What the heck is a H valve?

[texdiveguy]

Leo I am loosing were you are taking this thread????? The org. poster was asking simply about what an H-valve was and if it was in the same catagory as pony bottles and doubles as alt. gas sources. That has been answered in posts above several times,,,,,I saw nothing concerning depth//deco practices or gas blends in the org. post question. Hmmmmmmmmmm

 

[Thalassamania]

Sorry, in a sense I guess I did. The question I was getting at is, "what use is an H-valve?"

 

[BIGSAGE136]

Keep diving:lol:

 

[texdiveguy]

Sorry, in a sense I guess I did. The question I was getting at is, "what use is an H-valve?"

Ok.... I know you know what a H-valve is used for, just that in your system/style it does not have a place,,,,that is cool.....we each have to make choices that best suit our indv. diving gear and needs. The simple of it is in my veiw, is the H-valve is the middle ground between the standard K and an isolation manifold doubles set.

 

[Matt P]

No - I don't dive special mixes. I don't have plans to do that. I don't even dive Nitrox. I draw a distinction between a pony and a deco bottle. In this case when I say pony I mean a 19, 30, 40 ft (or whichever size) bottle of air.

 

[Matt P]

You know, its that same old single engine vs. twin engine thing. Some people only want to fly twins while others think its a just a case of having twice as many things that can go wrong.

I see what you're saying. If an o-ring breaks (or some other sort of failure) on a standard 1st stage the H valve could fix that problem. But, the same sort of thing could possibly happen at the connection point where the H valve meets the tank. In which case you're back in the same situation as you were with the standard 1st stage set-up.

I think at this point getting trained on diving a pony is probably the answer until I decide to move to doubles.

thanks again

 

[Thalassamania]

Yes I can see that now. But then why not just jump to smaller doubles?

 

[karstdvr]

. But, the same sort of thing could possibly happen at the connection point where the H valve meets the tank.

Consider a Y or sling shot valve,that would eliminate that problem.

 

[Matt P]

Yes I can see that now. But then why not just jump to smaller doubles?

My feelings on doubles are that I'm not sure I could swim them to the surface if I lost all bouyancy. I know of a guy whose wing burst on him at depth. He had doubles and essentially had to pull himself hand-over-hand up the anchor line. Fortunately, he was near the anchor line when it happened.

There may be doubles where that wouldn't be a problem. I've never looked. If so, that would be great. I'd be open to diving them. But, my next question would be - is the dive boat going to let me bring 2 sets of doubles?

 

[Thalassamania]

I used to have a double set of aluminum 50s and I loved them (I often dive triple 30s right now, but that's a single regulator). I'm assuming that one could do the same thing with any of many Al tanks out there (40, 45, 63, 80, etc.) that would allow one to maintain the "standard" package desired in a rather comfortable form.

How they would work out on a commercial dive boat is, however, an interesting question, that perhaps someone else could comment on.