Atomic z3 vs aqualung mikron

[BoltSnap]

if your running that many students thru a year, then the regs should be serviced yearly as stated in most owners manuals!!! the plus with AL micron is you do get free parts for life as long as you keep up on your service!!!

LOL, we are in Libya!!!! We don't have service centers or anything that you have back home in the US. I have to take the regulators with me to Europe when I travel there for service which is VERY expensive. We are living under most difficult conditions here. Sometimes I can hear the heavy artillery going off in the distance when I am teaching.

We aren't teaching a huge volume here, or at least not yet btw

No warranties or free parts here either. We are on our own and we exist and live as best as we can. The only reason I am offering class and teaching here is because I am crazy about diving and about sharing the love of diving with others. I am sure you can understand and appreciate this.

BTW, I owned a dive center in NY for over 10 years when I used to live in the US and I had the same experience with rental equipment then as I do now. We used to service our rental equipment once a year. We had AL, SP, Atomic and Mares then and we eventually got rid of all brands and kept SP and Atomic and never had problems after that. We used MK20/G250 for our rental fleet then.

 

[uncfnp]

LOL, we are in Libya!!!! We don't have service centers or anything that you have back home in the US. I have to take the regulators with me to Europe when I travel there for service which is VERY expensive. We are living under most difficult conditions here. Sometimes I can hear the heavy artillery going off in the distance when I am teaching.

We aren't teaching a huge volume here, or at least not yet btw

No warranties or free parts here either. We are on our own and we exist and live as best as we can. The only reason I am offering class and teaching here is because I am crazy about diving and about sharing the love of diving with others. I am sure you can understand and appreciate this.

BTW, I owned a dive center in NY for over 10 years when I used to live in the US and I had the same experience with rental equipment as I am now. We used to service our rental equipment once a year. We had AL, SP, Atomic and Mares then and we eventually got rid of all brands and kept SP and Atomic and never had problems after that. We used MK20/G250 for our rental fleet then.

I am sorry but I have to ask. Were they the same MK 20's that were recalled. Go ahead. Put me on your ignore list. Don't blame you.

One last thing I will add, you seem to have a preference for piston first stages. I can't disagree that they probably do make better choices for rentals and are all excellent regs.

 

[BoltSnap]

I am sorry but I have to ask. Were they the same MK 20's that were recalled. Go ahead. Put me on your ignore list. Don't blame you.

Not as far as I can remember. I closed the dive center in NY in 2004 and moved to Libya around that time. I remember upgrading pistons and springs during yearly service as SP required but nothing specific. We decided in the late 90's that we had enough of issues with the other brands so we standardized on SP with some Atomics in the rental fleet and we never looked back after that.

Every manufacturer out there has had issues with their equipment and had to recall one thing or another. It isn't about if you have a recall or not, it is about how fast you react when you have to recall equipment for one issue or another. SP, Atomic and even AL had excellent technical department and there were no problems dealing with their head technicians. Mares was the absolute worst in every aspect of dealing with them then in the USA.

 

[Ouvea]

In regards to cleaning my regulators, I have the luxury of owning my own tanks. Hence I can clean my regulators, while they remain pressurized on a cylinder. The first and second stages are soaked and then rinsed. I rinse the exterior and interior of the second stages by running water through the mouth opening, the exhaust and on the openings of the purge button. While pressurized, I run water through the small hole of the main spring chamber. Finally, I scrub the threads of the DIN connector, to remove any salt deposits. I do the same for the threads of the tank's DIN valve. I do my best to dry them with a micro fiber towel before letting them air dry.

I went three years before servicing my Z2s. Couldn't tell you any difference between when I bought it brand new and when I had it serviced. The only issue I experienced was a high pitch squealing noise from the first stage, which my LDS resolved. Don't know what caused it and several threads on this board indicated the possibility of insufficient piston lubrication.

 

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

I have owned Atomic and Apeks and have rented a few others including Scubapro and Mares. Atomic Z3 is my favorite and I miss it now that I do not have it. Their lowest end reg Z-3 is an amazing breather and beats every entry level reg I have ever tried by a mile. Atomics are piston designs and there are complaints about the way the seal their first stages using Christolube. My limited understanding is that if the service is done by a technician who frequently works on Atomics then it would not be a problem. If annual service and lube filling is performed by anyone other than someone whose bread and butter is Atomics then the Christolube begins to leak on pressurization. I do see that their cold water model (M1) has a certain following in Great Lakes and Boston NY area so it may not be that bad.