Are you using an enviro-sealed regulator?

[Rick Inman]

Well the MK25 is exempt from the conversation because it too is a Cold Water regulator.

Maybe so, and the material says what it says. But our LDS sells a ton of them, and I see them freeze up all the time in cold fresh water. I consistently see divers unable to make the dive due to free flows of the mk25. The store gives them a big speech about not breathing from the reg on the surface, not blasting air through the first stage by pressing the bc inflater and drysuit inflater at the same time, not over breathing the reg... And when the customer comes back complaining about another missed dive, the shop tells them it's their technique that caused the free flow, and then they crank down the IP some more. Yet those with real environmentally sealed regs (Apex, even the Atomic M1 which just has a bunch of o2 clean grease in the first stage) just go diving.

Like NWGD says, in Puget Sound the mk25 will be all good. But in fresh water below 40 degrees I would stick with environmentally sealed. JMHO.

Oh, and I have never seen a MK17 not function under any conditions.

 

[brutus_scuba]

Maybe so, and the material says what it says. But our LDS sells a ton of them, and I see them freeze up all the time in cold fresh water. I consistently see divers unable to make the dive due to free flows of the mk25. The store gives them a big speech about not breathing from the reg on the surface, not blasting air through the first stage by pressing the bc inflater and drysuit inflater at the same time, not over breathing the reg... And when the customer comes back complaining about another missed dive, the shop tells them it's their technique that caused the free flow, and then they crank down the IP some more. Yet those with real environmentally sealed regs (Apex, even the Atomic M1 which just has a bunch of o2 clean grease in the first stage) just go diving.

Like NWGD says, in Puget Sound the mk25 will be all good. But in fresh water below 40 degrees I would stick with environmentally sealed. JMHO.

Oh, and I have never seen a MK17 not function under any conditions.

Rick it is interesting to hear you say that I don't have a lot of personal expeirence with Scubapro but have heard nothing but good things about them, even from people who don't work on them or sell them. It sounds reasonable to me though.

 

[-Aaron-]

Thank you to everyone for all the helpful feedback. I ended up getting a really good deal on an Apeks XTX 200 from a local shop, so now I am environmentally sealed and with a nice reg. The Apeks seems great so far, it breathes very naturally. My only complaint with it is the comfo-bite mouthpiece. It seems to want to push up my upper lip and make my mask want to leak. I am going to work on replacing it with a sea-cure or something similar.

We are talking about doing a dive at Clear Lake in Oregon soon, so the timing worked out perfect. I'm not sure the exact water temperatures up there right now, but it will be near freezing as there is still a good amount of snow on the ground.