When you are blasting with a long hose length, you may have noticed that the response time of a pneumatic deadman system takes longer than necessary. That is because of the time it takes a pneumatic signal to reach the deadman handle then travel past that to the valves on the blast pot before it can activate.
Safety with blasting is very important and the time it takes from when the deadman handle is activated when the blasting stops is crucial. To shorten that time is to know you will be much safer while blasting.
THE ELECTRIC DEADMAN SYSTEM
When the pneumatic control lines exceed 100 ft (30 m) it is greatly recommended to use an electric deadman system. With the remote control, the deadman reacts instantaneously.
AN ELECTRIC DEADMAN = 5X FASTER RESPONSE!
Remember to check your blast pot valves before investing in an electric deadman system, because the quality of the valves on the blast pot can make the biggest difference in response time.