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Chris Thanks for taking the time to reply. >Firstly, deco cylinders without gauges will bite your ass one of these >days (ask Martin Smith about that one). The arguament of an extra >failure point usually rears it's ugly head in discussions like this. >From most folks experience, a proper stage regulator set up (gauge not >flapping in the wind) is about as reliable as the rest of your stuff. I'm not aware of that particular Martin Smith incident. The procedure I apply works but if I became complacent it would fail, just as if I get complacent about gas planning or any other aspect of my diving. You will be glad to hear that it is not in my nature to be complacent! I agree with your point that the likelihood of a short, tidy HP hose failing is low, but my point is that it is avoidable. HP hoses do fail. I have had a standard length HP hose blow on the boat as I was about to kit up. This hose was about 12 months old and on inspection in apparently good condition. Being anal, I check my hoses every few dives. I have seen a HP hose go one other time but this was in poor condition and should never have been near the water. I do not fret about using a HP hose since I use one on my backup regulator on my twinset and I will use a 7" hose on a stage bottle when I need to dive thirds. I do not use them on my deco bottles as I do not need them therefore I do not take them in the water. >If the justification for not having a gauge is substantiated by having a >buddy to run to if 'shit happens' (incidentaly, after 20 years of diving >and servicing dive gear the only times I have seen a neck O ring fail is >down to poor maintenance) then I cannot see any application for a twin >set and a 3l 'stage bottle'. You are being slightly emotive WRT "buddy to run to", but I agree with your point. Here we have shifted (I started it!!) from the original discussion of single with pony to twinset with 3l stage. The application is simply one of using the 3 l cylinder to carry deco gas. The twinset's redundancy allows more adventurous diving whilst the pony carries the deco gas. In this instance my gas planning would be such that I can ensure that I can meet my deco obligations with *either* my back gas *or* my 3l deco bottle thus maintaining a redundant configuration and supply. Since I quite rightly got grief about apparently mis-representing BSAC training - which I hope was due to lack of clarity in my writing rather than my understanding, I will emphasise that the 3l cylinders are being used for entirely different purposes here. With a single it is used as a bailout from depth and so the contents must be breathable from the maximum planned depth. In the twinset and small deco cylinder scenario, it is just another deco bottle and the "standard" rules of gas planning and management of deco bottles apply. I'm starting to get bored with this discussion how about you? Dave -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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