| Re: solenoid isolator/shutoff
My shut off is easy to get to and operate in warm water.... It's a bit more difficult to get to and operate with cold water gloves on and in a dry suit, but it's doable.
The M & J valves are stiff and it would be very difficult to have it accidently slide off.
As far as it not being on predive.... Just another item on your checklist. You should be able to get to it to turn it on if for some reason it isn't when you get into the water.... If you can't, don't use one!
With an O2ptima, if you are doing your pre dive breathing it will be fairly obvious that something is wrong as the the solenoid will not fire if the shut off is in the off position.
Warning: If you are a failure point fanatic do not read further....
I use an M & J Omni-swivel between a short hose from the O2 Reg then I have the shut off in line so that the off position is a pull back. The ball on the Omni-swivel helps as a leverage point to shut it down, if necessary.
The Pivot swivel on the reg keeps the hoses from being unduly stressed with sharp bends.
The Omni-swivel has a captured O-Ring.
My position regarding failure points is that if you properly inspect, maintain and lubricate the parts on a regular basis you greatly reduce the chance of a failure.
Worst case is you may have to bail in a rare case of failure.
In addition to this I also carry a 6 CF bottle of O2 which can be popped on the the manual add valve via a BC hose in the event of a total failure of the O2 side. ( Loss of gas, reg failure, etc.)
Richie
Last edited by diverreb : 13th June 2008 at 15:53.
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