Is this typical?

[OldNSalty]

I have noticed after my last service almost a year ago that my 2 seconds behave differently. My second stages are identical but when I am rinsing them and I hit the purge button, the amount of air coming out of my primary is minimal compared to the amount of air coming out of the one I wear around my neck. When I am diving I sometimes switch between them but I can’t say that I notice any difference in breathing between the two.

When I am rinsing the one on the longer hose I sometimes have to check to make sure the air is on when I purge because the force of the air coming out is so weak. In contrast, the other regulator acts like it is coming straight from the tank at full force.

Is this typical behavior that I have never noticed before? Why would 2 identical seconds deliver different amounts of air?

 

[Six2Life]

Does this happen when you inhale on the regs, or just when purging? Some second stages have an adjustment on the purge that can affect the intensity of the purge. Is there more "slack" in the purge button on the one with the weaker purge?

 

[OldNSalty]

These are older-70's vintage so there is no adjustment and it only happens on purge. I don't notice any difference when bretahing them (although I have been told that I tend to not notice these things-high end equipment vs cheap rental stuff all seem fine to me). I bet there is some spacing or something that is preventing one from being purged all the way.

 

[Six2Life]

The adjustment I am talking about I have only seen on metal Conshelf 2nds so far. If you take the faceplate off and look at the backside of the purge button there may be a small screw that will adjust the amount of travel needed for the purge to hit the diaphragm. I've had 3-4 of these 2nds apart and I think 2 of them had this screw.

 

[OldNSalty]

Cool-they are old conshelfs so I will take a look. I appreciate the input.

 

[cerich]

it sounds like they are tuned to the same cracking effort but not to the same amount of purge. That can bee easily corrected by a tech. It should take all of 1 minute.

 

[silver02ca]

When under pressure does the second stage sound like it has a rattle to it. If so most likely its not tuned properly which could cause one to breath differently then the other.

 

[halocline]

No it's not typical, unless you consider poor or incomplete service to be typical!

Bring it back to the shop, they'll probably tell you it's time for another 'service'....next time, if there's anything you notice after someone works on your reg, bring it back to the shop right away and have them fix it. It's likely that the lever is way too loose on the one that has a weak purge. Even though you don't notice it, it's making the reg harder to breathe and restricting the amount of flow.

 

[idive2]

A conshelf XI that I inherited was acting the same way when I decided I would start using it.
I can't say that it breathed that bad but it did not seem right. Over the last year or so I have got
to know a bit more about this second and second stages in general. I adjusted it in a way that
would raise the lever closer to the diaphragm. Although the original manual shows adjusting the
lever until it is flush with the housing, at that setting the lever was very sloppy and minimal purge.
The setting on the poppet was no where close to free flowing at this setting. I just wondered if perhaps
this is a slightly different lever than the original ? In illustrations of the lever it shows a plastic contact
on the lever itself which my lever does not have. A setting of the lever slightly above flush
gave me more purge and seemed to breathe well there as well. Depending on the lever I suppose this
setting would vary.