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okey, dokey, here we go. First, there is no point arguing that the DIN connection is more secure than yoke, and on backgas is mandatory. That is a given, so let's move on to the other issues, cost and ease of installation/removal from stage bottles. Cost. Din valves are a min. 10.00 more than yoke, and the reg is usually 10.00 more. If you have to buy adapters, it really getts ugly. I have 24 stage bottles and or argon bottles and 16 yoke regs...that would be 400 dollars to convert the stuff over. Now, since I have about $30,000 worth of dive gear, that is really pocket change, but let's look at the odds of failure. I think it is safe to assume that the O ring failure in qustion is most likely to occur at the moment you apply gas. As a past owner of 2 dive shops, and as a phsyco about filling my own tanks, I have filled my share of tanks, certainly in the 1000's, and I have never had a tank valve outlet o ring fail. Then there are the 1000 or so tanks of gas I have analyzed, again without failure. And then there are the tanks I have actually used, sometimes a dozen or more in a dive, again with no failures. So we have a MTBF, (Mean Time Between Failure) of at least 10,000 cycles. I gotta tell you, those are odds I can literally live with. If it is critcal, I will have a bailout plan anyway. Ease of Application. This past weekend I saw a guy putting a reg on a DIN valve. He was using a pair of channel locks to put the thing together, and then again to take it off. I have seen this on "numeris" occasions. Granted, every so often, I get a sticky yoke screw, but, assuming I remembered to purge the reg, with a little wiggling I can get it off. Now, here is the part that convinced me to use yokes on stages. There have been at least 1/2 dozen situations in the past two years that I have witnessed or have myself executed an underwater swap of first stages. This could for any of a number of reasons, but it happens. In the diving I do, speed is critical, and I can assure you I can swap a yoke out faster than you can swap a DIN, and unless you are going to carry channel locks with you, you may not be able to do it at all which may just make your DIN system fail on the "life support" scenario. So, in summary, yokes are obviously cheaper, though agreeably less secure. In a stage bottle application, the odds of failure are statistically low. Should you need to swap regs underwater, it is harder and sometimes impossible with DIN. But really, this whole debate is like asking which is the safer color wetsuit...black or blue. Pick the one that fits your application. But a blanket statement of "Yokes...just say no" really shows a lack of understanding of the whole picture. Trout ---------- > From: Kevin <Kevin@So*.co*> > To: Jess Armantrout <armantrout@wo*.at*.ne*> > Cc: techdiver@aquanaut.com > Subject: Re: To Din or not to Din > Date: Tuesday, August 18, 1998 10:32 AM > > >maintain gear properly and yokes are fine for stage bottles. > > I do. And am a repair technician for both the VALVE and the FIRST STAGE. It > still blew. It was an almost brand new viton o-ring with less than one hour > on it and was inspected prior to use. > > Bottom line is it blew. ( In front of me and into three pieces, extruded > right out of the seat ) > > Although no expert, from the failure analysis reports I have been able to > find, yoke o-ring are far less reliable than the captured DIN o-rings. ( > Manufacturer's test reports and old areticles from AquaCorp etc. ) From > personal experience, have seen many yoke o-rings blow, never seen a DIN > o-ring blow. ( More than a few years of teaching every weekend and casual > observations at the beaches, docks and diveboats. ) > > I realize that yokes are cheaper and more plentiful, especially in the > states, but if they are LESS reliable, and this is LIFE support equipment, > then I stand by my humble opinion . . . . . . > > Yoke valves ? Just say no. > > Educate me if I am wrong. I have a fire extinguisher by my desk for the > expected flames . . . > > Kevin > > > " You'll never miss the water, > until the well runs dry . . .. " > > as sung by Bob Marley > > [\] > | > | > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ > o o > o o > o o > _____ o o > (_/\_) o o o > =( )= oo > > Kevin Rottner -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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