The OPV Recall: Illustrates why you should check all your gear today.
Sunday, February 7th, 2010This is Seeded from John McKenzie of http://blog.wetcatscuba.com/?p=704
it is much too important NOT to spread this virally. . . don’t count on the manufacturers. . they don’t have your best interests in mind.
We can take care of your Dive Rite wing OPVs if you need help. Welcome to the Tribe called K2!
By John McKenzie, on February 7th, 2010
You giant stride from the gate of the dive boat into the cold swells of the Pacific Northwest’s emerald sea. But unlike on other entries you don’t bob quickly back to the surface with your OK sign beaming. “What’s up?! I am sinking!” goes through your mind. You have an important first choice – whether or not to panic. No panic and you have some good options for recovery and more dives. Panic and you may have only a few minutes before drowning.
That was just one scenario that went through my mind upon a recent discovery while cleaning my dive gear. Thankfully I was not jumping off the back of a boat with my defective gear; instead I was in the comfort of my garage trying to understand why my Dive Rite wing was blowing air out from the lower dump valve. I shuddered as I watched the corroded spring that holds the valve closed and the air inside crumble to bits in my hand. Luckily, I dodged that bullet, as did my partner, my friend and dive shop owner Grant, and the owners of every Dive Rite wing recently inspected by another local dive shop owner at his shop.
The story I wanted to be able to write was one that told how the folks that run dive equipment companies, most likely divers themselves, are extra vigilant and responsive to safety issues with their products. I wanted to hear that upon finding one corroded stainless spring, that was never supposed to rust under any dive conditions, they immediately launched a full scale investigation and rapidly notify dive shops and customers of the potential threat to their life. That’s the responsible thing to do. And when you read this in the recall statement, “…the company is working closely with the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPC) and has instituted a VOLUNTARY recall…,” it spins the impression that they “recently” found a problem and are taking quick action to protect divers.
But I cannot tell that comforting story. The story of what we learned
shouts loudly this message to every diver, “If you want to maintain good odds of coming back alive, do not depend on the manufacture, the dive shop, the government recall, you must check your own gear often and have regular professional maintenance.” From our research and many news stories we have seen over the years, we can be confident that the Dive Rite OPV recall story is just one example of how the incentives for a company NOT to respond quickly to prevent injury or death can muddy the ethical waters. It is not all bad news. It does appear that months before the Dive Rite recall, Halcyon, finding the same problem, did take responsible steps in the interest of safety. But, given what we learned about the timeline at Dive Rite, it is possible the even Halcyon found bad springs well before the recall was instituted. From talking directly with Dive Rite staff there is evidence that Dive Rite was much slower to respond and may have only done a recall to cover their butts. It shows that we dare not overestimate the good folks that run our favorite dive business. The sad reality is that CYA and money fears can and often do eclipse thoughts of your safety in business.
THE PROBLEM
The spring that holds the over pressure valve (OPV or dump valve) closed on the (some unknown) number of BCD wings sold by Dive Rite (and by Halcyon and maybe other brands) was supposed to be made of quality marine grade 316 stainless steel. However, someone at an unknown factory in (wait for it…) China made some of the springs out of not so good 304 stainless steel. After a while of being immersed in saltwater, these bad springs will corrode and literally crumble to bits. Before they completely crumble the bladder will start leaking air. And if you are not one of the few divers that routinely inspect for these kind of things, you may get a leak when you are hanging from it over a significant amount of water.
We know of at least three equipment sellers that bought problem OPV springs from the same supplier. These are Dive Rite, Halcyon and Custom Buoyancy Inc. (CBI). CBI is reported to be out of business. Could there be more? The general consensus is yes. Most OPVs on scuba BCDs and other equipment look and work alike. Other suppliers could be getting their valves from the same Chinese factory. But this is a hard trail to follow. Dive Rite claimed to not know the name of the manufacturer and while admitting that divers should be warned, they flat out refused to tell us the name of their supplier. We have filed a freedom of information request with the CPSC…stay tuned.
THE RECALL STORY
As mentioned above, Halcyon came out first with the recall on October 1, 2009 (CPC date) (see our article at http://blog.wetcatscuba.com/?p=563). Our conversation with Halcyon took a much different tone than with Dive Rite. At the least, Halcyon seemed to have a culture of serious concern for their customers’ safety and an indication that they took every step to “do the right thing.” They saw the problem and instituted the recall on their own accord (although a Dive Rite marketing director said she believes Halcyon had in “incident” that prompted the recall). Halcyon staff were not sure of the quantity of bad springs, so they made the recall broad in scope to cover over 20,300 units. They later augmented the recall to ask dealers to replace springs in those units within the range, even if they showed no signs of corrosion. Our Halcyon contact said, “We realized that some units may not have been in the water long enough to corrode, but could corrode later. Why take chance for the measly price of a spring. We told dealers to replace them and we would cover it.” Unlike Dive Rite, Halcyon did not wait for or require their dealers to ask for replacements. They sent the dealers replacement springs with a log book to track replacements. They also created two informational/instructional videos and posted them on their website (see link above).
