New HOG regulator, hard breathing

[Jim Lapenta]

Hi everyone, happy Friday!

I'm a new diver, doing my open water cert now. I just received my new HOG regulators in the mail (D3 first stage, Zenith second stage and a basic octopus with a venturi but no breaking pressure adjustment knob).

The second stage primary seems to me to be breathing really hard. If I dial the adjustment knob all the way in, I can barely suck any air out of it at all. If I dial it all the way out, it still requires an unpleasant amount of suction effort before it starts flowing air.

The venturi works as expected. If I pull the venturi level toward my face, I'm able to get a strong flow that grows exponentially with the increase of my inhaling suction strength, but only after making a strong sucking effort to get the flow started.

I assumed the primary adjustment knob would allow you to dial it from restrictive all the way up to free flowing and that I'd be able to dial it in to a point where it just requires a comfortable, small amount of suction to start flowing air. Was I misunderstanding how that's supposed to work, or is there another internal gross adjustment affecting the initial suction required to start the air flow?

I also received Regulator Savvy but haven't attended the HOG regulator service workshop yet. I do have an inline pressure gauge with the adjustment driver built in, but my Zenith regulator doesn't have a female flat head adjustment screw where the hose attaches. It's a female hex/alan head, which I don't want to touch, not knowing what I'm doing yet.

Any guidance is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
Jacob

If you have the inline tool from Scubatools you can reverse it. There's a hex on the other side. If it's another brand it may not be reversible. Also if it's a hex from another brand it will likely not work. The hex orifice on the Zenith requires the taper that the Scubatools one has. I've had to tell a couple of techs to send back their cheaper one and buy a proper tool.
In order to properly diagnose what's going on, you need to check the Intermediate pressure of the first stage. Too low and the reg will breathe hard.
Adjusting the micro-adjust knob like you have said you did will not work if the main orifice is set too tight.
Without having the reg in front of me I can't say for sure what the fix is without knowing the IP and how the cracking was adjusted though.
I'm a HOG reg tech and reg tech instructor who has trained several dozen techs in the 7 years I've been teaching the course.
While the Deep Six is similar to the HOG. There are differences and they are important enough to make a difference to an inexperienced person. I know because I'm the author of the Deep Six manual.

 

[DivingLane]

Do it manually hose off and on a few times

Unscrew it with the purge button depressed
until it leaks and then screw it in until it stops

this with the adjustment knob fully unscrewed

Here is the best service manual out there man

Link’s broken?

 

[tursiops]

Link’s broken?

That was the link to the old, original manual.
Here is the current manual, even better.

Service Manual

www.deep6gear.com