caymaniac
Contributor
jfoutz:Chickenbone,
Congratulations on your purchase and welcome to the family of Poseidon owners. I choose life support equipment based on performance and reliability, pretty much without regard to cost, and I think Poseidon makes the best regs on the market. If I didnt dive Xstreams, Id be diving Jetstreams. And if I didnt dive those, Id dive with Atomic T1s or M1s. If I didnt dive that, Id dive something from Apeks.
All of my buddies dive with Jetstreams, so Ive spent a good amount of time breathing from them during air sharing drills. The Jetstream in a very good and capable reg. As far as differences between the Jetstream and the Xstream, the Xstream has a slightly smoother feel to it and a slightly smoother valve opening. The second stage body of the Xstream is a little smaller, and is a little drier breathing because of the placement of the exhaust value compared to the placement on the Jetstream. Also, the Jetstream needs an (inexpensive) plastic cap on the first stage for very cold water (ice diving), while the Xstream doesnt.
As far as quirky is concerned, that all depends on how good of a service tech you have working on them. Poseidons have to be tuned and flowed properly in order to breath properly. A good Poseidon tech is kind of hard to find unfortunately. It isnt that theyre particularly hard to work on, its just that there are a few tricks and theres definitely a learning curve involved. If a tech doesnt work on many Poseidons, he or she generally isnt going to be terrific at tuning them for that reason. Also, Poseidon sends the regs from the factory untuned, and they need to be tuned and flowed before first use. Of the people that have tried a Poseidon and not liked them, the odds are very very very good that they got ahold of one that was not tuned properly. Generally if theyre poorly tuned, they blast air at you so hard that the back of your throat hurts.
Use the purge value with a light touch, and remember to tilt your head to the right when clearing them. Good luck!
I used to have a Cyclon and loved it, you are right when you say that the tech's are hard to find. My Cyclon was stolen on a dive trip a few years back as well as the octo. The reg I have now doesn't match up .to the Cyclon and your'e right about the the statement at 100 you'll really love it. I did however have a freeflow once in awhile until you tip it the right way while boarding or just off the boat.