Posted by MHK on April 12, 2000 at 10:47:41:
In Reply to: Question About OMS BC'S posted by Dale on April 11, 2000 at 17:26:45:
I'm not sure why you say you like the OMS harness better than the Halcyon harness. The only difference between the 2 is the plastic quick release on the OMS. Having dived both the OMS ( which is now collecting dust in my garage ) and the Halcyon let me add the following:
Part of the reason the OMS is in teh garage is because for the second time in 2 years the plastic clip has broken. OMS also had a recall last year on the inflator valves. It took 3 months to get my bladder back from OMS, there service is awful. I sent my phantom light in for repair and 2 months later it came back and when I opened the cannister it was full of water. They never even fixed it in 2 months.
More importantly, the OMS bungee wing has been directly linked to several deaths. The reason is this. When bungeed the bladder if it gets the slighest leak during a dive, you will not be able to inflate the bladder because the bungees will preclude the bladder from expanding. Moreover, air has the ability to get trapped into the bladder because of the bungees.
Furthermore, the oms bungee has 100 lbs of lift. Why anyone would ever need that much lift is beyond me, but that aside, if your inflator valve gets stuck you will rocket to the surface with 100 #'s of force and will likely embolize if you can't disconnect in time.
At DEMA this year I went to the OMS booth and saw a protoype new OMS bladder. To me it looked exactly like the Halcyon bladder, so I asked them what the differences were and the salesman actually told me that the major difference was that the OMS bladder has one OMS sticker on BOTH sides. As if anyone gives a shit how many OMS promotional stickers are on the bladder you are about to buy.
Other than that it seemed like a copy of the Halcyon. I'm not sure if they are selling them yet, but they didn't have any in January.
PS.. If you still want the OMS, I have a used one I might part with..
LAter