bubble noise

[cliffgollus]

I was away from diving for quite awhile but never lost my fascination with the underwater world, now I'm back! I quickly realized one of the reasons why I have always loved free diving was the noise of exhaled bubbles from a single hose rig breaking past my ears. Two thoughts; I have a two hose rig but there is no way to connect a lo-pressure line to a BC unless the regulator is modified. Has anyone done this?

Second thought is that if the exhaled air (from a singlehose rig)could be routed to a diffuser in back of your head, smaller bubbles should be quieter, and exhausting behind your head keeps them away from your ears. If a check valve was put at the entrance to the diffuser (keeping water from flooding the exhale hose), back pressure (resistance to exhalation) should be kept minimal at least while in a horozontal position. Any thoughts on these two things?

Cliff Gollus

 

[Jon]

H-VALVE

Cliff,

I have an old double hose that I dive with once in a while. I was nervous about the regulator quitting on me, since it is older than I am, and decided to go with an H-valve.

An H-valve is a tank valve that lets you run two regulators off of the same single tank. Now, I can run my double-hose off of the main post, which happens to be a yoke, and run my back-up single hose regulator off of the second post, which has a 200 bar DIN valve on it.

The set-up works great and allows me to run a drysuit and BC at the same time. I can even have a back-up reg with a pressure guage.

If you still want to silence those bubbles, I have seen people wrap their double hose regulator in foam rubber. THis allows the bubbles to diffuse through the foam into smaller, quieter, bubbles.

Hope this helps,

Jon

 

[cliffgollus]

Thanks Jon,

I'm trying to locate an "H" valve so I can install it on one of my tanks and do some experimenting.

I'm still thinking of rigging up a diffuser of some sort for a single hose regulator. Since most of my diving now is done away from home using rented tanks, some way to quiet the exhaust stream without having to modify tanks would be useful.

Cliff

 

[Beck_narco_dive]

Silent diving

You could always have a chat with your trusty dive center and go for a semi or closed ciruit rebreather which will:
semi closed rebreather, genrally reduce the amount of exhaltion bubbles that you get
closed circuit rebreather, there are no exhlation bubbles at all.

you will be suprised how noisy it is when you bail out on to open circuit or even put some kit on and get back in to normal open cicuit kit....

hmmm silent diving

 

[aquadog]

hey everyone
i have used scuba for spearfishing since 1986,it wasen't until recently i was goofing around freediving for fish in a shallow spot i have in 14 fsw.i couldn't belive how much more fish i saw without the bubble noise.if you find a way to silence the bubble trouble let me know.
dive safe
aquadog:hmm

 

[loopy]

Yo Cliff - ditch the tanks and pull the big fins back out

 

[will_tekkie]

My first idea to do that is using a expansion chamber which even can be attached in a standard second stage to manage noise produced by bubbles....a semi esferical one ???? with internal baffles and small exhaust holes...this is just a idea but maybe with some studies ( to know the external shape and the internal stuff needed) and skill could be possible.. if size is too bulky maybe to reach a noise level suppression a doble hose system could be required...i´m thinking in something similar to a regulator scubapro D400 with a bigger and highly modified exhaust tee...