Wing inflation using either diluent or drysuit cylinder

[grantctobin]

Question: Does anyone know of a TWO BUTTON wing inflate valve?

Meaning two separate BCD nipples and buttons on a single wing inflate corrugated hose.

Of all the solutions mentioned this might be the most ridiculous one. “Ut oh wing self inflating let’s now have to turn off two separate valves or try to disconnect two different inflator hoses.”

You could probably build a splitter and run two different IPs to ensure the gas you want used first gets used first. I don’t think this is a smart or consistent or common idea.

 

[Wibble]

Of all the solutions mentioned this might be the most ridiculous one. “Ut oh wing self inflating let’s now have to turn off two separate valves or try to disconnect two different inflator hoses.”

You could probably build a splitter and run two different IPs to ensure the gas you want used first gets used first. I don’t think this is a smart or consistent or common idea.

Completely agree.

Must admit that the more you dig into this, the more you realise it's a 'hard' problem. Sticking with the drysuit on its own cylinder with wing on the dil, whilst "expensive" it is by far the most simple and redundant solution.


All of which is why it's good to ask on here as it's cheap, doesn't cost lives and we all learn.

@marsh9077 - great suggestions, but require considerable experience and being at the top of your game.

 

[Wibble]

Update: Have not done anything to change the wing inflation; the arguments above were great to clarify my thoughts.

I have added an ADV shut-off valve which will prevent the ADV from diluting my loop when at decompression. When diving with a hypoxic diluent, a small injection of diluent has a large effect on the PPO2 in the loop requiring another O2 flush -- i.e. uses a small amount of diluent but wastes a lot of oxygen.

 

[macado]

What problem are trying to solve here? I did read your post but maybe I missed something. Not trying to be judgmental or anything I just want to understand the issue at hand.

The amount of diluent that goes into a wing should be really minuscule. It does really not factor into the equation for gas consumption; I personally find I use more drysuit inflation than wing inflation but maybe that's just me. Unless you're doing crazy saw-tooth profiles or insanely overweighted. This seem to be the norm for most people.

I'm a cheap bastard but I have never once thought about the amount of gas (trimix) that goes into my wing as I barely use it on the bottom. I see no need to change my wing inflation to another cylinder and I really don't see the benefit except for specialized applications.

I do run my drysuit offboard either via a nitrox bailout cylinder for shallow (~30-40m) dives or small inflation bottle (AL6/AL9) for trimix diving. I can get ~1.5-2 60m dives on a AL6 pretty easily if I am sparse with suit gas but I personally like to be warm. I usually just bring 2 AL6s on the boat. For dives below 60m I'll swap out to another AL6 or use a larger inflation bottle. I actually hate larger inflation bottles but they are definitely a good idea for deeper dives or certain profiles. I should probably mention that I do fill my AL tanks to 3200-3250psi (220-225bar). It helps a little bit for AL6s (which usually get hot filled by some dive shops) and I don't really worry about the pressure in my bailouts unless they drop below ~180bar but my overfilling them slightly they stay most at fill pressure for season or two.

There are some people that do run their suit and wing inflation for the same source. To be blunt - I think it's farm animal stupid, especially for ocean diving. I am less concerned with cave diving and that is where I see that most often but you typically have a floor and ceiling in both of the scenarios. I am really a big proponent of having two separate (redundant) sources of inflation.

 

[Wibble]

Was overthinking it TBH. Rebreathers are configured with diluent into the wing for a reason, simplicity and redundancy. I originally thought it would be simple to use air in the wing. Not so without far more complexity (plumbing) or removing redundancy.

Working on diluent consumption reduction as my next goal for personal development.

 

[macado]

Working on diluent consumption reduction as my next goal for personal development.

I think at some point diluent consumption is what it is. It's good to reduce but it's ultimately there for you to use if that makes sense.

Things that have always helped me are to swim around things as opposed to going up and down. Maybe there's no need to go visit the mast on a wreck or go all the way to the sand/mud. Sometimes saw-tooth profiles are unavoidable in caves and other scenarios.

You had already mentioned this but I've also found an overly sensitive ADV can really mess with diluent consumption. I really do not like ADVs but I'm probably in the minority. I don't have one on my Defender, permanently disabled the one on my SF2 and have the one on my rEvo completely dialed down. I like to be completely in control of my gas additions.

Even simple things like mask leaks can kill diluent. I watched a guy completely empty his diluent at 60m because the skirt of his mask was torn and he kept trying to clear it.

 

[Tassi Devil Diver]

From time to time I use 2 suit inflation bottle (1.1L?), one for the wing and one for drysuit, works out a pretty neat set up with a suit inflation bottle on each side of the rEvo held in place with a side fixation bracket.

 

[broncobowsher]

I'm toying the idea of bringing my suit bottle on my next trip to Truk. For wing air.

 

[Wibble]

I'm toying the idea of bringing my suit bottle on my next trip to Truk. For wing air.

What's the price of (CCR) helium like there? Expensive, or OMG expensive?

Could see it being pretty straightforward to disconnect the diluent hose and plug in the drysuit inflate on a "permanent" basis.

 

[broncobowsher]

OMG expensive. No idea what the current rates are (the place still isn't open yet). It was a stack of $100 last time.