Free Flow

[Wizard]

Cold water which is 42-43 degrees F. or about 20 C is the magic number for freezing if you're not careful. It sounds like your reg isn't protected for cold water but you can generally still dive it if you are careful of a couple of things. Don't breathe on it out of the water right before going in. Check it early, submerge it when you're ready to go in and then start breathing on it underwater. You don't have to start your descent, just put your head underwater, take a slow breath and continue to breathe slowly as you dive. If you suck air in quickly that can start the freezing process as the cool air cools even more the faster it moves. If you know you're going to be diving in "cold" water or probably going to hit a thermocline or 2 and you're reg is not protected you may want to have the IP set down to as low as 125 psi. It would also require that you're second stage be checked for adjustment as well. Most regs will perform with an IP of 125 but I wouldn't go any lower specially for deeper dives. It will reduce your performance at depth. You can have a cold water kit put on your 1st stage but if you do all of the wrong things your second can freeze up, which sounds like what yours did. A lot of the cold water second stages are either made of metal or have a significant amount of metal in them which retains the heat from your exhalation a little longer (and keeps the ice from forming as quickly). It doesn't sound like your reg did anything wrong it just did what it was made to do. Check with divers that dive cold all of the time and get their recommendations or dive in warm water and you don't have to worry about it. Dive safe. Wizard

 

[Zaphod]

In theory, the Titan can be "upgraded" (or at least changed) to a Glacia since they share the same box bottom, but the entire valve mechanism has to be replaced because the lever is on the opposite side. This makes the poppet, lever, and inlet fitting all different. Plus all of the stuff on the opposite side of the inlet fitting needs to be added. In total, you would need 10 parts plus a standard Glacia service kit, about $72 retail. In the meantime, you're only able to re-use about $40 in parts.

 

[weight_for_me]

Wizard...sounds like you nailed it...first dive and maybe I was sucking a bit much which contributed to the problem. Tinman and Brian C......great info...thanks. BTW, my buddy was diving with exactly the same setup as me and had no problems.
Randy...