You probably have a slightly stuck duckbill valve in the exhalation portion of the regulator. This regulator should have very little exhalation restance. If the duckbill valve isn’t stuck hard to the box’s exhalation horn, gently pull it out and spray it with silicone grease. If it is adhered hard to that horn, it probably won’t come out in one piece. You may need a new one, and they are relatively inexpensive at the Scuba Museum.Now that’s some really good advice and simple enough! My plan is to just dive it in a pool first to test it out and get a little practice, even after that I’ll likely just dive it in about 20-30ft in some fresh water springs. The inhalation efffort is quite easy, although it actually seems a little harder to exhale and makes a little noise like the diaphragm? Maybe be sticking a little or something. I’ll have a good look when I clean the hoses
One of the most common problems with the hoses is that the replacement is wrongly oriented. When the regulator is flat on a table, the mouthpiece should point directly toward the regulator. If it isn’t, the result will be fatigue from trying to holed onto the mouthpiece against a twist in the hoses.
SeaRat