Posted by John WAlker on October 30, 2000 at 23:10:17:
In Reply to: Re: 'an alert for those switching to a long primary hose...' posted by Max Bottomtime on October 30, 2000 at 17:54:12:
If during an OOA situation or during TRAINIG a diver donates his good-working reg and switches to their back up and finds it not working (generally turned off). Then the donating diver can simply reach back and turn it on. These senario's and reactions are what are burned into transitional actions during proper training.
A primary regulator (the one that is being breathed from) is the one that will more often or not have a failure, not the back up. If the backup fails it is generally when it is initially turned on and a H.P seat of a pistin o-ring does not set. Otherwise it will be the o-ring that the piston slides through that becomes dry and twists or nicks and fail abruptly.
To sum it up the back up is less likely to fail once you started your dive but may be off when you switch to it. You NEED to be proficiant at reaching it and turning it on QUICKLY. No excuses allowed. Excuses often equate to tragety and in diving terms it so often means DEATH.
JW