Are Atomic regs really that much better ?

[Wookie]

Iirc, there were a bad batch of main springs. I got 2 of them. But they rusted through which leads to catastrophic failure.

 

[rsingler]

But @eelnoraa has a point, don't you think, @Wookie ?
Whether sealed or unsealed, the main spring is walled off from the LP side by the HP oring and piston head oring. So I don't think we can blame the spring failure on soaking. Maybe rusted out because of an unsealed reg that sat, or a catastrophic failure due to that brief bad batch of springs? In any case, Atomic really seems to be on their springs now. They want all springs less than the "N" stamp replaced at service. And they are REALLY stable year over year.

I'm not sure that there's much of a risk of clean fresh water backing into the first, unlike a diaphragm that might lock up. It should all just blow thru, next time it was purged. As long as it isn't salt water sitting there.

My 2¢

 

[Wookie]

All of my M1 and Tis are sealed. I don’t know how water would contact the spring unless they were poorly sealed. No one but me has ever touched my regs since I got them. Only the first one was bought new, and it’s BA000037. Came with the clear second stage body. That one has not failed. It was a used M1 and a used Ti1.

 

[eelnoraa]

one possibility I heard from an reputable Atomic tech for having water in a sealed ambient chamber is if there is air pocket in the christolube in the packing process.

To OP's point, I have had a quite a few different brands of regulator through the years. I do think Atom's workmanship, material used, fit and finish are quite up there. This quality although may not contribute to breathing performance, but they should count for something because Atomic actually spend the effort on it. The best value on Atomic is definitely Z2. It is not more expansive than other equivalent brand/model, but perform the same as top end Atomics. It is the Atomic I will buy. For upper line models, I can't justify spending more money on them for more expansive metal myself. I only have them because I came across good deal.

 

[Rusty Shackleford]

Iirc, there were a bad batch of main springs. I got 2 of them. But they rusted through which leads to catastrophic failure.

Do you know what years the bad springs were put out?

 

[rsingler]

Any spring with a black alphanumeric is okay. The bad batch was before they started numbering production runs. A seminar a few years ago recommended replacing springs with alphanumeric before the letter N. I think the current run is N11.

 

[Rusty Shackleford]

Is there any way to tell without opening the 1st? Like by the serial number?

 

[rsingler]

Nope, unless the reg is less than 3 years old.

 

[scrane]

But you would see a pretty significant drift in IP as the spring erodes over time, wouldn't you?

 

[rsingler]

For those rare cases where spring failure has occurred, it was sudden. But yes, I'd bet that if the diver had been religiously checking IP before the first dive of the day and was used to a certain IP and lockup for his gear, he might have noticed a change in the last dive or two before the fracture.