Ever had an equipment failure?

[Phineas Gage]

I was talking to a non-diver friend (about diving, what else?) today at work, and as is often the case in those circumstances the conversation turned into a Q&A focused on all the potential hazards in the sport.

I'm sure you've all been there. The ol' "what if you run out of air", "what if your mask comes off", "what if your air hose gets cut", "what if <insert bad thing here> happens" conversation.

As I was trying my best to explain the equipment, procedures, risk mitigation, etc it occurred to me that there doesn't seem to be anywhere that a person could answer some simple statistical questions. Like, for example, what is the most common form of equipment failure. At least no single data repository that I know of. I'm sure DAN has some inference tracking, but I was really thinking more along the lines of what the FAA does when a skydiving mishap occurs.

I suppose it's a facet of not being regulated, good or bad or whatever. But I digress....

Just curious, has anyone here ever had a piece of equipment fail? What was the cause? Poor maintenance? Design flaw? Just plain wore the thing out?

[Joshua Smith]

They're pretty rare- I bet freeflowing regs are the most common failure modes. (You're talking about life-support equipment, right? Not lights and retractors and whatnot, right?)

[Phineas Gage]

Yeah. OC life support, or even maybe buoyancy control.
(not trying to spin up one of those evil-CC-will-kill-ya threads, so please don't)

Some of the folks on here who have been diving for decades and have thousands of dives maybe have had an incident? If not, then that too is interesting information.

[60south]

Yup, freeflows on regs. It was rental gear each time, due to poor maintenance.

[Penopolypants]

My bungeed backup freeflowed during a dive, at the I Beams. Fun! I have no idea why it did so. It's supposedly environmentally sealed which is supposed to keep that from happening in cold water, but it did anyway.

I took it in and explained the problem, and they tweaked it but couldn't find anything wrong with it.

It freeflowed again this weekend but that was before I got in the water.

[LCF]

I've had a freeflow we couldn't stop. No cause for it was found. The water wasn't particularly cold (in the low 50's) and it wasn't a reg particularly known for freeflowing (Aqualung Titan). It went to the shop for service; no IP creep, no crud found in the 2nd stage. It has never misbehaved since.

I've had a couple of connections back off underwater and leak. None was serious, and once I found out you can depressurize the system and tighten stuff underwater, none has caused an aborted dive.

I had a LP inflator start to leak on a dive. It was a slow leak, and I figured out what the problem was and dealt with it for the rest of the dive. Serviced the inflator and the problem did not recur.

I had a pinch flat in a wing. I repaired it with Aquaseal and used it until I got a replacement bladder.

I had a dry suit exhaust valve get really sticky and hard to vent; that was an interesting dive. Solved by soaking the valve in distilled water, and then distilled water with a couple of drops of Ivory soap in it.

I think most people who have dry suits have torn seals at some point.

I've had multiple issues with lights, including floods, broken battery wires, and one failure which was either light cord or ballast. I don't know which because Salvo repaired it and didn't charge me or send an invoice with the returned light.

This is all over about 600 dives.

[Dusty2]

My bungeed backup freeflowed during a dive, at the I Beams. Fun! I have no idea why it did so. It's supposedly environmentally sealed which is supposed to keep that from happening in cold water, but it did anyway.

I took it in and explained the problem, and they tweaked it but couldn't find anything wrong with it.

It freeflowed again this weekend but that was before I got in the water.

Ladies I'm not sure what the repair techs did or didn't do but I had a similar problem on a fairly new reg and they couldn't find it till a smart tech tested the LP side of the first stage and found that the seat was bad and the lp pressure was way to high. come to find out there was a recall on that seat that no one knew about???

Other than that and a few operator errors as the FAA would say nothing drastic other than I did have to call one dive because of a blowout in the high presure sensor on my air integrated computer. Fortunatly it happened during our in water buddy check before diving.

[Phineas Gage]

Not scuba, but just to illustrate a point...
At the risk of being accused of having a little morbid streak, I find this really fascinating from the perspective of improving safety or recognizing trends: http://www.dropzone.com/fatalities/index.shtml

i.e. Seems that there is a trend over the last few years to use a really small canopy and try to turn while coming in low. That and an apparent delay in making the decision to cut away one's main canopy seem to be the biggest mistakes.

