Had a weird pressure reading on a job in Lake Erie last week

We were doing a hull clean on a 200-foot barge and my Kirby Morgan 37 mask started showing 1500 psi when the tender said the bank was at 3000. I had to surface and we found a tiny crack in the whip hose fitting. Anyone else had a gauge lie like that before a dive?

3 comments

3 Comments

ryan_hayes22mo ago

Man, a gauge giving you the all-clear while your air is halfway gone is the worst kind of prank. My old console once read a steady 500 psi for a solid ten minutes in a murky river, which was great for my heart rate. Turns out the capillary tube was just clogged with silt. It's like your gear decides to play a joke right when you need it to be serious. Always makes you triple-check everything for a month afterwards. Glad you caught it on the surface and not when that tiny crack decided to become a big problem.

valwest2mo ago

Honestly that "triple-check everything" part is the real problem. Tbh gear should just work, and if a gauge fails it's a sign you need better stuff or more maintenance. Ngl calling it a prank is kinda soft, it's just a broken tool. Relying on any single gauge is asking for trouble anyway. You should always have a backup plan and know your air use without staring at a console. Getting spooked for a month means you were too trusting in the first place.

julia8432mo ago

Yeah, a clogged spg is why I always tap mine before checking.