“Moisture Retention Vanes” New Sherwood Oasis Pro vs older Oasis and other metal regulators?

[Salamandra]

I love doing long (70-100 minutes) shallow dives but the dry mouth isn’t fun.

I noticed that Sherwood advertises the MRV on the Oasis Pro. I also read that people have found that metal regs in general seem better for moisture.

I mostly dive in the Bay Islands and Mares seems to be the easiest brand to service there. I understand that Sherwood is mostly US-based so one of my concerns is ease of service abroad (some future dive goals on my list include the Philippines and the Red Sea).

The compact size of the metal Mares proton and the fact that it is Mares is appealing to me, but I wonder how serviceable it will be since it is quite old by now (assuming I can find a reasonably priced second hand one in good working condition).

But if the specially built MRV is really better on the Oasis, then I wonder how serviceable it will be around the world and how ‘old’ of a used model would still have that feature and make sense to possibly buy now.

I’m also glad for any other recommendations/relevant knowledge!

Ty!

 

[CG43]

I love doing long (70-100 minutes) shallow dives but the dry mouth isn’t fun.

I noticed that Sherwood advertises the MRV on the Oasis Pro. I also read that people have found that metal regs in general seem better for moisture.

Yes, both systems should condense water from the warm, humid exhaled air.
Which system works better under which conditions is difficult to say.
The Sherwood MRV system is primarily cooled by the expansion cooling of the breathing gas; the vanes have no significant thermal contact with the water. Here, the Joule-Thomson effect plays the main role, meaning the gas type and temperature, tank pressure, and the pressure difference are important.
With a metal second stage, there is very good thermal contact with the water, so with calm breathing, the temperature will strongly depend on the temperature of the surrounding water.
If you have the opportunity to compare the two systems, you should do so under conditions typical for you. However, this does not provide a general statement.
The Sherwood MRV should show its relative strengths with air, high tank pressure, higher water temperature, shallow depth, and high air flow. The metal second stages should perform relatively better at lower water temperatures. At least, that is what I would expect.

 

[lizardland]

I’m also glad for any other recommendations/relevant knowledge!

Get a rebreather. Breathing humid, warm gas is lovely. Especially in the cold. Evaporation from the lungs is a huge energy sink.

 

[Snusmumrik]

I love doing long (70-100 minutes) shallow dives but the dry mouth isn’t fun.
...
I’m also glad for any other recommendations/relevant knowledge!

Think of going rebreather. Wet and warm gas - what can be better?

 

[Badger7]

I go low-tech and keep a capri-sun in my drysuit pocket in case I get dry mouth or a scratchy throat during a dive so I'm not tempted to gargle and/or swallow a few small mouthfuls of questionable lake water.

 

[lowwall]

The compact size of the metal Mares proton and the fact that it is Mares is appealing to me, but I wonder how serviceable it will be since it is quite old by now (assuming I can find a reasonably priced second hand one in good working condition).

I dive the metal Protons and really like them.

As to parts - Mares still makes Proton service kits. Also Mares shares parts across multiple regs, parts like the poppet and exhaust valve and lever are all in current production as are all the service parts. For example, the Rover/Prestige service kit has all the parts needed to service a Proton except for a single o-ring. And that's an 012 which you can get anywhere.

The only replacement part you might have trouble with is if you somehow manage to crack the faceplate. It's made of hard plastic and is not prone to breakage so you should be OK. Just make sure it is not cracked on the ones you buy. The problem is that the plastic Protons used a soft plastic faceplate which degraded over time. The hard and soft plastic faceplates are interchangeable, so the entire stock of hard faceplates has been used up as replacements for the original soft faceplates. If worst comes to worst, there is a third party 3d printed replacement available.