What equipment failures have you seen underwater?

[vaq]

Buddy failure......did the required pre-dive buddy checks....he
(accidently) turned my air off. Caught it well before trying to submerge

 

[imasinker]

My buddy had a massive free flow at 80 feet.
I have seen the end of an inflator hose pop off causing the wing to fill with water.
My drysuit inflator stuck open once and I quickly got it unstuck and closed.
Blown o-ring on a AL 80 at 30 feet.

 

[Lee Taylor]

Lots of minor failures that were simply annoying, but one major failure that could be a problem for people reading this board.

Some BCs still have an SS cable running inside the corregated hose from the inflator mouthpiece/LP hose connection up to the elbow where the corregated hose is attached to the BC fabric. At this elbow is a pressure release valve. To release gas from the BC the idea is that the diver tugs gently on the inflator mouthpiece/corregated hose, and the SS cable opens the valve, releasing gas through the valve at the elbow.

[Edit: This is the same "pull-to-dump" mechanism described by Diver0001 above...]

I watched a diver tug 'gently' on her corregated hose/inflator, only to see the entire corregated hose assembly pull out of the BC. Of course, instantly all the gas in her BC flooded out. She was holding the button down on the inflator mechanism attached to the hose, but it wasn't going to do her any good. She was sinking like a rock because she was overweighted.

Jettisoned her weightbelt, and got her up to the surface without incident.

Point is that those hose assemblies are held into the BC fabric only by pressure between two plastic disks and rubber washers. Not real sturdy, especially for a design where the diver is supposed to be tugging on the assembly.

First, I wouldn't own a BC that had this feature. Second, if you find yourself using one anyway, check to ensure that the elbow connection is screwed down tight.

Third, this sort of BC has other pressure release valves located in other places on the BC, and I encourage you to use these other pressure releases rather than tugging on the inflator hose!

(Divemasters from other charters told me they'd see the same sort of thing with multiple other divers yanking on their corregated hoses when they were ascending too fast.....)

FWIW,

Doc

Excellent information. Thanks for the post.

 

[captain]

Maybe I just have a bad memory but in 51 years I can't recall having or witnessing even one failure. It unbelievable the number of divers with very few dives who have seen so many problems. Or maybe I don't see minor problems as "failures"

 

[Sloth]

Maybe I just have a bad memory but in 51 years I can't recall having or witnessing even one failure. It unbelievable the number of divers with very few dives who have seen so many problems. Or maybe I don't see minor problems as "failures"

For me the definition would be any issue underwater that requires an immediate response and ends the dive.

So all those years in the business you never saw any equipment failure underwater from tourist divers on rental gear? Rental gear seems to be a common theme on failures.

 

[captndale]

Murphy's Law: "If it can fail it will fail."

I do not believe that there is a single piece of gear that I have not seen fail at one time or another. It is a fact of life that mechanical devices will fail. The important thing is how you handle the failure. If you calmly and effectively deal with a failure it really does not rise to the level of an emergency.

 

[captain]

For me the definition would be any issue underwater that requires an immediate response and ends the dive.

So all those years in the business you never saw any equipment failure underwater from tourist divers on rental gear? Rental gear seems to be a common theme on failures.

Then I would have to say I haven't had any or seen any.
When I was in the business almost all of my customers used their own gear.

 

[Slonda828]

I know others have said a bunch, but these are the ones I've personally experienced:

-Hp hose spool o-ring went bad and started leaking.

-Power inflator leaked causing slow but steady inflation. I just disconnected my power inflator hose and used my BC orally until dive was over. It ended up being that my first stage IP was set too high causing it to overpower my inflator.

-Mask strap broke

 

[Bob]

The power inflator on my Ranger "ran away" on a night dive in Bonaire. I had just added a shot of air to my BC and the power inflator hung open. After realizing what was happening, I unclipped the LPIH, dumped air from my BC, and continued the dive. almtree: Bob

 

[texdiveguy]

Have made many dives and I have too been lucky in experiencing myself only 'minor' issues in the water. Also have not seen any life/death situation underwater during my dives. I have witnessed several near drownings while in the water/surface and ending a dive.