Favorite reg for turtle-ing?

[northernone]

I enjoy floating along on my back at depth watching your photo opportunities. Some regs play nicely with my behaviour and others wet breathe or require sucking hard.

Any particular models well suited for this orientation? More significantly how would I tune up a conshelf reg specifical for breathing nicer upside-down? I assume it will freeflow when correctly oriented?

Cheers,
Cameron

Ps. Anyone know Bill “Bird” Oestreich's reg set of choice? If memory serves me it breathed the best I've experienced while turtled, but perhaps it was just my wonder at the caves.

 

[tbone1004]

@northernone last I saw Bird he was diving with Mk25/G250's of some variant.

the best regs for breathing truly upside down are the Poseidons since they are side diaphragm.

For a "normal" reg you'd tune it properly with the screw all the way in, and then open it up when you go upside down but I don't think you'd really want to do that with a Conshelf since you'd have no way to stop the freeflow other than a shut-off. You'd have to put it in water mouthpiece down. Put a mag gauge on it and get it to breathe "normal" when upside-down in water

 

[The dutch guy]

Poseidon cyklon is te way to go.

 

[halocline]

The most position-stable regulators I've ever seen are the scubapro D series (D300-350-400) They have a very low case geometry fault due to the concentric diaphragm/exhaust valve, and the positioning of the diaphragm minimizes depth difference between diaphragm and mouthpiece while looking at the surface.

Case fault geometry refers to differences in depth between the diaphragm/lever point of contact and the exhaust valve. This is important because the exhaust valve limits the amount of pressure in the regulator case; anything more than ambient and it simply allows excess air to leak out. The diaphragm/lever point maintains pressure in the case, because anything under ambient causes the diaphragm to collapse a bit, pushing the lever and allowing pressurized air in from the hose. So ideally you want those two at the same depth in all positions. The more the difference in depth changes with position, the less stable (free flow resistant) the regs are with regards to position.

The older pilot and Air1 have a similar design, but tend to breathe wetter because the diaphragm is the exhaust valve, and there's a lot of potential for water to leak in during exhaust. At least that's been my experience. I have used my converted pilot on hundreds of dives (it is an outstanding performing 2nd stage) but it does breathe a bit wet when I'm inverted looking at the surface. I tolerate that because it's such a great breather.

 

[tbone1004]

@halocline I'm really really intrigued by the Scubapro Pilot and want to get my hands on one at some point. Shame they aren't supported anymore, the design choices make a LOT of sense to me and it's a shame the darth vader regs aren't common

 

[abnfrog]

I still dive d 400 s deep and under the ice never had a problem with them ....but I do all my own repairs and have lots of kits ............

 

[rhwestfall]

For modern, yeah, the Poseidons are likely it. That being said, I enjoy diving with my Pilot (converted), Air1, and Dxxx stages... shame they were kicked to the curb.

 

[abnfrog]

a lot of good stuff (gear ,cars engines ) got kicked to the curb ..a lot out perform " new better greater etc"

 

[2airishuman]

More significantly how would I tune up a conshelf reg specifical for breathing nicer upside-down? I assume it will freeflow when correctly oriented?

I dive conshelf 2nds and sometimes hang out on my back, near the bottom, and watch the fish. I am happy with their performance in this orientation.

I tune them myself and tune them hot, right on the edge of freeflow during a dive, 1" w.c. static cracking pressure according to my very sophisticated sink-o-helic gauge. Every reg set is a little different but in some cases I have backed off the IP a little bit and raised the 2nd stage lever somewhat to get the best overall performance. It takes some fussing and some swapping around of secondaries so that the primary and secondary on each set "like" the same IP.

I also use large standard zip ties on the mouthpiece, and cinch them down well, because conshelf 2nd stages have a smaller outlet than is now standard, and generic mouthpieces will leak and breathe wet, unless the zip tie is very tight.

 

[tbone1004]

@2airishuman the "long bite" mouthpieces have the smaller opening fwiw, the ones made up in Maine