Precision Diving » Product Reviews

Product Review: Vindicator Valve Handles

Duane Johnson — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 02:12:01 +0000

Vindicator Valve Handle

I had the opportunity to get my hands on a couple of the Vindicator Valve Handles made by Scuba Stik. I thought I would share my thoughts about them with everyone. First thing, these aren’t just simple replacements for you valve knobs. The ones I had gotten were for a Dive Rite valves and manifolds. They make them for almost any valve and manifold on the market today, you’ll just need to know which Vindicator handle will fit your valves, they have eight.

What is it?

The Vindicator Valve Handle is a new product to replace existing valve knobs. What it does is to provide a visual indication if the valve is open or closed. There are color coated pieces to indicate open or closed. When the valve is closed, the red piece extends below the knob. When you open the valve, a green piece slides over the top of the red piece as you turn the handle. Full green indicates that the valve is all the way open.

The Installation

Installing these things was simple. I just had to remove the existing valve knob and plastic washer. The red piece of the Vindicator goes on first. Then the Vindicator knob goes over the top of the red piece. Next, simple tighten down the Vindicator with the valves existing spring and nut. Like I said before, the installation was easy. Assuming you know how to use a screw driver that is.

My Opinion

I always hate to criticize other people’s hard work. But in my opinion, why fix something that isn’t broken? I have gotten into the habit of doing a flow check prior to going under the water. Since I can’t see the valve(s) on my back, this visual indicator is really no good. Divers should know which way an open valve turns. I can probably see when a dive master mistaken turns off a valve for a customer, thinking he/she turned it on, this indication would be a lifesaver. But as a thinking diver, we must verify all of our equipment is in working order prior to splashing into the water.

I’m also concerned about the material they are made from. From what I can tell, they are made from plastic. Plastic can become brittle in cold water. If one cracked and broke, then the diver may not be able to shut down their valves (assuming diving double tank configuration).

The think I did like about this product was the large knobs it has. When wearing thick dry gloves, it felt easier to grab my valves handles and manipulate them. Another benefit to these things are that if you were to come into contact with an overhead environment, an aware buddy will be able to see if your valve has rolled off. Of course, technical divers have a protocol to always perform a flow check whenever coming into contact with an overhead. Even though I like this feature, I will not be switching my valve handles over anytime soon.

Dive Safe,
Duane
Precision Diving

Product Review – Whites Fusion Dry Suit

Duane Johnson — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 05:17:23 +0000

Earlier this summer, I was asked to try out a Whites Fusion dry suit. I have only owned Diving Concepts and DUI suits. My only experience with Whites was when I dove the Nexus suit for my dry suit certification course. My experience with that suit was so bad, I questioned if I wanted to dive dry or not. So I was more than reluctant to try out the Fusion suit.

Whites Fusion Dry Suit w/ tech skin

Once I took a look at the suit, the construction of the actual suit looked good. I really didn’t like the concept of a dual layer (for lack of a better phrase) dry suit. If you have not seen the Whites Fusion suit, there is an inner layer that is made of a tri-laminate material and an outer shell that is removable. It still isn’t clear to me why there is a need for the two layers. My opinion on that in a moment.

The inner layer of the suit didn’t feel like many of the laminate suits that I’ve seen. It seemed to me that this material was thinner and more flexible than other suits I’ve felt. They outer shell was made out of a Spandex like material that felt like it could wear out easily.

Putting on the suit was different than other suits I’ve put on. First, you have to unroll the suit down to the top of the legs. Holding onto the crotch of the suit, you put your legs in making sure you do not pull on the outer shell, but instead pulling on the inner layer to get the suit up. Once you got the suit up to your waist, you could then gently pull up the outer layer to make it snug. My overall impression of putting on this suit was that it felt like putting on two condoms at the same time. It just didn’t seem natural and was clumsy.

Once the suit was up to your waist, you could put your arms through and then your head through the neck seal. Again, making sure you are pulling on the inner layer and carefully pulling tight the outer shell. This suit differs from your traditional front entry suit. Most traditional entry suits zip from should to hip. The suit zips shut across the front of your chest from shoulder to shoulder. I dove this suit with my Weezle Extreme+ undergarment. The suit felt too small with this undergarment. At least on the surface.

