Quote: (Originally Posted by
grazie42)
Someone who´s done Dir-f (and passed) told me that the valve-shutdown procedure on doubles is to start with the right post.
If that´s correct it seems as if you´re gambling your gas-reserve on "guessing right" instead of ensuring that you save half your gas and then try to solve the problem, knowing that you still have gas left. That seems like a bad idea to me, I know from experience that if the problem is in the 1st stage (as opposed to a freeflowing reg) it´s very hard to determine which one is the one with the problem...
A couple of things.
The Valve Drill always starts with the Right post. This doesn't mean that in the event of a problem you always go for the right post regardless. The reason we have a standardised Valve drill is so that when you are practicing, both you and your team have a framework to work to, and know what is going on.
In a real failure, you go for the post where you think the issue is. You then breath down/de-pressurise the reg. If the bubbles stop, you got it right, if they don't you go for the isolator and involve your team.
If you just blindly go for the isolator you've not gained anymore feedback, so to get any feedback you've now got to shut another valve.
Most of the time you will get the correct valve on your first go, so in these situations you've saved more gas. If you don't, or if it's a problem that can't be solved by shutting down a reg (Neck Oring, Manifold failure etc) then you need your team anyway, and that's going to take a little more time, so you now shutdown your isolator.
In any situation you should be signalling your team for assistance as soon as you realise you have an issue.
HTH
John