Yellow hoses and Yellow regulator Question

[ssssnake529]

Working on my set up. I am leaning toward a primary reg on a 5 foot hose, coupled with a necklaced secondary. I am favoring the "primary donate" method for sharing air, where I donate my primary and then switch to the necklaced secondary.

Is it general practice to have the "donate" regulator that you would donate to your buddy in an out of air situation either be yellow or to have a yellow hose? If a person sees a yellow regulator, will they rightly assume that that's the one they're going to receive if they need to share air?

I've noticed that octos are generally yellow and often have a yellow hose.

I've also noticed that in the videos I've seen of folks who have a long hose primary, short hose alternate, very few of them have yellow hoses or regulators. Most just have black. These folks, I assume, are all practicing the primary donate method for sharing air. (I have seen a few examples of folks with yellow hoses for their long hose primaries, but it's rare.)

Right now, my primary regulator is grey, but my alternate is yellow. If I am going to use a long hose primary, with a necklaced alternate, will it be a problem if the alternate regulator is yellow? I'm a bit worried about having a yellow regulator as an alternate if I'm planning on sharing my primary.

If I want to go with a long hose primary, necklaced short hose alternate, and I am planning on the primary donate method for sharing air, should I get a different secondary reg that is not yellow?

Hope these questions are intelligible. (I'm still learning the nomenclature for the equipment.)

 

[rick00001967]

i completely agree with your way of thinking.

i think if an agency teaches using a long hose / short hose configuration, and donating the primary, then that primary should have a yellow face on the reg and a yellow hose.

but you are correct that most will have two black. i do. but the only reason is because when i put together my SM rig i could not get my hands on a 7 ft yellow hose. otherwise i would have used a yellow one. my scubapro S600 regs offer different colour faces. yellow is one option.

i would not use a black primary reg on a long hose with a yellow reg on a short hose.

 

[tbone1004]

@ssssnake529 don't worry about color. Leave them as you want. You want to be proactive in these situations not reactive, so color won't really matter. I'd stay with whatever color hoses you want *black is traditional but if you like other colors then go for it*, but I wouldn't use color coding for safety

 

[graham p]

When I had my reg set up for primary donate (switched back to padi standard now due to covid) I had a 40" yellow primary hose and a 22" black necklaced secondary. Both my second stages are chrome with yellow labels on them. I used the yellow hose because I wanted to make it clearer for my dive partner kids to know which reg to take.
To contrast to that, my daughter uses the standard padi set up with an orange secondary on a black hose.
I think it doesn't matter what colour anything is, it's more important that your setup is discussed with your buddy during the pre-dive briefing.

Also there are probably internal differences between your grey and yellow second stages. I think most people on primary donate use identical second stages, if you wanted to try it with your kit I would put the yellow one on the necklace and the grey one on the long hose.
Hope this helps.

 

[Brett Hatch]

Hi,

I mostly agree with both of the posts above. Black primary + yellow octo is common for secondary donate. For primary donate, black + black is probably the most common. If you are going to have a yellow hose/reg, I think you'd be best off making it the one you plan to donate, rather than the one on a 2-foot hose which is attached to your head and would be upside down for another diver.

But at the end of the day, color should be a secondary concern to training, situation awareness, and communicating with your buddy. I do recreational dives with a primate donate setup w/ necklaced backup (both black). Whenever I dive with a buddy, I make sure to discuss ahead of time how donation works, which reg to take, let them know I will be perfectly fine if they yank the one out of my mouth (obv. not ideal, but better than grabbing the backup), and give them a chance to try it out topside. I think (hope) that this goes a longer way toward a better outcome than color coding would.

But if you are diving a color-coding scheme that is opposite from what other divers might expect, I think you're asking for problems.

Edit to add: Can you just use the yellow reg as your primary? If the answer is no, and the reason is because that reg is inferior to the grey one, consider getting a better reg for the alternate. You really don't want to be using a sucky regulator in an air-sharing situation. There are a few companies which make good 2nd stage regs at a good price, so there's no need to skimp. Deep6 for example makes good 2nd stages for like $120 - $140, which are what I use for both primary and secondary, singles or doubles.

 

[CuzzA]

FWIW a 60" hose sucks. If you insist on buying a long hose despite not being an overhead single file exit diver then get a 72" hose so you can comfortably stow the excess under something on your waist harness.

My first setup had a 60" hose. It now sits in a bin and I dive a 40" under my arm, nice and streamlined because I'm not doing single file exits out of caves or wrecks.

 

[rhwestfall]

I have a 7' yellow hose on my primary donate regulator....

I also have identical second stages....

 

[ssssnake529]

Thanks for all the input.

I think what I will do is move my current (yellow) octo to be my new primary, and put it on a 5 foot yellow hose. Will attach a bolt snap so that I can attach it to my chest d-ring when it's not in use.

My current primary (grey in color) will become my new secondary, and I will put it on a short, black hose, secured by a necklace.

This way, the reg I will donate (my yellow primary) will itself be yellow, and the hose is yellow, so this is consistent with the general practice of having the donated primary be yellow.

I realize that this is probably not necessary and I'm probably over-thinking things. It certainly is not a substitute for talking with your buddy and making sure you both are clear as to how the donate procedure will work, but I figure it can't hurt to code the colors this way.

 

[graham p]

Just going back to my comment that there are probably internal differences between your grey and yellow regulators, often the manufacturers make the work of breathing higher with the octo(yellow) versions of their regulators so that they dont free flow as easily. You may or may not notice. I change an internal spring in mine between normal and octo depending on what set up I'm using.

 

[Glenn Williams]

I don’t know why, but it seems that somewhere in scuba training something has been lost or just not taught or not been brought up for so long that it’s just not important.

Here’s what I mean. Yellow color can be seen as yellow or white under water. A fellow diver who has ran out of air and needs to buddy breathe can see that color and reach for it in a controlled (non panicked) situation. Black hoses tc cannot be readily seen.

There is a reason why our hoses are black and yellow and it’s not to please the masses. Normally above surface emergency egress is in red. Red cannot be seen below the water especially the deeper you go.

Yes it is our responsibility as divers to try to be proactive when we see a fellow diver in distress. At that time and place you can give either regulator to your buddy, and that is what we train to do. A panicked diver is going to be trying to get air either passively or aggressively as soon as possible.

A yellow hose can be seen. A black hose gets camouflaged with all your other gear. Also most if not all yellow hoses unless ordered different are longer that your primary black hoses.

I believe during training regardless of entity should emphasize that the yellow hose is there for your fellow diver in cases of emergency.

I use both regulators during diving to ensure they both work etc. I have a full face mask on a quick disconnect. In my circumstance a distressed diver will only have access to the yellow hose and attached regulator.

I may not have explained this eloquently enough but bottom line the colors are there for a reason.

Glenn