Z-system gas switching

[wedivebc]

I adapted the Z-system to my Ranger bp/w. I am the only SM in a sea of BM buddies, so the set up works well for me. I have isolatable distribution block/manifold, but also bungee a 40" hose and 2nd stage to each first stage for redundant redundancy for emergency use. If something REALLY bad happens, unplug the QC6 and breathe from the emergency reg. YES, I know then I basically have the original SM set up, but the key is using a system that works for your style of diving. There is no ONE SYSTEM.

I think you are on the right track but to be really safe wouldn't it be better if you had long hoses on all your second stages? That way if your OC buddies had simultaneous failures you could donate gas to all of them.

 

[jale]

Hello,
If I follow correctly in the am you dive BM DIR style with all deco on the left and in the pm you SM with deco on both side. In the am you don't touch the valves of the bottom gas (except flow check) and in the pm, you open and close bottom gas tanks each time you switch.
Am I right?
Of course it is your call but seems a bit "too exotic" to me
Enjoy Truk!
Jale

Back to topic:


Another note/comment when doing two bottle deco on technical Z-sidemount:
I'm clipping the two AL40 deco bottles, one on each side for better balance --and using the PADI DSAT mnemonic to keep track of them: "Right side Rich" for Oxygen bottle, and "Left side Lean" for Eanx50


Still breathing using separate conventional dedicated individual regs for the deco bottles and NOT plugging in via QC6 into distribution block.

Good to see ya posting here again Richard (rjack321) --you keep on telling me your opinion from over ten thousand miles across the Pacific what you think my reality & experience is here on Z-system & a mixed team diving the wrecks of Truk Lagoon; and your rhetoric of the economic worth of spending money on such a system . . .(Everything is fine I'm having fun regardless of your misgivings). . .

P.S> It's Thurs 22Nov here in Chuuk: An Early Happy Thanksgiving to Y'all!

 

[Karl_H]

the key is using a system that works for your style of diving. There is no ONE SYSTEM.

I hear what you are getting at but isn't 'one system' the whole point of the UTD Z-system manifold?

I was a huge fan of UTD for a while, to the point where I even registered for their IDC programme. I was a little sceptical on the manifold and was surprised to see how it was pushed and pushed without a real pause for thought to the point I really started to doubt the whole philosophy of UTD was practically 'Unload The Dollars' and not anything to do with team diving. I think Zuba was the final straw.

I still like some of the UTD equipment, but that not suprising given they are heading towards an equipment company with a few courses rather than the other way around?

On the Rich-Right, Lean-Left comment, I really don't see a huge issue with left and right staging in independent doubles, using a bungeed hose on the right tank gives very little risk of trapping the long hose, while one additional tank doesn't really have much impact when scootering in sidemount. Ironically, using a z-manifold puts the long hose trapping back on the agenda so all stages/decos should go on the left? But yet we're still seeing most UTD courses in sidemount using both the stage bottles and deco bottles on both the right and the left? Thats one that confuses me, I'm not sure if there's an easy answer I've missed.

On the main topic I'd avoid using the Z-system manifold and QC6 to switch gas, it's an accident waiting to happen. The additional contingency you have by using an independent regulator on the deco/stage bottle is worth every single bit of the 'inconvenience' of it been there. the only time I'd look at using another gas via plug-in connection is where there is no other option - changing diluent on CCR for example.

 

[Kevrumbo]

Now in Vanuatu diving the SS President Coolidge all on Z-system sidemount; been in Chuuk/Palau for October (thoughts & prayers for my dive guide friends in Palau right now Re: Typhoon Bopha), Chuuk again last month November --and returning to Chuuk to close out the year after two weeks here in Santo Vanuatu.

No "QC6 accidents" waiting to happen have occurred and I don't expect any to happen & confident in the training I've received to deal with such a contingency --btw QC6 diluent changes are done all the time on CCR just like you said above: Where are the reports & instances of QC6 failures in that implementation???

And no long hose trapping on Z-system sidemount with two tanks because I tuck the excess length in my waist belt in front of the tanks (AG taught this option during the training course) --and no, I have not cut the long hose yet on jagged metal sliding into engine rooms, crew-spaces and other confined areas of the WWII wrecks I've been diving on (about the only thing I'm really worried & really careful preventing).

This is practical reality, adaptive & experience diving for months with initial basic training on the Z-system, but now out here overseas on my own with minimal support, and not just idle speculation of worst case & unlikely scenarios like in most of the rebuttal posts & rhetoric above. . .

 

[Karl_H]

No "QC6 accidents" waiting to happen have occurred and I don't expect any to happen & confident in the training I've received to deal with such a contingency --btw QC6 diluent changes are done all the time on CCR just like you said above: Where are the reports & instances of QC6 failures in that implementation???

The CCR dilluent changes are done, but certainly not all the time - we're talking rare occurrences only. Given you have direct read out on PPO2 from the CCR head so you know exactly what your are breathing and can quickly figure out whats injecting into the loop it's not really the same as switching in OC in my opinion?

You said yourself you don't use the z-system for gas switches though right? It just seems like a solution to a problem that doesn't exist and introduces a whole boat load of additional problems.

Tucking the hose in the belt or trapping under the front mounted knife is standard for most forms of long hose diving and doesn't prevent the hose been trapped, it helps, I'll agree but it's just another unnecessary problem which didn't really need solving?

In short I think we all agree that necessity is the mother of invention, but don't you think there's a similar link between greed and unnecessary tinkering?

 

[Kevrumbo]

QC6 plug-in deco gas switches on Open Circuit Z-sidemount are done with yourself & a buddy verifying the proper gas bottle for the appropriate depth by tracing the hose back to the deco gas tank valve --similar as you would for a conventional dedicated 2nd stage regulator on a deco bottle.

I don't use QC6 plug-in deco gas switching right now and stayed with conventional deco/stage regulators simply because I'm diving both hog doubles backmount and Z-sidemount in Chuuk, and the extra cost of QC6 hose connection kits for two deco bottles & a bottom mix stage would have also added additional un-needed travel weight to my already exorbitant $700 excess luggage fees. . .

 

[kundalinichi]

 

[bluemed]

Piece of cake switching gases on the Z-system !!, it is basically the same as on BM, have a look at this video !

Consitency is the key... how cool (safe) is it to be able to jump from one system or configuration to the other and knowing
what your buddies or teams configuration functions or works ?

When I did my first Sidemount Instructor course (nothing bad about the instructor), before the hype, I had hoses coming over my left and right shoulder, for me to get that right as a doubles BM diver was confusing.
Then I met other SM divers, with shorthoses coming from the left and right they had the "brilliant"; "I will donate my bottle in case of OOG" attitude, after that guys with 2 longhoses, after that ;yes..I do not kid you :shocked2:: guys with 2 complete "recreational regulator sets on each bottle !

In all seriousness... I want to be able to dive Sidemount and Backmount or Single tank, and I don't want to need new skills, protocols, different hoses, complicated briefings etc...

To me this attitude of ; "I am sidemountdiver and I am an "underwater artist" and thats the only way" , or... I only dive Backmount because that is what it always has been is "Old school" thinking.

Mike


Video Blog: Stage / Deco Bottle Switch Part 2 of 2 - Unified Team Diving