Inspiration quick connects and argon hose

[john j]

Wanted to get some ideas on how to avoid a potential problem...

Last weekend on the descent of a dive I ran out of argon. Went to add gas to my drysuit and got nothing. No major emergency but of course I aborted the dive. Since I was getting a bit of suit squeeze as I started to go back, I decided to add some gas to my drysuit. My drysuit valve uses a standard BC fitting. I added air from a stage bottle that had an Inspiration quick connect whip on it. While the Inspiration quick connect will not permanently stay in place on my drysuit valve, it will allow gas flow if I hold it in place while pressing the drysuit inflate button so I was able to add some gas to my drysuit and relieve the squeeze. The potential problem is that now my argon hose was just hanging there and the argon hose will connect (but not perfectly) to the diluent nipple on the counterlung if I'm dumb enough to put it there. If I ever got that argon hose mixed up with a diluent whip hose and did a diluent flush with argon thinking it was a breathable gas, it would be the start of a really bad day. While the argon hose doesn't mate perfectly with the counterlung nipple, I can get it to stay in place somewhat and flow gas if I try a few times. I'm looking for ideas on what can be done to prevent the argon hose from being accidentally connected to the counterlung nipple. A few things came to my mind already.

1. Install a drysuit valve/hose with a totally unique connection that will not mate with the Inspiration counterlung nipples. Disadvantage is that you can not inflate the drysuit using stage bottle whips in an emergency, but this totally prevents accidental argon connection to the counterlungs.

2. Mark the argon hose with something you can see and feel to help keep the hoses striaght. Doesn't prevent accidental connection though.

3. Adjust argon hose length or routing so it can't reach the counterlung nipple. Not sure that's really possible.

4. After connecting any hose to the counterlung nipples, pull smartly on the hose. If it is the argon hose, it should come off because the Inspiration nipples don't hold standard BC hoses very well.

Perhaps some combination of the above ideas.

Any other ideas?