Update: a 60-year-old tender on the Gulf job made me rethink my whole check valve habit

Xena Adams · 2026-10-17T10:30:04.469407+00:00

I was doing a pre-dive walk around the pump intake off Galveston last Tuesday when this older tender, Ray, asked why I always crack the check valve twice instead of just looking at the gauge. I gave him my usual answer about habit and he shook his head and reminded me that gauges stick and a stuck gauge at 40 feet is a lot worse than a wasted 10 seconds on deck. He then showed me how he used to do it back in the 80s when they were running 3 inch lines and half the gauges were borrowed from the rig's spare bin. It stuck with me because I've been doing it that way for 6 years without ever really knowing why, and Ray's reason was way better than mine. So now I flip the valve twice and watch the pressure actually move, not just trust the needle. What little deck habits did you pick up from an old timer that ended up having a real reason behind them?

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Update: a 60-year-old tender on the Gulf job made me rethink my whole check valve habit | Commercial Divers - Babble Community