Quote:
Originally Posted by BrettinSanAntonio
Why do you need to allow Helium to vent? Are you filling your watch with Helium before diving? Do all watches come with Helium? Does my watch have Helium from the factory? Couldn't I just buy a Helium free watch?
|
In saturation diving, the divers live in a helium/oxygen environment. No nitrogen. Over time, helium molecules, which are very tiny, will infiltrate the watch and the watch becomes saturated with helium, much like a human. On decompression, if the helium cannot escape fast enough the same way it got in, the watch would experience explosive decompression. Once a helium valve equipped commercial watch such as the Sea Dweller reaches the critical point where a large enough differential pressure is encountered, the watch will off -gas the excess helium so the watch does not experience this explosive decompression. It decompresses itself.
Humans 'come up' slowly so that their bodies can off-gas naturally, to keep from bubbles forming in their bodies and causing the bends. At some point, you can be decompressing as little as 1 ft of depth per hour
