Low Pressure Inflator Stuck? What Next?

So, you are out on a great dive and go to put a little air in your BCD. As you press the button a little air goes in and you release the button, but something strange happens, the button sticks in the down position and air keeps flowing into the vest. Why did this happen? Normally, there are two things that can happen, either there is debris (like sand and silt) in the valve or the inflator hasn't been serviced in a looooooonnnnnnggggg time and it sticks form lack of lubrication.

You are asking - does this ever really happen? Well, yes it does. It happened to me in rental gear several years back and I hear stories every once in a while of a fully stuck open low pressure inflator. Often times we repair inflators that are partially sticking, a normal condition before it sticks all the way open.

What do you do? The first and best approach is to immediately lift your right shoulder and pull your shoulder dump to get the air out quickly. One word of warning, you should test your shoulder dump and make sure it can let out all of the air with the inflator valve fully pressed down.

With the shoulder dump open, you can swim to your buddy and get them to disconnect your low pressure inflator (if you are deep), or you can go ahead and swim to the surface and disconnect your LPI there. If you have great dexterity, you can hold your shoulder dump open while disconnecting your LPI as well.

Don't have a shoulder dump, or the shoulder dump isn't letting enough air out, you are going to have to get that inflator disconnected quickly. Make sure you practice disconnecting this underwater wearing the gear. It a lot different disconnecting the LPI underwater under pressure than on the surface. Practice in a safe area like the sand just off the beach in case you have a problem.

Another option would be to hold up your deflator and keep it open, this may or may not work depending on the inflator model (see above when trying this out).

Worst case, if can't stop the BCD form inflating, you'll have to flare out and slow your ascent as much as possible.

All of this should make you think about a couple of things - will I react correctly if my LPI sticks? Will my BCD function as expected and can it dump air if needed? Can I disconnect my LPI underwater? Greg