Hi everybody, I hope someone knows what is happening with my first stage. Whenever I take a deep breath or use my inflator to establish pos. buoyancy at the end of the dive I get a sharp beeping from the first stage. I was told this happens 'cause there is humidity inside but I serviced it; it is better now but once in a while it still happens. In the beginning and in the end of the dive. How can I solve this problem?
Musical Regulator
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Don Burke
Contributor
I have an old USD that I use exclusively for diving in the aquariums and tanks at the Virginia Marine Science Museum. It makes a noise on inhalation when tank pressure gets low.
Once I found out that the noise was a reliable indication of 400psig, I took the pressure guage off that reg and now dive it with just one second stage and an inflator hose.
Can you get it to make the noise in air? It will be much easier to find the origin that way.
Right off, I don't see how it could be anything but a flow harmonic somewhere. Is it really pressure sensitive? You said it occurs at the the beginning of the dive too. How about the middle?
Once I found out that the noise was a reliable indication of 400psig, I took the pressure guage off that reg and now dive it with just one second stage and an inflator hose.
Can you get it to make the noise in air? It will be much easier to find the origin that way.
Right off, I don't see how it could be anything but a flow harmonic somewhere. Is it really pressure sensitive? You said it occurs at the the beginning of the dive too. How about the middle?
OP
Yes, it is an oceanic first stage but I heard the same thing with the scubapro stages. I am sure it comes from the first stage 'cause the noise occurs when I either use the 2nd stage, octopus or inflator. It also happens on the surface anddoesn't really matter when in the dive. If I inhale really deep the noise gets louder. If I inhale slow and soft you can not hear the noise. I do most of the repairing in the diveshop where I work but this one I can not figure out. I took the entire first stage apart and cleaned every single part in the ultrasound bath and dried it decently afterwards with compressed air.
Not sure exactly what you have for a first stage but with a piston first stage a honk or whistle is virtually always due to inadequate lubrication of the piston stem O-ring. This causes a bit of vibration in the piston as it moves on inhalation which then resonates in the reg and hoses. The solution is normally to fairly heavily lubricate the piston stem o-ring and piston shaft.
What Oceanic first stage is it? The CDX first stages were recalled because of a problem with a harmonic vibration. There is an upgrade kit available from any dealer at no charge (they will install). The problem is that the spring sits on a metal plate on top of the diaphragm. This metal on metal contact caused vibrations, which can create a humming sound, and will also cause your HP seat to fail much earlier than normal. If your reg is a CDX, that is the problem. If its not, it might still be the spring making the noise. It helps to flip the spring over, and lubricate both ends a bit. Let us know what happens...
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