Compatibility of different manufacturers 1st and 2nd stages

[Dr. Sleep]

I'm a newbie and have a question for anyone in the know. I tried to find the answer through various searches here and google to no avail:

Is it safe and/or advisable to combine one manufacturer's 1st stage regulator with another manufacturer's 2nd stage? Specifically, I'm looking to combine an Aqua Lung Cousteau 1st stage with an Apeks ATX50 2nd stage.

The problem I'm finding is that some manufacturers (Apeks, for example) will sell their 1st and 2nd stages separately, and others (Aqua Lung, for example) do not appear to sell them separately.

 

[mike_s]

You can combine Apeks and Aqualung. These are prob more compatible than others, because, Apeks is "owned" by Aqualung and they share many design features.

You can buy Aqualung 2nd stages by themselves, but not through all dealers. Lemme know if you need some help finding some.

 

[brihno]

This is a great question I would like to know what other regs can be mixed and matched

 

[meekal]

a high pressure hose is a high pressure hose, a low pressure hose is a low pressure hose. mix-N-match to your heart's desire. put whatever set of gauges you like on your setUp..... put whatever octo you like on your setUp.... put whatever 2nd stage you like on you setUp.....

but the REAL question is why?

replace your octo with a inline octo or a scubaPro air2? ok, that makes sense....

replace your analog guages with a spiffy air integrated computer like a Suunto Cobro? ok, that makes sense....

replace your 2nd stage with....... why not i guess....

 

[Courtneyf82]

Well I never thought it would matter, Im thinking it does now but I already bought a new Sherwood Magnum and got the Aqua-Lung 120 degree angle octo, and it works together grrreat at all times sofar.

 

[strider]

Almost any 1st can go with any 2nd if they are tuned together. This means that no matter what brand second stage you use on a 1st, even the same brand, you should tune the 2nd to work with whatever IP the first stage is putting out.

You will notice that apeks and aqualung legends use an "over balanced" first stage, the IP increases more with depth than most other balanced regulators. This is an excellent feature, but if you were to put a 2nd stage that wasn't balanced on one of these regs they could start to trickle air, the IP would increase too much.

It doesn't happen often, but is the reason you avoid such a combination. Now if you attach an standard octopus to the overbalanced first stage you usually wont have a problem, since they're set up a little stiffer, but every apeks octo is balanced, so sticking with that brand would be the safer bet in that situation.

If you're second stage is balanced, which your apeks is, you really shouldn't have to worry nearly as much about your first stage matching your second. The second would balance itself to whatever IP it was getting, within reasonable limits.

Hope I helped some.

 

[djanni]

Why do you want to mix and match? Do you already own this equipment?

 

[brihno]

The reason I wanted to know is that I own an Oceanic Alpha 7 / SP4(unbalanced), but I want to get a balanced first stage with enviro protection and use my alpha 7 as the octo. So I guess I was looking for things to avoid.

 

[Puffer Fish]

Why do you want to mix and match? Do you already own this equipment?

There are a lot of very valid reasons to mix and match (I just had a Zeagle purge cover crack in half while on vacation, and had to either:

1. Use rental gear

2. Replace octo with a brand that was available there and combine parts to get the main with a cover.

Scuba Pro was cheap and easy to get, so I did option 2.

Comments here about compatability are great, and there are several concerns about doing this.

Note: The Scuba Pro Octo works better on a Zeagle Flat Head than it does on a Scuba Pro first stage - go figure.

 

[Dr. Sleep]

Why do you want to mix and match? Do you already own this equipment?

My wife and I already own Aqua Lung Cousteau 1st stage regulators and are currently using Aqua Lung Micra Adj as our 2nd stage regulators.

However, I have a separate, fairly cheap, octupus, and my wife's emergency air is built in to her BCD. Her solution for an emergency air situation, is to give me, or whoever needs the air, the regulator out of her mouth and then use the mouthpiece built into her BCD for herself. I find this setup less than ideal. Why give up your primary regulator to someone else, and then rely on a cheaper BCD regulator for your own air? Not good. So, to solve this problem, my wife and I are going to turn our Aqua Lung Micra Adj into our "octupuses" or emergency air regulators, and buy new 2nd stages for our primary regulators.

Actually, I've already bought them--2 Apeks ATX50's. Thanks for all the replies.