Here’s a fun one… I’ve got an Atomic B2 that sometimes breathes funny. It doesn’t do it on every dive, and it doesn’t do it at a certain depth or tank pressure. Sometimes it acts up at the start of the dive other times it’s mid dive or even when coming up the mooring line. It acts up at a constant depth or with depth changes.
What’s it doing? Well that’s hard to describe. If I sip the reg it breathes just fine. If I breathe hard from the reg its fine. If I take a medium breath from it, it will supply air, make a pop sound, air feels like it’s being interrupted, then give a brief rush of air and then go back to normal. What I’m not sure of is when it pops, and you feel the resistance, is if I’m thinking the rush of air that follows is more than normal, or if I’m assuming it is since it lacked pressure for that split second.
I’ve had 3 different techs look at the reg, none of them can duplicate the issue (like I mentioned it will be fine for 10+ dives, then randomly act up then be fine on the next dive). This all seems to have happened over the winter break, which would be from December to March. The 1st stage was overhauled last May of 2020 and a new piston was installed and it was environmentally sealed. They just overhauled the 2nd stage in attempts to fix this issues. They put in a new poppet, spring, and balance chamber. IP is good, cracking pressure is good, no IP creep. They are at a loss. What’s weird is I can be in the pool, get the reg to mess up, and then turn off the tank, depressurize / turn back on and it will be fine. I’ve attached a sound clip of it making the pop / crack sound. This is on the surface but it sounds same under water.
Does anyone have any ideas what this could be? The shop has pretty much determined that they don’t know what’s causing. The reg still “works” but it is a little unsettling that they can’t seem to figure out what’s wrong.
here is the audio file:
AA B2 breathe.m4a
What’s it doing? Well that’s hard to describe. If I sip the reg it breathes just fine. If I breathe hard from the reg its fine. If I take a medium breath from it, it will supply air, make a pop sound, air feels like it’s being interrupted, then give a brief rush of air and then go back to normal. What I’m not sure of is when it pops, and you feel the resistance, is if I’m thinking the rush of air that follows is more than normal, or if I’m assuming it is since it lacked pressure for that split second.
I’ve had 3 different techs look at the reg, none of them can duplicate the issue (like I mentioned it will be fine for 10+ dives, then randomly act up then be fine on the next dive). This all seems to have happened over the winter break, which would be from December to March. The 1st stage was overhauled last May of 2020 and a new piston was installed and it was environmentally sealed. They just overhauled the 2nd stage in attempts to fix this issues. They put in a new poppet, spring, and balance chamber. IP is good, cracking pressure is good, no IP creep. They are at a loss. What’s weird is I can be in the pool, get the reg to mess up, and then turn off the tank, depressurize / turn back on and it will be fine. I’ve attached a sound clip of it making the pop / crack sound. This is on the surface but it sounds same under water.
Does anyone have any ideas what this could be? The shop has pretty much determined that they don’t know what’s causing. The reg still “works” but it is a little unsettling that they can’t seem to figure out what’s wrong.
here is the audio file:
AA B2 breathe.m4a