I wonder how the different diving philosophies and certification organizations would be impacted if scuba had this kind of data behind it. Not too mention the potential impact on equipment manufacturers. Good or bad.

Might alter the tone of some of the discussions a bit, at the least.

Actually, didn't Sheck Exley do something like this when cave diving became fatality laden in the '70s? Seems like I read that somewhere.

[60south]

When I was divemastering we had to file incident reports when something happened. If someone was injured we couldn't touch the gear -- so that it could be inspected later for any failures. The intent was to gather exactly this kind of data. Isn't this still going on?

I don't know how many equipment failures I've mitigated by testing the gear (both mine and my buddy's) before getting in the water. We've often discovered and corrected problems before the dive even begins; I would guess that many people on this board could say likewise.

[Phineas Gage]

When I was divemastering we had to file incident reports when something happened. If someone was injured we couldn't touch the gear -- so that it could be inspected later for any failures. The intent was to gather exactly this kind of data. Isn't this still going on?

I'm sure that it is. Are the results of these investigations made available for others to potentially benefit from? If so, where's it at? I'd like to have a look.

[dwashbur]

At last year's club dive my HP hose sprung a leak and I had to abort my participation in the first dive. This was a case of "just wore out" as I discovered later. Thankfully, Valerie had a spare in her save-a-dive kit and loaned it to me for the second dive. I still find myself quietly thanking her occasionally for that.

Yesterday Kathy and I went for a "meet & greet" dive at the Metridium field. As we got in the water, Kathy's reg started a free-flow that she had trouble stopping; she lost about 200 psi. But once she got it under control, things went fine. These days she's actually been using her Sherwood octopus, because her Dacor primary was giving her trouble of an odd sort: she spends a fair bit of time upside-down, looking under rocks and such, and every time she stood on her head, her reg would free-flow until she turned right-side-up again. That one's just weird! It's now her backup/octopus, and it hasn't given her a bit of trouble since she switched.

[60south]

every time she stood on her head, her reg would free-flow until she turned right-side-up again. That one's just weird!

Yeah, that can be annoying. Perhaps she was having the same problem I've experienced... When you're inverted, the slight difference in water pressure between the 2nd stage valve and the diaphragm can be enough to cause a freeflow (there may be other causes as well). I've had to de-tune mine a couple times to prevent that.

[Edit... I don't think I described that very well. Think: when you're inverted, your lungs are at a lower water pressure than the 2nd stage. That means the air pressure inside of the 2nd stage diaphragm is less than the water pressure on the outside. This can cause the purge button to engage, causing a freeflow. It goes away once the reg is again shallower than your lungs.]

[Sockmonkey]

I know the exact moment I decided to simplify my life and go with a BP/W.

I was traveling with my back inflate BC and pulled on my corrugated BC hose to dump some gas with the valve at the top of the connection... when the (stainless) cable inside the hose that actuated the valve snapped in two and the whole hose came off my BC. No matter how religious I was about rinsing the inside of that BC (which I loved loved loved) the moving parts in that valve corroded and failed.

Of course the rental BC I was forced to use for the rest of the trip was a vest type... and being 6'5" didn't fit me in the slightest.... and none of them I tried seemed to secure a tank well enough and they kept flapping around.

Not exactly a yarrr sea story of catastrophic failure... but it was enough for me to march into my local Halcyon dealer when I got back from the trip and order a wing (and tall DSS plate)

-Eric

[airsix]

Personal equipment failures:

drysuit seal
drysuit exhaust valve
SPG (twice over a span of 25 years)
brain*


*As with aviation, I am convinced that the greatest risk is human error.

