Thoughts On Removing Onboard SPG's

mempilot

My current Meg setup: Inverted 13cf bottles with HP hoses running up the back, over the shoulder, and down the under side of the counter lungs. The spg's hang down just below the bottom of the CLs.

I use the spg's to check pressure prior to a dive, but don't look at them during a dive. My thought is that if I have a major onboard gas leak, I'll switch over to my offboard bailout in the case of DIL leak, or fly SCR with loss of O2. I figure I don't really need to know how much gas is in the bottle after verification on the boat prior to splash.

I'm trying to clean up my rig, and if I removed the HP hoses and large spg's, I would replace them with button gauges for quick visual inspection before and between dives. This would also reduce some weight, some maintenance, and the need to replace hoses periodically.

Thoughts?

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Stephane

You're right, SPGs are not necessary and as a friend always says: "SPGs have never provided gas" !
So go ahead, put some button gauges on your 1st stages but don't forget to fill your tanks!

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vidodivr

I'm aware of one instance where a diver charged the bottles, checked his gauges, did a pre-breathe, sat for a bit waiting to drop.... happened to look at the gauge just before getting in and realized that he only had about 200psi O2 in his 13s, come to find out, he had a double o-ring and slow leak.
Luckily a diver had a 100% bailout onboard he could borrow before the dive and didn't have to deal with all the bullcrap of finding out during the dive.

next,
As in the Optima D-day incident in Palm beach, being able to see after you fix the problem that you have plenty of dil left onboard why bother with off-board. With the gauge you can monitor the situation. Granted, you can switch to off-board and monitor that gauge for any leaks, but why if you don't have to.

I've seen a few other posts on this subject.

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JonnyB

I would have to say, NO!!!

You may have a leak without knowing it, i had a small leak in my ALU80 past weekend, during transport from storage room to divesite, 150Bar 21/30 to 0Bars just before i jumped in the water. I just realized this when i was going to turn on the bailout before the dive.
One other thing is that the button gauges have a tendency to show the wrong values, it is very difficult to see if you have 50, 25 or 0 bars.

/Jonny

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cramerdn

Sounds good to me. You have a primary system to tell you when you are out of gas, the PO on your display plumets, your counterlung or BC stops inflating; and you have a secondary system to tell you the gases are gone, you pass out, you suck and the lung bottoms out, or you sink.

You can clean up your rig more by getting the SPGs off your deco bottles too.

Sounds like a good plan to me.

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ScubaDadMiami

I also vote for keeping the traditional gauges. When you start cave diving and doing profiles that have lots of ups and downs, you will want to be able to see how much gas you have used and have left.

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Benthic

This topic has been discussed before and as I recall it's one that tends to be rather polarizing. You can find one of the old threads here, although I didn't re-read the whole thing.

Personally I use button gauges on the onboard bottles. As you mentioned it reduces clutter on your chest, and you will rarely ever look at them. In the event of a 'boom scenario' you can shut down both valves immediately. For leaks into the loop you can tell whether it's dil or oxygen by looking and your electronics. For external leaks you can tell by turning on first one valve and then the other to listen. Once you've figured out what's happening you can then take the appropriate action.

That's my line of thinking. I have no doubt others will disagree.

Brian

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netmage

switch to naked 1.5" spg's if you havn't already... the info is stil usefull and valid.

lizardland

The only reason I still have a gauge on my dil is cave diving as I think it is important because cave profiles churn through diluent -- bloody inconsiderate OC divers are always scrabbling for shallow water in caves so the lines always go over rather than around anything.

I have no gauge on my oxygen because (to me) it's irrelevant. O2 use is so minimal by comparison that I'm not that interested, dil is what limits the dive.

If I dived open water only then I'd dump the gauge completely. I'm not a fan of button gauges, I've never had one that lasted more than a couple of years or ever read accurately -- they're more a binary tool, full or empty indication.

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bletso

I did a compromise, I modified some medical O2 gauges to put in the HP ports. I can read it. The button gauges I can't read even with my glasses.

Dale

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