Apeks xtx50 vs mtx-R cold water

[Alexander Nygaard]

Hi.

I'm looking into buying new reg for my sidemount

The price is about the same, where mtx-r is cheaper.

I'm a little concerned about not beeing able to adjust my second stage with the mtx-r (i read som place that it has a horrible WOB),
And I'm concerned about the xtx freeflowing in really cold water. I'm from Denmark and some times we can ice dive here. So air and water temperature can be really ccold. And I would really love to try diving in Iceland and Norway.

Anyone who know more about the regs and can help me with, wich one of them I should buy.

Br

 

[jborg]

I have both; pick either, imho. The MTX does come tuned with a higher cracking pressure and has a fixed venturi set to "in the middle", so will indeed breathe a little harder than the XTX50 out of the box. You can adjust the cracking pressure as you like though, it's just you need a 5mm hex key instead of where the knob is mounted in the XTX50. On the other hand I expect the XTX50 to have the same cold water tolerance, once you detune it a little. I've dived the MTX in zero degree brackish water, significant ice buildup on the first stage but no problems. Not sure which first stage you're looking at with the XTX50 second, maybe a DST? That would likely work pretty much equally well.

Someone else will show up to fight me on this, no doubt, but I think adjustment knobs on second stages are overrated. Half of my second stages have them (XTX50, G250), the rest don't (MTX, Xstream), I essentially never touch it anyway, and don't feel that much of a difference in practice between any of them. I'm maybe not a picky breather.

 

[Alexander Nygaard]

Thanks.

So it's easy to adjust the second stage mtx-r on land?

And yes, it woul he the DST for the XTX50

 

[jborg]

Yeah, just use a hex key where the knob is on the XTX. There's a little rubber bumper to cover it, but that has no purpose and is removed in a second.

 

[Alexander Nygaard]

Yeah, just use a hex key where the knob is on the XTX. There's a little rubber bumper to cover it, but that has no purpose and is removed in a second.

View attachment 880285

Thank

Is it possible to add a nob on the there, as you can do with the xtx40 and then it's the same as xtx50, maybe a stupid question

 

[jborg]

Yes and no, it requires switching out a few internal parts (the valve spindle) because the flange where the knob would fit is a different size on the MTX-R vs the XTX or MTX-RC. It's a simple operation for someone just slightly used to operate on regulator internals, but it's probably about a hundred euros or so in parts.

 

[Alexander Nygaard]

Yes and no, it requires switching out a few internal parts (the valve spindle) because the flange where the knob would fit is a different size on the MTX-R vs the XTX or MTX-RC. It's a simple operation for someone just slightly used to operate on regulator internals, but it's probably about a hundred euros or so in parts.

Thansk

Really helpfully

 

[jborg]

Approximately this for the record, plus a few orings.

 

[Alexander Nygaard]

Thank you very much