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On1/15/99 4:09 PM, Kevin Connell wrote: >Is it DIR to have a pressure gauge on (strictly) deco bottles? > >I'm beginning to wonder.... >1) You're not diving thirds on deco >2) you can't share gas with a deco tank >3) it's an extra failure point (or ten) >4) you know how much you breath so you know how much you need (exclude >students from this) >5) You can see if its leaking >6) You gain nothing by knowing you are going to run out. >7) The only time I look at mine is before the dive, so why not check it >with a tank checker and remove the excess gear? > >I'll even go so far as to say I removed mine from my 120 deco reg, and love >it :-) Kevin - Let's assume you carry your deco bottle correctly with the reg pressurized and parked and the bottle off, so you have no free flow risk when you drop the bottle on a wreck. [For reasons that George Irvine has made very clear, if anyone out there is still carrying their deco/sling bottles with the valve on -- STOP RIGHT NOW BEFORE YOU KILL YOURSELVES!] 1. Your failure risk with the SPG is very low -- you're not going to lose gas from a blown hose or o-ring because your bottle's off until you're at deco. If it leaks during deco, you're not going to have a catastrophic loss of gas because the SPG hose is high pressure but very low volume and you can manage the leak by turning the bottle on and off. For those reasons, I'm not overly concerned with the risks. OTOH, an SPG gives me some info and options that I don't have without one: 1. I can tell immediately if my deco reg has lost pressure and can charge it again before seawater leaks into the first stage. 2. Since you can buddy breathe a deco tank, if my buddy has a catastrophic loss of deco gas or I have a reg/lp hose leak, having a gauge lets me know if there's enough gas to complete deco. (and clues me into when I need to tell the safety diver to hand over the extra tank) 3. In an emergency, knowing when you're going to run out reduces stress big time. 4. It lets me monitor my own gas consumption, so I know if my SAC rate's changed or I'm hoovering. IMHO, the pros of having an SPG on my deco bottles -- particularly 1 and 2 -- outweigh the cons, even if it's not by much. Best regards -- Bill -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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