sunny_diver
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Does the seat saving orifice in Atomic regulators cause the first stage to flood during a valve drill?
Question Extra risk of flooding when using Atomic regs in a valve drill?
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No need to suck it completely empty. (The change in effort is easily felt before that.)
No. It *might* get a tiny bit of water in the 2nd stage. But, as soon as you turn the valve on and purge or breathe from it, that water will get blown out. No chance it's going to get into the 1st stage.
My Atomic M1s have been my dedicated doubles regs for years. They've seen plenty of valve drills.
No. There's no way for the water to displace the air left in the hose all the way back to the 1st. Maybe if you held the second stage vertically and shook it to allow the air out and gravity to push the water down the hose. But the diameter of the hose is small and you'd have to make a huge effort to work the water all the way back to the 1st stage.
Well, to be fair, and in the interest of full disclosure, I have had my M1 regs since some time in 2019, IIRC, and I have never serviced them. They work perfectly. So... can I really say that no water has ever gotten in the 1st stage? I guess not, since I've never opened them up. But, if it has, it has not been enough to cause them to start having problems...
Let's get detailed.
The OP asked about it during a valve drill. The answer is no.
You asked about flooding because of the seat saver feature. Again, no.
Now you're asking about if a SM diver could flood the 1st stage. That has different nuances. Not because of sidemount, but because it's no longer in the context of a valve drill (gas off for a short time), and seat saver doesn't necessarily have anything to do with it.
If a SM or BM diver turns the gas off and allows the line to become depressurized, then it is not unusual (if it stays that way for any length of time) for the 1st stage (assuming DIN) to get bumped and become a little loose. If the 1st stage DIN fitting gets loosened a little bit, then yes, the 1st stage could get flooded.
I suppose the seat saver feature might even contribute at this point by virtue of not maintaining any back pressure on the line - i.e. holding air in that would potentially give some "resistance" to water coming in at the other end. Water coming in at the 1st stage could push the air in the line out through the 2nd stage with relatively little resistance versus a 2nd stage that did not have the seat saver.
But, really, it primarily comes down to having the line depressurized for a somewhat extended period. I.e. longer than it would be during a valve shutdown drill.
Side note: This is why I use inline shutoffs on my deco cylinders (but not a pony bottle or a bailout cylinder) - to ensure the line does not get inadvertently depressurized and allow the 1st stage to loosen its DIN fitting.
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