My wife's and my primary regs both freeflowed at same time.

[Bert van den Berg]

Neither had ever done so before. We entered the water off a beach with a 2 foot swell breaking on the beach. Hauled the gear through the water past the breakers and both our primary regs started freeflowing. The secondaries were ok. Pressing purge putton on the wife's reg a few times stoped the freeflow but mine continued to freeflow for several minutes despite repeated purging.

Water was not particularly cold at about 65 degrees. Hundreds of dives in the regs.

I'm guessing that somehow sand stirred up by the breaking waves got into the regs somehow but find it strange that only our primaries freeflowed and both at the same time.

Everything going to the LDS for a (past due) service when they open.

 

[flyboy08]

Try putting you finger in the mouth piece...this should stop the free flow. If not, service time.

 

[Bert van den Berg]

Thanks for the suggestion. One more bit of information... I tried breathing through my freeflowing regulator and it breathed ok. Whenever I stoped inhaling it continued to freeflow while the reg was in my mouth. After a few minutes started working ok. Lost about 75 bar of air in several minutes.

 

[Nemrod]

Most regulators today have a Dive/Pre-dive selector knob. Rotate the knob to the Pre-dive position for entry and exit and lallygagging on the surface. If the regulator also has a "breathing resistance" adjustment knob, turn that to a higher resistance for entry and exit.

Flood the regulator as soon as possible on a beach entry, try not to have the mouthpiece up as it floods. If it free flows place your thumb or tongue into the mouthpiece to stop it. If there is FOD in the regulator, whacking the unit with the palm of your hand may dislodge the sand, dirt dobber nest, spider, hermit crab, whatever.

This sounds like user error, not a regulator problem.

N

 

[divad]

Do the regulators have a manual venturi adjustment? My second-stage regulator service manual suggests setting it so that it freeflows on the surface with the venturi adjustment at about half open.

 

[Bert van den Berg]

Do the regulators have a manual venturi adjustment? My second-stage regulator service manual suggests setting it so that it freeflows on the surface with the venturi adjustment at about half open.

No external adjustments on the regs. I opened all four and found half a teaspoon of sand in three of them. This was AFTER I rinsed the regs in fresh water! From now on I will open them and clean them after each dive to make sure there is no collection of rubbish inside.

There is only one adjustment screw internal to the regulator. That must set the breathing pressure. No obvious wear on any of the parts so just reassembled them. Unless parts need replacement it seems that NZ$230 for a service is a bit expensive.

 

[cerich]

What type of regs

 

[Diver below 83]

No external adjustments on the regs. I opened all four and found half a teaspoon of sand in three of them. This was AFTER I rinsed the regs in fresh water! From now on I will open them and clean them after each dive to make sure there is no collection of rubbish inside.

There is only one adjustment screw internal to the regulator. That must set the breathing pressure. No obvious wear on any of the parts so just reassembled them. Unless parts need replacement it seems that NZ$230 for a service is a bit expensive.

sounds like they got dragged through the sand on the beach or the shallows

 

[Coztick]

sounds like they got dragged through the sand on the beach or the shallows

Sounds like a great reason to bungee your alternate and use your primary reg.
No chance for sand to get in unless you're dragging them across the beach.

 

[BlueTrin]

Try putting you finger in the mouth piece...this should stop the free flow. If not, service time.

If I freeflow at the surface, I put two fingers over the mouthpiece and dip the regulator in the water mouthpiece facing down

When it is cold I make sure to adjust the knobs on my regulator to reduce the change of free flow

EDIT: I realised only now that you mentioned that you don’t have any adjustment knobs