These High-Pressure Hose Recalls Should Have Divers Concerned

In May, it was Miflex, with its double-braided, high-pressure hoses bursting at the consoles; 17,000 had to be recalled in North America. Later in the summer, it was some Phantom high pressure hoses that had to be recalled by the manufacturer, Innovative Scuba Concepts. They two were bursting at the fitting that attaches to the first stage.

This this month, three companies, including Innovative Scuba Concepts again, are recalling high pressure hoses sold between August 2011 and August 2012. Innovative Scuba Concept is recalling 1,900 of its hoses, Trident Diving Equipment is recalling 480 and A-Plus Marine is recalling 210 of them. The importers received nine reports of burst hoses; no injuries were reported, but this is troublesome stuff for divers. What gives?

Well, regardless of brand names and different prices, the latest recall is for hoses made from the same batch. All three companies were importing their hoses from Li Chung Plastics in Taiwan. (Miflex's recalled hoses were made in-house at its Italy headquarters.) Mark Derrick, owner of technical dive shop Dive Gear Express in Pompano Beach, FL ( www.divegearexpress.com ), is convinced this was just one bad batch out of many good ones that are problem-free. "We bought our hoses from Innovative, sold gobs of them and did not have a noticeable problem. In fact, at the time of its recall this summer, we had sold about 900 of the hoses and never had a return of a defective hose."

While this may be just one bad batch, the continuous recall of tens of thousands of high-pressure hoses in less than 12 months tell us that these high-pressure hose makers -- with the companies that import them looking over their shoulders -- need to get their quality controls in order, and stop putting sport divers in jeopardy.

The current batch of recalled hoses was sold under the Phantom and Mesh Flex brand names, which were printed only on the product packaging. They have production date codes stamped into the metal fitting that attaches to the regulator with the following codes:

• Innovative Scuba Concepts: 11Q3, 11Q4 and 12Q1
• Trident Diving Equipment: T0811, T0911, T1011, T1111, T1211, T0112, and T0212
• A-Plus Marine: 11Q3, 11Q4, and 12Q1

For the details, contact Innovative Scuba Concepts at (800) 472-2740 and www.innovativescuba.com ; Trident Diving Equipment at (800) 234-3483 and www.tridentdive.com ; and A-Plus Marine at (800) 352-2360 and www.aplusmarine.com