A cocktail in the shaker

Bosh

Sorry for not sharing earlier, i hope better late than never.


2 Months ago i almost had a cocktail on my Atlantis, diving with the original scrubber.


I had prepared the unit for a dive, that was cancelled. I left it for a week and then dived it.


My predive preparation was not good enough, i might as well say that myself.


Had opened the OP valve one click more then usual. During the dive i noticed the ADV kicking in more than usual, but thought that was due to the OP valve venting too much gas.

It was in fact the gas escaping between the scrubber and the lid.


After the dive my buddy told me he had seen bubbles coming out of the box ! He is a very experienced OC rec. diver, but has no interest and knowledge in rebreathers, so cant really blame him for not telling me. But maybe myself for not briefing him properly.



On some dives i have noticed a slight taste/smell of lime, but this time it was a distinct soapy ”flavour”.


It was a 50 minute 20ish meter dive. After a while i usually get a bit of gloop in the exhale hose, and do a roll to get it in the exhale lung. Fortunately i just let it gurgle away on that particular day.



I was aware not everything was the way it was supposed to be, but not alarmed enough to abort the dive.



When i got home and opened the unit, there was not a single dry grain of sorb in the scrubber (but there may have been during the dive), the caustic water was literally pouring out the inhale lung.



I was very lucky not to get a cocktail.


So be carefull with those old Atlantis scrubbers.
I have modified mine since the incident, so i doubt it will happen again. More on that later.



I will be more carefull with my pos/neg test in the future.


Best regards and safe diving



Bo

w ripley

Bo:

Glad you were OK. You certainly know what to do next time.

Some people carry a mirror of some type with them to do their own bubble checks when they don't have a buddy or if diving with someone who doesn't know what to look for. A CD or a "plastic" mirror work well and also double as a signaling device if needed for an ocean rescue.

Regards,

Bill

Bosh

Thanks Bill

Mirror sounds like a good idea.

I have seen it discussed on the forum. Being reminded, it suddenly makes a lot of sense.

Bo

Dsix36

I was always told to just roll over and look up. If there were any bubbles, then I had a leak somewhere. This is how I was taught to do a self-bubble test.

The mirror thing could be very handy also. I just returned from a dive (solo of course) and had a difficult time finding the bubbles. They were coming from my ADV connection o-ring. All it took to repair it was a slight twist, the leak stopped.

It was so close that I couldn't determine the exact location for several minutes. I thought it was the shoulder dump on my drysuit. A mirror would have be a great help for this leak.

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Ben Field

This can be hard in the bubble fountain above OC divers on a shot... but it does work.I use the large, reflective front screen of my computer to look for bubbles, it works well.Our club is running a presentation for the OC divers this week as we have many Rebreather divers now, so they know what to expect, what to warn us about, what not to worry about etc... Might be worth considering something similar if you are in a club/group.

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mik

Thanks for posting. I often remind myself of incidents like this when I feel rushed or wander why I am going through pre-dive check for the third time in a day.
Why didn't you bail? This is not meant as a criticism, just an honest question. I know the feeling myself of knowing that something is not quite right but still staying on the loop. Can you please explain your thoughts?
Michael

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It just fell apart in my hands, Chief!

Bosh

Ben

We have had such a presentation in the club, and it is indeed a good idea.
That particular day we were only the two of us, and a guy on shore.


Mik

I have been asking myself that same question. So i can hardly blame you for asking, and i dont .
So far i have no good answer. If i ever get that distinctive soapy taste again, i really hope to recognize it, and bail out. Training could be to soak some sorb in a cup and smell it. Kind a like couchdiving a rebreather without sorb, to get a taste of hypercapnia.
I guess i just got to be better at listening to my rebreather, you can say it spoke to me i just didnt listen carefully enough.

diveladydive

After experiencing the caustic from hell about 1 1/2 years ago, I have a bit of advice to share... If youre Cls are over the shoulder, you can blow the water out of the Cls given you haven't totally flooded the unit. Check with your manufacturer/agency for their preferred technique- some blow out left, some right- depends on where the dump valve is situated, & some don't have dump valves. For back mounts, the blow-out is differnt- again, check with your manufacturer/agency re; proper technique & PRACTICE IT. A LOT! :-)

I carry a small sport-top bottle (8 oz- sorry DK conversion to metric) filled with Cocoa-Cola with me. If you take a hit, spit, do not rinse your mouth with salt water, shoot in some Coke, swish, spit. The Coke neutralizes the sorb. DO NOT CLOSE YOUR MOUTH WHEN YOU SHOOT IN THE COKE. Bad things could happen. just keep your mouth open.

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Normoxic CCR Instructor, IANTD
Optima Instructor, IANTD
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The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and the author’s alone.

NickK

Why didn't you bail? This is not meant as a criticism, just an honest question. I know the feeling myself of knowing that something is not quite right but still staying on the loop. Can you please explain your thoughts?
Michael[/quote]

Hi Michael,

The honest answer will be: "you are not alone". We all make that mistake to stay on the loop up to last moment, regardless what problem might be. Honestly, never heard from anyone who was ever practiced floded loop with the trusted budy in controled environment. May be we should do it just once in our life time?

ATB
Nick

Bosh

I agree with you, BUT do not try this on an Atlantis or Dolphin. CLs are backmounted, and the OPvalve is right behind the divers head. So to drain a cocktail one would be head down, and the cocktail would go right down the hose and into the mouth.
Some years ago there was a Dräger rebreather mailing list, and one of the members got a cocktail, head down in the water, trying to dump water from the OPV.
The unit can handle some water in both CLs, but it is not designed to dump it.
In my particular case all the water was in the scrubber and the inhale CL. So going head down, would have sent ALL of the caustic water right down the inhalehose !!!

That will be a ,25 liter bottle in metric . So you bring the coke under water ?

BTW glad you made it through your caustic experience !

Bo