what the hell is a the big deal about DIN, what is it?

[duncan1958]

Another consideration is that with din fitting is with the O ring .On din fitting the O ring is on your gear so to speak, so you should know the condition of your gear right.
this is with the travelling diver and rented cylinders ok.
Now with the yoke / A clamp fitting the O ring is in the cylinder so it falls to the rental / dive operation to maintain change the O ring,it is a small detail that can and is often over looked, i have had and seen a number of leaking O rings not bad leaks but i would prefer not to have any air escaping from the cylinder.
Sure you should as a prudent diver carry spares,such as O rings but for your kit not the dive op or rental op.
I use mainly DIN but when away use an adapter if no DIN available.

 

[Web Monkey]

There are all sorts of technical arguments for using DIN, however for recreational diving, in the US and Carribean, you'll probably want a regulator configured for a yoke (non-DIN) tank, since pretty much all the rental tanks are yoke.

If you buy a DIN reg, you'll also need to buy an adapter to make it work on tanks with yoke valves.

Terry

I have been diving for 6 months now and have around fifty dives under my belt, and am slowly accumulating all of my gear with plenty of deliberation but this is driving my nuts - what is the REAL difference between a yoke or a DIN 1st stage - I see a shape difference (only in pics - haven't gotten my hands on one in real life) but what is the deal ? How do they work, is it differnt than a yoke?...good, bad? and oh yeah don't just say one better - I want to know WHY? sorry for the rant (please imagine the smiley pulling out her hair)

 

[suziq239]

Thanks everybody - finally got some great information that is helpful in this decision:14:

 

[Walter]

Another consideration is that with din fitting is with the O ring .On din fitting the O ring is on your gear so to speak, so you should know the condition of your gear right.

Yeah and you have to be careful because that O-ring falls out of the regulator pretty easily.

 

[MantaRey]

Correct me if I'm wrong: but word has it that DIN is starting to get phased out.

The hp argument no longer applies as newer first stages with yoke (such as the MK25) as well as newer yoke valves on tanks can easily withstand the hp. And on some tanks with a simple twist of an allen wrench you can have a tank which is capable of connecting to both a yoke or a DIN regulator.

 

[PerroneFord]

Phased out? The reason those "allen wrench" tricks work is because you have a 200bar DIN connection with a screw-in yoke adaptor.

And the HP argument still applies. And the entanglement issues aren't going away either.

 

[Luis H]

DIN fittings have many of the advantages that have been described above but it also have some disadvantages. They work fine if you own both the regulator and the tank valves and the threads in both are in good shape, but they are very susceptible to dirt, sand and wear on the threads.

More than once I have had to use a wrench to take apart a DIN connection after a dive, and no, I did not over tighten it. The chrome on the threads was worn and I have had to replace DIN valves and at least once I have replaced the male threaded DIN connection on a Poseidon regulator.

Most rental tank use yoke and that is a very good thing. The last thing you want to do is insert your nice new DIN threads into a rental tank with threads that are in less than optimal conditions.

There were even times when I preferred to use my DIN to yoke adapter rather than have the shops DIN fitting grind dirt into my DIN valves. And I do have adapters to convert both ways.

DIN valves with the hollow female cavity are actually more susceptible to impact than a joke valve. Don’t ever let a dive shop tech use wrench on the sides of a valve (any valve fro that matter); it will push the edge of DIN cavity in. It almost ruined one of my valves before I saw the guy.

I am not sure when the yoke was considered only good for low pressure, but I have yokes stamped 4000 psi and the Cousteau team used yokes in their 5000 psi tank sets (the four tank set inside their silver shell).

I have been using DIN connections for over 35 years and they are great, but they do have there trade offs. As an example, my 30+ year old yoke connections will probably outlast most DIN fittings (with the same amount of use) by several decades. I realize that is not a concern to someone who considers a 10 year old regulator as old.

If you look at this link you can see two sets of doubles with DIN valves
(http://vintagedoublehose.com/forum/gallery2.php?g2_itemId=174 ).
One is a set of Poseidon from the early 60’s and the other is Draeger from 1957. One of the valves and the yoke had to be replaced on the Draeger. You can also see the original Draeger double tank manifold with the original DIN fittings with phenolic gaskets (instead of O-rings) next to some vintage Poseidon regulators.

I don’t need to repeat all the advantages of the DIN connections mentioned above. But, when you use them make sure they are clean and make sure that both threads and interface areas are in good shape, or when you pressurize the connection the questionable thread can ruin the other one.

 

[Walter]

Luis, thanks for an excellent post!

 

[drbill]

I dive with DIN almost all the time. In addition to what others have said, I have had o-rings blow several times on yoke rigs (usually rental equipment) but never (over a much larger number of dives) on my DIN rig.

In addition, you can far more easily adapt a DIN reg to yoke than vice-versa. With many newer tanks (mostly steel) coming out with DIN/yoke valves, I think DIN makes more sense.

 

[LSDeep]

just a little addition DIN stands for Deutsche Industry Norm (german industry standard) and it is in europe the most common connector system (in many areas you will have trouble to find adapter. so while it has an exotic touch in the americas usually thought of in combination with tech diving it is the standard in europe and the yoke connector is looked at as a funny american invention to be different