Dive Rite’s recall came in late December 2009. Why did Dive Rite wait over two months? Did it take them that long to figure out that they also had some bad springs. Not according to their own staff. One Dive Rite source admitted that they saw the problem well over a year before the recall. I was surprised that told me that they only instituted the recall because they knew that people, seeing the Halcyon recall, would sooner or later would figure out that Dive Rite springs were the same. This would look bad if they did not do a “voluntary” recall like Halcyon. He also played down the likelihood that anyone would get hurt by this problem.
Previous to this call, we spoke with another staff member of Dive Rite who also minimized the the numbers, claiming “maybe 100 world wide and only 35 in the U.S. We already had 2 cases in our house, the shop owner who sold us the wings said his was also bad. The second person I talked with was another area Dive Rite dealer. He said, “every spring we checked so far in the 2006-2208 year range tuned out to be corroded.” Other dealers reported similar findings. Now either those bad wings were highly targeted to the Pacific Northwest or our Dive Rite contact was low-balling. We later talked with another Dive Rite contact that admitted the numbers were likely much higher.
I asked Dive Rite if they have sent replacement springs out to their dealers (as Halcyon did) or do dealers have to request them? The response was, “we are sending free replacement springs to dealers, when they ask for them. We do this because we would like to get them to tell us how many they need. We don’t want to send them a pile of springs they may not need. And we need at least some of the serial numbers and counts for the CPC paper work.” During my conversations with Dive Rite, I told them that our LDS had given us a two non-dive rite springs to help get us back in the water. I also told them the shop owner’s spring was bad and he had sold a bunch of Wings within the recall period. A week later he received only four springs from Dive Rite.
After our calls to Dive Rite, the marketing director called us and complained that we were just looking to slam them. She wanted to know “who, at Dive Rite told us those things.” She then admitted that they did see bad springs 18 months before the recall, but claimed that they did take immediate action. She said they notified all dealers about the springs and put an announcement in each of their monthly newsletters since then. However, when we checked more sources we found little evidence of her claims. A former Dive Rite sales representative, who was a liaison between Dive Rite and Dive Rite dealers during the this time said he never heard about the spring problem. He sent us all of his monthly newsletters for the past year and we found no mention. Other dealers had similar stories.
THE COMPANY LINE
Here is the text from the Dive Rite site at: http://www.diverite.com/products/service/opvspringrecall/
Dive Rite takes the safety of our consumers very seriously. In cooperation with the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, Dive Rite is issuing a voluntary recall on various Dive Rite Wings.
The Over Pressurization Valve (OPV) springs found on Dive Rite wings manufactured between June 2006 and October 2008 may rust and fail allowing the buoyancy compensator devices to leak. The wings may be red, blue or black in color and have serial numbers falling between 42000 and 72000. The following models are affected by this recall: Travel, Venture, Rec, Trek, Classic, Nomad and Super Wings It does not affect EXP or 360-branded wings. The recall does not affect lift bags, surface marker tubes or other Dive Rite inflatable devices.
We apologize for any inconvenience and encourage Dive Rite wing customers to contact your local Dive Rite dealer or Dive Rite directly at 800-495-1046 with any questions.
THE MORAL OF THE STORY SHOULD BE REPEATED
Don’t be fooled into thinking this is just a story of the failings of one dive equipment manufacturer. Even for the most responsible of companies, it will still take months for them to institute an official recall. Dive equipment manufacturers need to do better. But, if you want to improve you chances of living through you next dive, get religious about checking and maintaining your own gear. We dive weekly and on every group dive trip I can remember someone on the trip had found they had some kind for equipment problem just before or during the dive.
While you do need to have a professional check your gear on a regular schedule, most of the problems found can be fixed by any diver (e.g. loose hoses, bad o-rings). The training agencies offer specialty courses to help you get more knowledgeable about maintaining your kit. This spring problem is simple to check and fix. If you find any bad springs in any other brands (or any other equipment failure patterns) let us know (john@jmckenzie.com) and we will warn our fellow divers.
The incentives for companies to take the wrong path cannot survive if divers will report problems, demand better gear and better ethics from your equipment vendors. These companies have the technology to catch problems and communicate the resolutions quickly to dealers, shops and customers and only some are doing it. You can also vote with your wallet for companies that have the good values to build safe equipment, with parts from manufacturers they know and trust, and when they do have a problem to handle it quickly and responsibly.
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