SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Electrical shock / short

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20230803-460A3-2147346028. Severity: Incident, No Injury. Product: Blu3 NOMAD (Blu3 Nomad tankless diving system. This is an electric, on-demand "hookah" style diving system designed to operate at depths up to 30 ft.). Incident: Incident Type: Drowning Hazard Product: Blu3 Nomad (New) Purchase Date: 1-July-2023 User: [REDACTED] Description of Event: On my second time out with my new Nomad the unit quit on me with full battery in 25 ft of water. This was on the second of two short dives. On the first, the pump changed behavior and breathing became very labored around 20 ft. I surfaced, and the unit performed fine at shallower depth. I assumed that, perhaps, the unit just performs less efficiently the deeper you go, and decided to give it another try. Upon reaching around the same depth (20ft), breathing again became very labored, along with a noticeable change in the behavior of the pump. I continued to the bottom approximately 5 feet deeper (25ft), and as I started to ascend over concerns about the level of breathing difficulty, the unit ceased to pump air all-together. Fortunately, I had a [REDACTED] and ascended using this device. The Nomad began pumping and free-flowing from the regulator when I made it back to about 15 feet. While I have no apparent injuries, if someone more prone to panic had experienced this catastrophic failure, the outcome could have easily been serious injury or death. After doing some research, I learned that earlier units had been recalled for a similar issue. To be clear, this is a new unit purchased on 1-July-2023 and received on 24-July-2023. I immediately reached out to Blu3 and reported the incident, and sent a second email when they had not responded within 24 hours. They did respond this morning (two days after the incident) with a very brief email of recognition