-Ben

[Grateful Diver]

On one of my earliest trimix training dives I had a valve handle come off of a deco bottle when I went to open it up. My instructor signaled for me to do my switch and I held up my hand with the valve in it as if to say "how?". He signaled for me to switch bottles with the safety diver, but then my brain kicked in and I realized that I had managed to get the bottle open before the handle came off ... so I stuck the valve in my pocket, did the switch, and finished the dive. We fixed it later.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[Joshua Smith]

On one of my earliest trimix training dives I had a valve handle come off of a deco bottle when I went to open it up. My instructor signaled for me to do my switch and I held up my hand with the valve in it as if to say "how?". He signaled for me to switch bottles with the safety diver, but then my brain kicked in and I realized that I had managed to get the bottle open before the handle came off ... so I stuck the valve in my pocket, did the switch, and finished the dive. We fixed it later.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

I remember when you posted that! Funny story. Thanks for the reminder- I'm going to check all of mine this week before my weekend dives.


From what I've been able to gather through lots and lots of reading: real, true, honest-to-god life threatening equipment failures are pretty rare- and in most cases, it seems they could be prevented by routine maintenance and servicing of regs and BCs.

But that doesn't mean they don't happen, ever. A little paranioa can be a healthy thing, sometimes.

[dwashbur]

every time she stood on her head, her reg would free-flow until she turned right-side-up again. That one's just weird!

Yeah, that can be annoying. Perhaps she was having the same problem I've experienced... When you're inverted, the slight difference in water pressure between the 2nd stage valve and the diaphragm can be enough to cause a freeflow (there may be other causes as well). I've had to de-tune mine a couple times to prevent that.

[Edit... I don't think I described that very well. Think: when you're inverted, your lungs are at a lower water pressure than the 2nd stage. That means the air pressure inside of the 2nd stage diaphragm is less than the water pressure on the outside. This can cause the purge button to engage, causing a freeflow. It goes away once the reg is again shallower than your lungs.]

Hmm, that makes sense. At this point I would affect an Inspector Clouseau voice and say "Ze mystery is solv-ed!" Her reg is due for servicing, so we'll have the tech take a look at that while he's at it. Thanks!

One other equipment failure, I guess you could call it: about a month ago during a dive here in Monterey, I lifted my SPG to check my air and realized that the needle on the gauge had broken off. There was nothing but a little nub by which to guess how much air I had left. A new SPG solved that one, and since the replacement I bought had a HP hose with it, I now have a spare HP hose for my save-a-dive kit.

[LCF]

I've been reminded of a couple more . . . I had an SPG die on me on Cozumel. Water got into the front compartment, beneath the glass. The gauge still worked fine, but after 2 days, enough algae had grown in the water that I could no longer see the needle. Ever tried to find a stand-alone SPG in a recreational diving destination?

I had a hose fail on me at Casino Point a year and a half ago. It did what hoses do -- it began leaking bubbles through the outside coating. It wasn't catastrophic and was replaced with somebody's spare. I had bought that set of regs used, and I have no idea how many dives were on that hose.

[dieseldude]

Remeber your open water cert? That little lean & sweep move they have you do after you throw your reg behind your shoulder? My rental reg freeflowed-The instructer said in all his year it's the 1st time he'd seen that-thought I had a jet engine running behind me-worst of it was I was afraid he'd fail me if I grabbed the octo instead of the primary-i was purple by the time I got air-i lived so I guess it's funny now-wasn't so much then.
MJ

[mancub]

Remeber your open water cert? That little lean & sweep move they have you do after you throw your reg behind your shoulder? My rental reg freeflowed-The instructer said in all his year it's the 1st time he'd seen that

During open water, my buddies reg freeflowed. Plus, the rental gear was so abused he couldn't get it to stop flowing, our instructor tried everything for a couple of minutes, while I handed my buddy my octo. Ironic because we were waiting on the line to do OOA buddy ascents, so we did it for real both breathing from my tank.

No other failures for me. My buddy's light flooded, but he dried it out and it still works great. Gotta get spring straps before I have one of the flimsy rubber ones go out on me.

[Tangfish]

I had the needle get stuck... then fall off entirely an SPG once. This resulted in an OOA situation (literally out, not low). Cuban rental gear. The regulator was also very dodgy (took in water from time to time and didn't deliver any air), and the DM "fixed" it with a 5" rusty nail.