Now for the dive. I wear a standard DIR rig, which is a one piece harness on a backplate and wing. With the zipper in the front, it restricted my shoulders and I had difficulty reaching my valves. I was still able to do a couple valve drills, however it didn’t feel natural like in my DUI suit. There was certainly more “pinch” in my shoulders than other suits I’ve dove. During the dive, it occurred to me that the Spandex like outer shell was there to pull the inner layer tight and keep any extra material streamlined. This may be good in theory, however I did notice that the suit was trapping air and it was difficult to move that air up and out of the suit.

In summary, this suit was no where near as bad as my experience with the Nexus suit. It wasn’t the greatest experience in a dry suit I’ve had, but not horrible either. I will also concede that the suit was not custom cut to my body type and the stock size may have contributed to my experience in it. I’m not impressed with the outer shell of the suit. There is the normal skin, that I dove, and a tech skin. I’m not sure what the difference is, but I can’t see it being a dramatic difference in the suit. But I could be wrong.

Personally, I still like the Diving Concepts Z-Tech and DUI TSL350 suits and highly recommend those.

Dive Safe,
Duane Johnson
Precision Diving

Technorati Tags: dry suit, Whites Fusion, Weezle, tech skin, Diving Concepts

EDGE/HOG Quick Shot SMB Inflator Review

Duane Johnson — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 21:30:20 +0000

A while ago, a dive store manager asked me to try out this new gizmo called a Quick Shot. It is a device that is supposed to help divers inflate SMBs or lift bags easier when wearing deco, stage, pony bottles. I have always been reluctant to try new gear that is advertised as an improvement on something that doesn’t need improved, but I tried it anyway.

The Quick Shot is basically the mechanism of the end of an inflation hose, without the hose, that has the 3/8″ threads. It screws into a low pressure inflation port on the first stage of a regulator. This device is meant to go on a deco/stage bottle, not on tanks on your back. This device can only be used with SMBs or lift bags that have the inflation nipple (like a BCD inflation nipple) for inflation.

Normally, SMBs or lift bags are inflated orally or by using a low pressure inflation hose, such as your BCD or dry suit inflation hose. I have always preferred orally inflating my SMBs. So when I tested this device, I did it in a scientific method. That is, I used my normal way of inflating a SMB as a control and compared how to inflate the SMB using the Quick Shot to my control. Below are my findings.

I first found that the Quick Shot needs to be on “top” of the first stage in order to fit the SMB inflation nipple to the Quick Shot device. So my dive was cut short and I had to head back to the bench to move the device to a different port on the regulator. Once back in the water, I used the Quick Shot to launch SMBs. I found that there were two methods to shoot the SMB. One, I had to wrap up the spool and access SMB material in my left hand then inflate the SMB with the left hand as well. The Quick Shot does inflate rather fast. I found this out the hard way as the SMB took off and I was left searching for the spool. The other thing that went wrong with this method of inflation was that if the SMB is in front of you, when it inflates, the SMB may dislodge your mask due to the fast inflation rate. So I had to be careful to keep the SMB away from my face. My second attempt at shooting the SMB, I kept the spool in my right hand and inflated the SMB with my left hand. This gave me more control over the SMB. Again, I had to make sure that the SMB was away from my face. However, this method didn’t leave me with a free hand. If you read my blog article on how to shoot a bag, it is a team activity. If a member of my team had an emergency and I had both hands full with the SMB, it could lead to even more problems. In order to get more practice at shooting the SMB using the device, I shot a total of 12 SMBs using both methods I just described. I even tried using this device when I was in a near vertical position (one I’m not comfortable in). Still the same results. It became even more difficult when carrying two bottles and the bottle with the Quick Shot device is on the bottom. The SMB and spool wanted to get tangled up in the deco bottles. Plus, I had to remember which bottle the device was on.

In conclusion, my theory is that a diver shouldn’t let equipment replace what can’t be done with skill. This holds true with this device. Shooting a SMB the “old-fashioned” way is more effective in that it 1) doesn’t inflate the SMB too fast. The diver can control how fast he/she blows into the bag. 2) It allows the diver to be in more control of the process and also keep an eye on the team. The MSRP for this device is around $20 USD. So if people buy one and never use, then you aren’t out much money. Heck, we’ve all spent a lot more money on more useless things. My suggestion is, learn how to inflate the SMB the right way and stick with that. It is a process that has been proven to be effective time and again.

FWIW, I did not purchase this device and was not paid to test it out.

I welcome your questions and comments.

Dive Safe,
Duane Johnson
Precision Diving