Warning: I hit 200 dives last week and realized something scary about my gauges

So I passed 200 commercial dives on a construction job near the Savannah river last Thursday. Nothing wild happened during the dive itself, but when I got back on deck I started checking my gear like I always do. My pressure gauge was reading about 15 PSI higher than the shop's test bench showed when I got it serviced 6 months ago. That little difference could have thrown off my bottom time calculations on deeper dives, you know? I compared it against three other guys' gauges on site and they were all over the place. One guy's was off by almost 30 PSI from his last calibration. Makes me wonder how many times I've been running on bad numbers without even knowing. Have any of you noticed your gauges drifting like that between services?

2 comments

2 Comments

janac514d ago

Have you ever looked at your gear and just felt like you were playing a game of darts blindfolded? I swear, my pressure gauge might as well have a mind of its own. I once had a buddy tell me his gauge was off by 40 PSI and he didn't even realize it until he swapped tanks on a shallow wreck dive. Made me wonder if I've been holding my breath wrong for years or something. At this rate, I'm half convinced my gauges are just there for decoration.

elizabeth_ramirez4d ago

Did @janac51 ever check if his gauge was reading high or low? I had a regulator once that was fine on the surface but started sticking around 100 feet, and it made me question everything about my air consumption.