Inflator Octo?

[cyclone]

Anyone used an inflator octo? Do you usually take your regular octopus out or is it okey to leave it on your first stage?

[turtle_guy]

I took mine off because you donate your primary and put the inflator octo in your mouth. But if you wanted to leave it on there is no reason not to. Other than the obvious reason its an extra hose.

[ScubaToys Larry]

When I'm teaching, I leave the octo and the inflator octo, just so I can demo different ways to do skills depending on the gear you are using. When diving for just me - I'd take off the octo.

As far as do people use them, there are very mixed feelings on them - I like them, but a lot of folks say they don't. There are multiple threads on the inflator octo here:

Inflator/Octo Combo

Standard Octo versus Integrated Octo?

[awap]

Unless you have some special considerations like Larry mentioned, remove the 3rd 2nd stage reg as it is an unnecessary potential failure point and clutter. Add it to your save a dive kit.

[scubamike]

I love the Octo/Inflators. I have an Atomic SS1 that was hard to breathe. It was sent to Scubatoys for servicing but haven't tried it yet. I like the fact you have one hose less to worry about and the Secondary it's always near you so you can just grab it.

I can perfectly understand other's people point of view though. But it's my/your choice.

[charlesml3]

Huge amount of controversy surrounding octo inflators. It never ceases to amaze me how emotional people get over this discussion.

Larry and I are of the opinion that they're fine and one alternate air source is as good as another.

Others will tell you that you're going to die if you own one. I have yet to see any compelling evidence to support that claim.

-Charles

[RonFrank]

Originally Posted by cyclone

Anyone used an inflator octo? Do you usually take your regular octopus out or is it okey to leave it on your first stage?

I use a Zeagle Stiletto for my travel BC, and it has an octo inflator. I remove my backup from my primary first stage, and put it on my backup first stage which I use with my pony. So I have three second stages when I dive tropical with a pony, and that is no problem.

The argument that leaving a backup/octo on your kit when diving an Octo Inflater is a failure point, entanglement hazard, and unnecessary grows a bit tiresome. Maybe if you are diving Kelp, or overhead environments it has more merit. For the diving 99% of the world does, less so. I've left my backup on with my Octo inflater on many a dive. I use a necklace, and am used to that position as my backup, so I could make the argument that for me, this is a more comfortable way to dive.

[JugglingMonkeys]

I use an octo/inflator but have an additional dedicated octo so that when i travel and take my regs but not my BC I've still got an octo.

[mulefeathers]

I use a ScubaPro Air 2. Ditched the octo. The main thing I like about it is you don't have the extra hoses clipped to your BC. Everything is stream lined out easier setup.

[PlatypusMan]

Originally Posted by ScubaToys Larry

When I'm teaching, I leave the octo and the inflator octo, just so I can demo different ways to do skills depending on the gear you are using. When diving for just me - I'd take off the octo.

I leave both on, partially for the training scenario cited, but also because I don't particularly like the idea of doing lots of switching out of gear on my reg. It's a personal choice, and I'm still here to tell about my dives, so....