Mares Abyss 22 Navy II modification?

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jdevic

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Location
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I bought a Yoke Mares Abyss 22 Navy II after I got my AOW in the cold Ontario lakes. After a few seasons of cold water diving, I have decided that it is not for me. I have recently sold my drysuit and bought an Aqualung Mikron for travel. Instead of selling the Mares Navy, I am hoping to modify it as back up for warm water diving and maybe eventually use it as part of side mount/cave setup. A few questions:
  • Is it possible to convert it to DIN? how much is the cost of the part approx?
  • My first stage comes with an oil CWD kit - can I use it without the oil or remove the CWD kit completely? I heard there is a dry CWD kit available now?
  • Can I change the primary rubble hose to something like miflex? I think the primary LP hose is thicker than my other LP hoses.
Sorry for the noob questions. Many thanks.
 
take your reg to any authorized Mares dealer that can provide you parts and install DIN, not really a big deal, if you do it during a annual rebuild it will only cost you parts. I question why DIN, if your diving warm water, most warm water locations this side of the pond use Yoke.

Removing ENV seal kit, I would not service it in any configuration that is not recommended by the manufacturer, so unless it is in service manual (that I don't have in front of me), I would not return it to you without the Environmental seal kit installed.

Hoses are hoses. So yes you can swap to MiFlex, again, if you're not sure what you're doing, please see your LDS, yellow brass if very soft metal and stripping the threads is both easy and not a warranty item.
 
Here in western Europe that kit to convert Mares MR22 from yoke to DIN is roughly 25 euros. In the US the cost is roughly double+ what it cost here.

I have no experience with the cold water kits but the two silicone oil version and the dry kit have different form factors. I have uploaded an exploded diagram of the dry kit, but will defer to others with more experience to tell you the difference between the 2.

The MR22 has a 1/2 female threaded port marked "DFC" intended for the primary 2nd stage. You can purchase mi-flex hoses with 1/2 inch male threaded end to screw into this port or you can also get an inexpensive adapter that has a 1/2 inch male threaded section and a 3/8 inch female threaded section to screw into the first stage so that you can use a standard LP regulator hose:

DGX LP and HP Hose to First Stage Port Adapters

-Z
 

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Attached is an exploded diagram of the MR22 Navy with the parts shown for the silicone oil filled CWD, that you can use for comparison with the file in my post above.

-Z
 

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Many thanks for the info. I think i will bring it to LDS during the scheduled overhaul in March and get the DIN converted. The reason i want DIN, in addition to weight and size, is that i may want to take side mount and cave course next year at the cenotes. It seems they all use DIN.
I will ask LDS about the CWD kit at the same time. The technician mentioned the dry kit to me last year and he always complained about the hassle of changing the oil kit
 
Just be careful how much money you spend trying to “modify” this regulator.

I don’t want to be a rain cloud, but by the time you put that much time, effort and money into what is not exactly a common regulator in the tech or cave diving community, you could’ve purchased a regulator that is.

There’s lots and lots of reasons why this may not end up with you getting a satisfactory result. For one thing, there’s a lot of logistical benefits to having matching regulators when you use doubles or side mount. There’s also a lot of benefits for using a reg that others have spare parts and experience with. It is very unlikely that your Mares is going to meet either of those advantages.

And unfortunately, a lot of the money you’re about to spend isn’t something you’re ever going to get out of it. Service costs really don’t increase the value of the reg, and converting it to DIN will make it less attractive to the people for whom a Mares reg would be attractive in the first place.

It might be a much wiser idea to sell this reg just as it is right now and buy the right regulator for where you want to go. There is no doubt in my mind that if you take the money you were going to spend and add it to what you could sell it for, you would be able to buy the right regulator.

This has nothing to do with the quality of that regulator: it’s a perfectly fine regulator when used for its intended purpose. But trying to convert that to a technical regulator in a cave diving community is a bit of a square peg/round hole. It will work, but it will lose the advantages that it has in its current environment and configuration and it won’t gain the advantages that another regulator would have in the new environment.

Just a thought, from someone who has wasted way too much money trying to find less expensive incremental solutions that never quite gave me what I needed, let alone what I wanted.
 
I predominantly use Mares regs for single tank diving and converted a a couple of my non-DIN regs to DIN many years ago. Mares second stages breathe better than any other regs I have tried and own, my personal opinion.

What I did find when I started tech diving that Mares first stages don't work too well on doubles because of hose routing interfering with valves, so I bought ScubaPro Mk25s. I still use Mares MR42s on stages and MR22s on the pair of single tank regs that regularly use.

I see now that Mares have a 28XR first stage with four LP ports, which is good because the 25XR only has two LP ports which is just not enough.

Change to DIN
Keep the CWD
Put whatever hoses you want on it (I use Miflex)
 
I disagree with the sentiment expressed above. Your Mares regulator will do just fine for cave diving or side-mount diving. I would only recommend changing if you plan on migrating to tech diving where the training pipeline may impose some requirements on equipment choices.

You can convert the 1st stage for around 40 euros by swapping out the cold water parts with part # 46200859 (locking nut), you may need part # 46200861 (protective cap) as well.

Mares 46200859 Retaining Nut 1St Stage Mr 22 Evo bij sublub
Mares Protection Cap 1Stg Mr 22 Evo E-880 ** 46200861 bij sublub

If you local dive shop cannot order the parts it may be easier to source and install a CWD dry kit.

There is not much different inside between your MR22 Navy and what is inside the current lineup of Mares 1st stages.

-Z
I see now that Mares have a 28XR first stage with four LP ports, which is good because the 25XR only has two LP ports which is just not enough.

The Mares 25XR has only 2 LP ports because it is sold specifically as a pair of 1st stages, with a specific unit for the left and a specific unit for the right.

I can't imagine why anyone would buy a set of these, they lack versatility that other reg choices have, as there is nothing going on inside them that is all that different than anything else in their current lineup and the outer form factor limits their usefulness as there are not enough LP ports on either side to set them up for single tank use if desired.

-Z
 
The reason i want DIN, in addition to weight and size, is that i may want to take side mount and cave course next year at the cenotes. It seems they all use DIN.

Strongly suggest you contact an instructor or two in MX to see what they require in the way of regulators. A friend did all her cave training in MX and the only regulators her instructor permitted had to have a first stage with rotating turret and fifth port. Two that met this requirement were Apeks or Deep6. Dive Rite appears to meet this requirement, as well.
 
For anyone who has never dived SM, they are likely unaware of the unsuitability of some first stages or the awkwardness of trying to set up hose routing with a reg designed for single tank diving.

You can end up with hoses bent due to the way they have to be routed, hoses not streamlined (ballooning out) due to first stage port location, etc.

I know someone who tried diving SM for several years with AquaLung Legend first stages as he loved them so much. Eventually got tired of sub-optimal hose routing and went to Apeks XTX50 with DST first stages (rotating turret and fifth port).

@jdevic

I would keep your Mares AS IS for single tank tropical diving. Take the money you’d spend on the modifications and put it aside for a SM friendly reg after you talk to a MX cave instructor(s).

I dive SM with the Apeks XTX50 and DST first stages. I have a second set of regs, the Dive Rite SM package from DGX. I’ll split that set up for a deco reg and a backup. They’re similar enough I can mix them with my Apeks. I got cavern/intro to cave certified a month ago in a former lead/zinc mine in Wisconsin. The two other students had Dive Rite regs.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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