Hey SCUBA gear heads - best regulator for under $1,000 = ?

[scubafanatic]

What is the more current, up to date and state of the art way to seal a piston first stage please?

excerpt from a Divernet review:

Coldwater Regulator Tests

ATOMIC M1 £399
-----A very old-fashioned looking piston-design first stage. It is protected from the cold simply by being filled with silicone oil that is held in by an elastic band, a very traditional system that might seem crude by todays standards.----- Otherwise, its beautifully engineered with some unique mechanical design features . The first stage is well laid out, with the five mp ports on a turret. An integrated-computer transmitter is easily accommodated in one of the two fixed hp ports. It was thought best mounted with the tall turret facing downwards. The plastic second stage has an automatic depth-sensitive adjustment (presumably for venturi adjustment) as well as a BRA knob and heat-exchanger. It has a wide exhaust T and substantial mouthpiece.

Under water
Rasmus Sangild: Not as good as the Mares but quite OK. Upside-down, it was only a little damp. It was probably the only one where I noticed a real difference by varying BRA settings. I didnt like the plastic second stage or its thick mouthpiece but this had the most effective and easily operated purge of all of them.
George Brown: This regulator was very good under water, even though the exhaust T touched my lower lip, which I found quite annoying. It was an above-average performer when inverted. The BRA control made subtle differences and the purge was very controllable.----- Its performance was overshadowed by a seal failure on the first stage which allowed the silicone grease to leak out alarmingly. I would say this is obviously not a cold-water regulator.-----

Soeren Arnvig: I didnt notice any reason to say wow! It felt average among a lot of good ones but I would still buy it, even though it was not outstanding by comparison. It was OK upside-down. The BRA made some difference as I adjusted it. There was plenty of air for two.
John Bantin: This gave what I considered to be the best breathe of all of the regulators tested alongside it. It proved very good upside-down. -----Alas, the silicone started to leak out of the first stage after the third day and it became very messy, so it was probably not ideal for use in these conditions.-----

 

[ams511]

And Sherwood hasn't used the dry bleed system for about 20 years!

According to their website they still use it on their newest models, they call it dry-seal. Although they have changed the way the system works over time. I believe Genesis also uses the same system but they call it D.A.D. for Dry Air Demand.

 

[BoltSnap]

Atomic was started from the guys at Scubapro who developed the MK25 IIRC

MK25 came out several years after Atomic came to market. You probably mean MK20 but I am not sure at all.

As good as the regulators are, there is actually nothing truly innovative about the Atomic design. They are just really really well executed variants of a design that is what 50 years old? There is nothing wrong with it, but in order for them to figure out how to seal that in a different manner would likely require a new engineering team over there and have them throw away everything in the first stage. There really isn't a justification to do that, so I would be truly shocked if a company came out with a truly innovative first stage design in the next 20 years.

I am not arguing that the Atomic regulators are "revolutionary" but they are innovative within the technology/physics and economy of the sport. They do hold several patents on their designs FYI. Their second stage design is VERY innovative but simple.

ruby sphere instead of a normal HP seat.

Didn't Mares have the "Rubby" design in the early 2000's and it was a disaster?

BTW, I haven't kept up with Poseidon designs since the ODIN regulator, did they change the first stage drastically since then? I remember that to make the first stage sealed, you had to fill part of it with vodka



I don't expect true revolutionary designs in the scuba business any time soon. Gradual/incremental improvements and innovations maybe but not revolutionary. The economics of the business don't justify it. I work as a senior consultant for a company (in telecom) where their annual "net" profit is significantly more than the dive industry total turnover per annum.

 

[scubadada]

I'm working on a first stage that turns sea water in to breathable air...

Jim....

That can be turned into nitrox with the correct 2nd stage you know

 

[tbone1004]

@BurhanMuntasser the new poseidon first stage does not need to be sealed for cold water resistance. The Mares design was a normal looking HP seat but used a ruby instead of the plastic that is used normally. The new Poseidon first stage seals with a sphere.

 

[Rusty Shackleford]

They are the same as the MK25 and MK17, the primary second stage is a G250V with a different jam nut. The name of the other SP second stage they rebadged currently escapes me. So the answer to your question is they perform the same as the SP models because that's what they are albeit in new blue clothes.

The other one is an R-390 clone.

 

[Darghu]

Alright so which one have the highest after sales support and servicing worldwide?

 

[mdb]

Alright so which one have the highest after sales support and servicing worldwide?

Scuba pro.

 

[ams511]

Alright so which one have the highest after sales support and servicing worldwide?

The largest worldwide dealer network would be either Scubapro or Aqualung. After that maybe Mares.

 

[buddhasummer]

Alright so which one have the highest after sales support and servicing worldwide?

Given they are the same I see no reasonable reason why any SP tech/dealer couldn't service them but I guess no doubt the "liability " excuse or some such would come up.