do it yourself with an O-ring pick.

 

[tbone1004]

44" can get a little unwieldy especially in a stab jacket, but 40" are fine. What length do you have now?
SCUBA Diving Equipment for Technical, Sidemount, Rebreather, Wreck and Cave Diving: Dive Rite, Inc - Product Catalog - XT Advanced Open Water

basically follow that and you'll be good to go. With an Air2 assuming you aren't in a drysuit, you can rotate the first stage so it is horizontal and that helps a lot with hose streamlining, but you have to get the valve up to where you can reach it which most standard BC's don't allow

 

[Littlerayray]

Buddy breathing is a non recommended practice it's good to know how to do but dangerous that being said lengthening your primary is inviting that hose to get snagged on something and pulled out of your mouth if you want to share air I would recommend getting a rubber strap on your tank and getting a longer October the excess hose gets tucked into your strap on the tank

 

[uncfnp]

Buddy breathing is a non recommended practice it's good to know how to do but dangerous that being said lengthening your primary is inviting that hose to get snagged on something and pulled out of your mouth if you want to share air I would recommend getting a rubber strap on your tank and getting a longer October the excess hose gets tucked into your strap on the tank

Huh? He is not talking about buddy breathing but rather air sharing where the primary is donated (hence longer hose) to the OOG diver then he takes his Air 2 as his primary. This is the recreational dive version of the long hose setup but instead of the bungeed backup he is using an Air 2.

As for swivel, perfectly acceptable. All that I have seen come with one rebuild kit. And at 25 dollars you can replace instead of rebuild if you choose...
Cave Adventurers - Swivel - Marianna, Florida USA - Never Undersold! This is the one I use on my sidemount cave rig as well.

Both work, fixed and swivel. Just a matter of personal preference and comfort.

 

[Littlerayray]

Well why not just give the secondary then and lengthen the secondary

 

[Dnaber]

I actually just upgraded to a 40" hose and glad I did. My issue was every time I turned my head to the left I felt the restriction from the shorter hose. Also thanks to g1138 for the suggestion of the bolt snap. I can see where that could work in my setup.