First solenoid stuck shut, yesterday stuck open......

DonalWalsh

Hi Dennis- how difficult are these to fit?

Gibbon

And... will they stop water being pushed through?

Diver Den

Hi Donald
I,m sure I can class you as competent, shall I send you one with some instructions? Hows it going down under?

Den
PS it won't stop water

Steve

Hi Dennis how's tricks?

Help me out here please mate? I have some of these on order but I can't for the life of me see the point. As far as I can see:

1. They can't stop salt crystals getting in there if people remove the feed under water and don't rinse the fitting before reuse.
2. We have a sinter filter in the reg, so nothing can get to the solenoid from the tank
3. So the only place debris can come from is the male part of the fitting. I do a quick purge before connection (As I was shown by Leon). So wouldn't that be easier for all concerned?

Thanks

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Diver Den

Hi Steve
Tricks are good, they would be better if I could find my passport .
These filters won't stop water and salt crystals but the hose should not be disconnected in the water so water should not get in, what they will stop is crap entering through the swagelock fitting. I have cleaned out 2 of the new solenoids, if the filters had been fitted in the first place neither would have failed.
Regards Dennis

G4SSG

Hi,i'm not going to the dive show ,would you oblige and give my promised filter to andyg .
who will be in attendance , yours sincerly ........thanks ...
ps ........have you forgotten about the c"*&%^e
i haven't............bye

RonMicjan

wont stop water for certain, just crud. The trick is to not get sea water in there so dont disconnect under water, if you did, or had to, or someone else did, a gentle cleaning in warm fresh water as soon as you can will do a lot to keeping the solenoid alive. So far, 2 years and no solenoid failures, but of course now that i have put that into writing, it gonna happen on the next dive...
I have had several stuck manual O2 valves and mixed gas bypass vavles, in fact I descended to 360 fsw by connecting and disconnecting the mixed gas bypass (that was stuck open) on one dive, that was a bit task loading, luckily it would snap shut every time I disconected the hose or I would have been draining the CL every few minutes too. The trick to keeping those valves working smoothly is to blow some christolube into them periodically. When I feel them getting a bit sticky, I pack the LP hose end with lube, attach the hose and hit the button, viola no more sticky button.

Hmmmm, wonder if that would help the solenoid too, have to ask Leon on that one. I wonder if having lube on the guts of the solenoid would keep the salt crystals from forming and corroding the spring assembly?

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Genesis

The Snap-tite solenoids can be disassembled with reasonable ease (assuming someone hasn't epoxied them as a "corrosion inhibitor"!) You need to deal with a spanner for the actual valve body retaining nut, but its not hard to get apart.

The seal itself is a puck and not really replacable (kinda like the puck in a second stage reg) but the internal mechanism is just a magnetic stick and a return spring, along with the channel they ride in. Its primarily brass and stainless, but is not going to fare well if moisture - especially SALT - gets in there (dissimilar metals corrosion and all.) In addition the seal is a knife-edge type orifice and once that gets eroded it will never seal properly again.

If class work requires disconnection underwater IMHO this is a serious flaw in the course - unless they instructor is including a new solenoid in the price! There is no way that you can get salt water into these (at least the SnapTites) and not have them screw up on you in reasonably short order for this reason. I'd consider an underwater disconnect, especially in salt water, to be cause to immediately replace the solenoid given what I've seen from taking these apart.

I don't know what the "new" model that is being used in the Meg (or other models of solenoid) are like inside..... but I bet they're not very different! In particular the dissimilar metals issue is one that's going to be hard to get around, given the realities of what has to be in there for the valve to work!

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Joe

I doubt it because cristolube tends to dry up and cake. I would think within the confined spaces of a solenoid it would cause more problems then it fixes because there is no place for the crud to go without it causing interference with the valve operation.

Were it not for the compatibility issues, I'd say silicone would be a better choice.

jiseson

Does this solenoid need a redesign-this should be bullet proof! every time i get close to deciding on a unit-i find i learn some thing that makes them un appealling.

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Jonathan D Iseson