Spent 4 hours trying to figure out why my drysuit inflator was stuck open

Went out for a morning job up near Port Townsend last Thursday. Splash in, hit about 20 feet, and my suit just starts inflating like crazy. I'm thinking great, another valve problem. Surface, take the inflator apart, clean it, put it back together. Still does it. Switch to my backup inflator from my bag. Same thing. Turns out the LP hose on my reg had a tiny little piece of debris stuck in the quick disconnect fitting. Never seen that before in 8 years. Took swapping out the whole hose to figure it out. Anyone else had something dumb like that eat up your whole day?

2 comments

2 Comments

emmag221mo ago

Just start with the hose every time now, learned that lesson the hard way too. A tiny speck in the quick disconnect can act like a one-way valve and drive you nuts. Saves you ripping apart a perfectly good inflator when it's a $20 hose swap instead.

gavin6921mo ago

Wait, a speck of dirt can turn a quick disconnect into a check valve? I had no idea that could happen. I've been chasing an issue on my compressor for weeks where it builds pressure slow and I was about to tear the whole pump apart. I would have never guessed a $20 hose swap could fix that kind of problem. That's wild. I might just go buy a new hose right now and see if it fixes my issue before I start pulling wrenches.