chrome plating flaking off after 1 session in the pool?

[CanuckHorn]

I have not heard from Atomic - sent them an email over the weekend and it is now Wednesday. Took the reg to my LDS and learned several things. The plating should be really tough. The guy who worked on my reg has a similar Atomic reg, and said his has a deep gash. The gash is on the outside of the Yoke nut where it does not interfere with anything, and his reg has not flaked at all. My reg flaked with no obvious impact (probably a manufacturing issue?). He recommended I not replace my plated Yoke nut for a stainless steel one - felt that having two different metals in contact with each other could lead to them seizing together (and he really felt the plated part should be fine - assuming I get a good one). They replaced the Yoke nut and filter screen for free, and are sending the bad part(s) to Atomic. Still interested to hear from Atomic, and will share what they tell me.

Heard back from Atomic after a week. They agreed that mixing metals on my M1 is a bad idea. They did not express any surprise or offer any apologies for the problem with their product. If this problems occurs again I will try to return the M1 first stage, and apply the cost to a ST1 first stage. The ST1 should not suffer from the flaking (I hope), I keep the cold water performance, but lose the ability to go to higher than 40% oxygen concentrations (M1's can go to 80% if properly setup). Disappointed in Atomic, but this does not seem to be a common problem - however I am leaning toward Scubapro next time, or maybe Deep 6.