Wing inflation using either diluent or drysuit cylinder

[billgraham]

I'm not currently diving the CCR (slowly getting back into diving) but I recall that my first cave dives with a backmount CCR with 19's for dil and O-2 were an eye opener! The first thing to look at is weighting. I was able to shed a couple of pounds (3 or 4) and that made a massive difference in my dil usage. I was sidemounting 40's or 80's for bailout, and I'd leave an LP hose on those bungeed to the tank, and run the wing off the other one. I've never used an entire 6 cu foot suit inflation bottle on one dive. If your bailouts are filled with expensive gas, it's gonna cost ya, I guess! With the sidemount CCR, my dil bottle was typically an hp 100, so no issues running the wing or running out.

 

[kensuf]

I'm not currently diving the CCR (slowly getting back into diving) but I recall that my first cave dives with a backmount CCR with 19's for dil and O-2 were an eye opener! The first thing to look at is weighting. I was able to shed a couple of pounds (3 or 4) and that made a massive difference in my dil usage. I was sidemounting 40's or 80's for bailout, and I'd leave an LP hose on those bungeed to the tank, and run the wing off the other one. I've never used an entire 6 cu foot suit inflation bottle on one dive. If your bailouts are filled with expensive gas, it's gonna cost ya, I guess! With the sidemount CCR, my dil bottle was typically an hp 100, so no issues running the wing or running out.

Many of us use off-board gases for DIL and a 3L (or 19) strictly for drysuit and wing inflation while cave diving due to some of the saw-tooth profiles of some of our caves. This is a profile from a little scooter ride in Manatee Springs, bouncing up and down from 100' to 30' a few times would chew through a little on-board DIL bottle.

 

[billgraham]

Many of us use off-board gases for DIL and a 3L (or 19) strictly for drysuit and wing inflation while cave diving due to some of the saw-tooth profiles of some of our caves. This is a profile from a little scooter ride in Manatee Springs, bouncing up and down from 100' to 30' a few times would chew through a little on-board DIL bottle.

Yeah, it's something that just doesn't become a consideration until you start going up and down fifty feet multiple times on a dive. It's not going to happen on any other kind of dive! I was shocked how much of a difference it made when I was able to really dial in the weighting.

 

[Dusty123]

So what are people using for regulators in cold water with argon setups? Or is it too little gas to matter if its piston or sealed? I have only used bailout for it in shallow cave stuff.

 

[Wibble]

So what are people using for regulators in cold water with argon setups? Or is it too little gas to matter if its piston or sealed? I have only used bailout for it in shallow cave stuff.

A suit inflate regulator. Currently it is an Apeks DS4 as all my regulators are Apeks and thus interchangeable.

Used a cheap suit inflate regulator for years until it began to leak. Currently doing a lot of cold deeper diving and need reliability.


Regarding Argon. Nobody uses it. Air's all that's needed.

 

[GF99/99]

A suit inflate regulator. Currently it is an Apeks DS4 as all my regulators are Apeks and thus interchangeable.

Used a cheap suit inflate regulator for years until it began to leak. Currently doing a lot of cold deeper diving and need reliability.

+1 also use DS4's or US4's for inflation regs, they work great. Same thing I have about a dozen variations of Apeks regs so keeps servicing/spare parts easy as they all use the same parts. Plus all my dive buddies have Apeks as well so I can always beg, barrow or steal from them.

 

[macado]

So what are people using for regulators in cold water with argon setups? Or is it too little gas to matter if its piston or sealed? I have only used bailout for it in shallow cave stuff.

I have an Apeks US4 (unsealed) and generic Highland piston regulator that I use for suit inflation bottles I've used both in cold water (34-39f / 1-4c) pretty regularly with no issues. There is always a chance they'll freeze but I have not personally had issues perhaps because it's so low volume/low flow.

Otherwise for shallow stuff until 100ft or so I run off bailouts which use Apeks DS4s and DSTs.

 

[flymolo]

I’m using a scubapro mk2 I picked up for cheap off FB.

i haven’t had an issue using unsealed piston regs for inflation in cold water and I typically dive in mid 40ish degree waters

 

[Snusmumrik]

My 5 cents. I've prefer to use off-board DIL to inflate wing and suit, onboard 2l cylinder was used as backup inflation and DIL source.
Off-board 1st stage IP is set to 8,5 bar, onboard to 6,5 bar, one-way valve and QD on offboard feed line, so off-board force on-board to close when line is pressurized, but i can disconnect off-board or simply close valve.