Was stripping my Evo's scrubber down after today's dive when, to my great surprise and without any warning at all, the LP oxygen feed line to the solenoid blew out. Thankfully, the cylinder valve was shut so it was no big deal. More a pop than a bang.
On inspection, it seemed that the finger nut that holds the o-ring fitted bayonet connection in place had come undone allowing the connector to blow out. Refitting it was the work of only a few seconds as there was no fault with the hardware.
Lessons (re)learnt:
Be prepared. Thankfully the connector didn't blow underwater but if it had, it would have been an interesting few seconds getting on top of the problem. And whilst I am pretty confident I would have got it sorted (unexplained massive gas loss is one of the scenarios I have a pre-planned response for), I do wonder how I would actually have handled it at 45 metres (or even worse, at 74 metres on my previous dive).
Check every connector prior to every dive. Because the scrubber lid connectors are never disconnected at any time and because they were always as tight as a duck's arse whenever I did check, I had fallen into the habit of only checking them periodically (though all other connectors are checked pre-dive). Big mistake. In this case, the lid connectors were last checked when I got back from a liveaboard trip about two months ago since when I've done only 3 dives. In that time, the solenoid connector has either worked its way loose or I didn't check it properly in the first place. Either way, it and the rest of the scrubber lid connectors will be checked carefully from now on.
There you have it. Not a big deal but that was the product of luck not good practice. So for all you Evo (and Inspo?) owners out there, keep those scrubber head nuts tight.
Graham