Frequently seen after market modifications to rebreathers are installing inline shutoff slide valves on the oxygen supply to the solenoid and/or constant flow orifice to enable the ability to isolate the breathing loop from the oxygen supply used to automatically maintain setpoint. The ...
The most common type of failure in bladders is a puncture, but we have specific reasons why we don't recommend these be patched. Most punctures are of a 'longitudinal' nature caused by a pinch, and longitudinal cuts in the material of the bladder are very difficult to repair with a patch. ...
Divers have tried a lot of ways to clean their slate or wetnotes:
kitchen cleansers, as well as toothpaste and sandpaper, but they all pretty much make a mess and are not very handy. A much better alternative solution to cleaning carbon pencil from your slate is melamine foam, sold in the ...
All our dive compasses are liquid filled, not with champagne, but with mineral oil to dampen the movement of the compass card and also protect the compass case from pressure at depth. The liquid is sealed in these compasses with a bubble of air. Liquids are considered incompressible; the air ...
New divers have a tendency to use equipment to replace skills, which
is a reasonable approach to maximize enjoyment of the early dives.
However, we have seen divers looking like they walked through a dive
shop with a magnet and we wonder who recommended all that stuff.
Experienced ...
When is the last time you gave any thought to your regulator mouthpiece? Our service technicians tell us one of the most commonly damaged parts they discover during routine maintenance on a regulator second stage is the mouthpiece itself. Many divers bite down much too hard on the mouthpiece, ...
In many stage or decompression dives, you will be spending as much or more time on the stage and deco regulators than on the back gas primary. You are every bit as dependent on these regulators as your primary, because if they fail the dive quickly becomes unpleasant as you switch to your ...
Good work-of-breathing on bailout/deco regulators is very important to ensure proper gas exchange. A switch to a bailout bottle, especially if due to hypercapnia, is always a demanding situation. Low quality, improperly maintained or incorrectly tuned regulators can perform poorly regardless ...
Every year experienced divers die in diving related avoidable accidents that should not have happened because the victim was "always so careful". One of the more common examples in open-circuit diving is a failure to analyze gas before diving and in rebreather diving it is a failure to use a ...
The 'hose protectors' on the ends of the hoses next to the first and second stages provide a cosmetic appearance, however there is no evidence they prevent hose damage. Hoses sometimes fail where the fitting is swaged onto the hose, but that's caused by gas pressure, and a hose protector is not ...