[camerone]

No other failures for me. My buddy's light flooded, but he dried it out and it still works great.

I shattered a test tube on my can light once. I flipped it on while aboard the boat, ready to jump in, and a newbie diver cut in front of me and took five minutes to get off the deck. When I finally hit the water, the tube had heated up and shattered from the cold salt water. It's a Brightstar bulb from Salvo...the only way I discovered the problem was that the light wouldn't focus. When I looked at the handle, the tube was just glass shards around the bulb, but it was still lit up and running. I shut off the light, finished the dive, rinsed it in fresh water, put a new tube on, and it was good as new. Salvo and Brightstar just rock like that.

I've flooded my old semi-closed rebreather once under water. The Drager P-Ports that they use to couple the bags to the scrubber are kind of wonky, and I must've hit the water just right such that the exhale bag popped off the top of the scrubber. Fortunately, the inhale lung, which has the ADV, was still attached, which meant that the demand valve fired for every breath... The scrubber was soup, but no caustic cocktail. I still ended up with about 15 minutes in the water, on a fairly shallow dive, but I sucked down that 28 cf steel bottle a whole lot faster than it should've lasted.

The most painful failure was my drysuit zipper. Puget Sound, late November a few years back, and lots of deco to do with water trickling in to the suit. Very, very cold. Came out shivering that day, which is never somewhere you want to be when you're trying to offgas.

[bonairetrip]

Yes, but mostly in the old days.

Here is the list as best I can recall:
Rental BC on my OW dives leaked. And it was manual inflate only. 1977.
My old horse collar BC developed a leak in the bladder (easily repaired). Probably 1980.
Tekna mask developed a leak (wear, near the nose pocket). Probably mid-1980s.
Drysut seal (not a failure per se, I folded it wrong and it leaked. Operator error). Probably 1990.
Drysut purge valve (not a failure per se, I just did not tighten it before that dive. Operator error). Probably 1990.
High pressure hose failure (man was that loud!), probably about 2000.
My R190 second stage on my pony came apart (and a grouper tried to eat the diaphram). Probably about 2001.
Dive buddy: pulled on his BC hose to deflate, the internal string came apart (turns out to have been held together by a paper clip!) and that punctured the oral inflate hose. (Ultimately fixed with aquaseal and scotch tape) Probably about 2002.
Several free flows (never needed to abort for those as they were all resolved in water)
Plus a couple of dive lights (flooded).

Above water: lots of o rings, a fin buckle (dropped tank on it), mask buckle (it worked but would come off super easily), etc.

DAN does categorize many incidents that involve equipment failure. Two other observations:
a) Most dive gear made today is way better than 30 years ago.
b) You should either have redundant equipment and/or skills to recover from any equipment failure.

[nwbobber]

I'll agree with that, redundant is good. Back in the 70's before everyone had a secondary reg., and I being young and poor I was a have not, I sucked a rock into my exhaust valve at 60+ ft. Next breath was mostly water and I started to cough, I think my buddy was in the same ocean, couldn't find him, did an emergency ascent. I love my secondary!

[boydski]

I've had several o-ring failures over the years, but the only one that really sticks in my mind was one of my first cave dives in Mexico. I was in the Minitauro system with a guide, and at about twenty minutes of penetration, kept hearing a train rumbling over head. After a few minutes of the "train" rumbling, I thought to myself, "there are no trains in this part of Mexico". Doh!

I reached up and could feel a mass of bubbles escaping from my left post. I started shutting down my left post, and flashed my light at Pietro. Pietro (my guide, that didn't know me well then) turned around and had VERY BIG eyes! He told me later he saw bubbles going everywhere, and me shutting down my post.

The bubbles stopped shortly after shutting down, and we thumbed the dive and exited. At the surface, we determined that the high-pressure hose o-ring at the first stage had extruded and failed. I replaced the o-ring, we recalculated our gas and went back into the system. The small hole feeding your high-pressure hose is so small, that I only lost 200 psi during the entire episode (even with my dumb idea that it was a train)!