Surface Air Supply (Hookah) Systems

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by denverd0n

Wow! That alone is enough to convince me to NEVER do business with that company! It really is amazing how poorly (and how self-destructively) some companies react to negative social media exposure.

Yeah, I called the company to complain about this. Got a call back from the kid's dad (company prez and son of the founder) who was a mealy-mouthed apologist. After listening to him defend his idiot racist son (who had called me on a cell phone owned by his mom, making it easily traceable back to him), I asked him about the compressors he sells and how he can justify marketing them the way he does, as specialized surface supplied air equipment. He essentially admitted that all Chinese-built air compressors (like Hookamax) are made in just a few factories there and that his are special because of the bells and whistles Hookamax adds after having them shipped to this country. When I asked him to identify those modifications, he refused to do so saying that if he did, his competitors would learn his trade secrets. What a load of crap.

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by fstbttms

When I asked him to identify those modifications, he refused to do so saying that if he did, his competitors would learn his trade secrets. What a load of crap.

Ha ha ha...trade secrets...I like that. Just another "fortunate son" that fell into a business. I wonder if when his father founded the business, that he used an American made compressor. I buy Chinese made items all the time. Not much choice anymore when shopping at HD. But I'm not going to use a compressor that is made in China. It might be there is no other choice there as well.

I have had divers use an 80 size tank on the dock with a long hose to the reg. Safer was to go IMHO.

[wsmurdoch]

Originally Posted by DeBe

Knocked up this setup a few years ago. Its diaphram compressor & the set up draws 12A on 12V & is good for around12ft depth. No reg required as it uses a snorkel with a exhaust valve in the bottom & is a wasted air type system. works fine for cleaning the hull or clearing a fouled prop.

It has been 49 years since I took my SCUBA course and as I said before I have never used a hookah system. In the course, one of the many horror stories was of a helmet diver being supplied with air from the surface having his air supply line break above the surface. All the pressurized air in his helmet vented off to the surface, and his body was pressed into the helmet killing him. The fix was to install a check valve in the air supply to the helmet that would close preventing the escape up the supply hose of the pressurized air.

I wonder if there is a similar safety problem with the flow-through-air-supplied modified snorkel. If the hose to a diver working a 15 ft was disconnected or cut above the water surface, would the air in the diver's mouth, lungs, and nasal cavities (7 psig, 21.7 psia) rush to the surface (0 psig, 14.7 psia) perhaps bursting the diver's ear drums or pushing his eyes and face into his mask due to the local pressure?

Does the snorkel need a check valve?

(I assume that a normal diving regulator would function as a check valve eliminating the risk with the more normal hookah situation.)

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by wsmurdoch

Does the snorkel need a check valve?

This is a very good point and one that absolutely needs to be taken into consideration when cobbling together a setup like this. Probably the best reason yet to not use the cheapest crap you can find to build a hookah rig.

[Jammer]

Originally Posted by DeBe

Knocked up this setup a few years ago. Its diaphram compressor & the set up draws 12A on 12V & is good for around12ft depth. No reg required as it uses a snorkel with a exhaust valve in the bottom & is a wasted air type system. works fine for cleaning the hull or clearing a fouled prop.

In this modern age, the understanding of safe diving practices is ours for the asking. It is written in the blood of dead men who were underwater pioneers when the risks were not understood and the equipment was not sophisticated.


We ignore the lessons from their sacrifice at our peril.

[GB32]

Originally Posted by DeBe

This is it spread out a bit, where the snorkel joins the air hose there is a piece of stainless tubing in the hose so the clamp doesnt collapse the hose.

WSMURDOCH
You're too nice. You are absolutely correct but suggesting ways to 'fix' this insane arrangement with a check valve is too helpful.
DeBe is either a Troll (unlikely seeing the photos), or has a life expectancy measured in minutes if he uses a snorkel on a pressured hose at any depth.
Please DeBe, STOP and get a 2nd stage Demand Valve - then you have a chance of avoiding an immediately life threatening injury.
From Wikipedia:
Helmet squeeze is an injury that could occur if the air supply hose was ruptured near or above the surface. The pressure difference between the water around the diver and the air in the hose can then be several bar. The non-return valve at the connection to the helmet will prevent backflow if it is working correctly, but if absent, as in the early days of helmet diving, or if it fails, the pressure difference between the diver depth and the break in the hose will tend to squeeze the diver into the rigid helmet, which can result in severe, sometimes fatal, trauma. The same effect can result from a large and rapid increase in depth if the air supply is insufficient to keep up with the increase in ambient pressure. This could occur if the diver fell off a support when there was a lot of slack in the lifeline, or the angle of the lifeline allowed horizontal distance to swing to vertical distance.[45][46][47][48]

This happens in a Diving helmet - even the most modern Kirby Morgan has a check valve.
These are lessons learned (and now forgotten) from a 100years ago.
The story goes - they found his boots in the helmet and his wedding ring in the gauge.
Much worse happens when you have the end of a ruptured hose in your mouth.
Don't mess with pressure and soft tissue (you).

[akopac]

Saw this on eBay.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Portable-Sc...-127632-2357-0

[DeBe]

Havnt had any trouble yet, but will fit a non return valve thanks, had not considered that.

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by DeBe

Havnt had any trouble yet...

If you had, you wouldn't be here to talk about it...

[Simi 60]

A reg on eBay is $30 FFS.

[ozdigennaro]

There are plenty of professional compressors for shallow water diving. if you value your health, your safety, your lungs - get a good one. not a place to skimp.
And, if you can snorkel to fifteen feet, you have your escape path already practiced.
oz

[Jammer]

Originally Posted by ozdigennaro

There are plenty of professional compressors for shallow water diving. if you value your health, your safety, your lungs - get a good one. not a place to skimp.
And, if you can snorkel to fifteen feet, you have your escape path already practiced.
oz

A freediving ascent is very different from an emergency ascent when on scuba or an air line


On scuba or an airline you must exhale forcefully during the ascent to avoid pulmonary barotrauma which can be fatal. People die this way every year



When freediving/snorkeling you hold your breath until near the surface to reduce the swimming effort involved in the ascent.

[Pauls]

You guys are actually saying that equipment failure puts a divers life at risk at 6' depth? One stroke from the surface? You equate a rinky dink hookah rated to 12' to hard hat diving? Hard hat is serious business. Is there anyone on this forum who hasn't dove deeper than 6' without any breathing rig at all? You all appear to be just fine.

I'm an ex professional diver. I need no lectures on diving equipment or diving safety. I'm simply here to make the point that the dangers of equipment failure at single digit depths is being exagerated.

That said, there are individuals who should not dive, period. And for those individuals quality of equipment will not make up for the lack of ability to deal with problems, because any equipment can fail. For those who are reasonably able to deal with air supply failure a few feet below the surface this is just simply not a big deal. Better equipment will give you better service and more reliability. It is well worth purchasing.

[Jammer]

Originally Posted by Pauls

You guys are actually saying that equipment failure puts a divers life at risk at 6' depth? One stroke from the surface?

It happens. There was a guy who died diving for golf balls on a homemade hookah not that long ago. Read the A&I (accidents and incidents) section at Scubaboard and the DAN (Diver's Alert Network) reports every year -- I do. Part of my strategy for staying alive. Depth is a factor in some fatalities but many of them occur in shallow water or even at the surface.

[DeBe]

Panic in a diving incident is what can be fatal. Back when i was 25 years old i could comfortably dive to 80ft on a Hooka. Now 10-12ft is deep enough now im 73. Thanks for some of the information pointed out here, you are never too old to learn.