New regulator question

[poseiden19]

I have a new regulator I purchased for my wife but it is not breathing as easy as it should. The dive shop checked the intermediate pressure and it was ok. He told me a break in dive should help the poppet and seat which will make it breathe easier, any opinions?

 

[victorzamora]

A break-in period MIGHT help....but I think it's just tuned wrong.

Does it have any controls (any knobs or switches) on it? Could you post the make/model of the regs? Tuning a reg is as simple as removing the hose, tightening/loosening a nylon screw, and reattaching the hose. Tuning a new reg is actually part of some company's SOPs as they don't ship reg "sets" and 2nd stages should be tuned to match their first stages.

Another thing is this: Could it be the octo that's breathing hard? Most octos are "detuned" (set to higher cracking pressure, which is the amount of "suction" you have to apply to get air) so it won't free-flow without you knowing about it.

 

[Linedog]

Has she dove it yet? Mine breathe wonky on land, or my mind is elsewhere underwater.

 

[Scared Silly]

I have a new regulator I purchased for my wife but it is not breathing as easy as it should. The dive shop checked the intermediate pressure and it was ok. He told me a break in dive should help the poppet and seat which will make it breathe easier, any opinions?

The breathing effort has nothing to do with the poppet and seating. That is really a binary function - either it is sealed or not. VictorZamora offers some good suspects as I would be checking the cracking pressure first.

 

[poseiden19]

The regulator is an aqualung Mikron, I had the intermediate pressure checked and it was ok, what else would cause the increased breathing resistance?

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Cracking pressure not set right.

 

[halocline]

I have a new regulator I purchased for my wife but it is not breathing as easy as it should. The dive shop checked the intermediate pressure and it was ok. He told me a break in dive should help the poppet and seat which will make it breathe easier, any opinions?

That's nonsense. What makes you think it's not breathing 'as easy as it should'? Has the breathing resistance gotten worse than it was at some previous time? Or is it not as good as other mikrons you've tried? A more complete description might be helpful. Perceptions are pretty subjective.

What is the IP, by the way? "okay" doesn't mean much, it would be good to know a number. I think it's a balanced 2nd stage so some variance of the IP wouldn't have a huge impact on the performance. You can also ask about the cracking effort, that's a 2nd stage adjustment and it should not be much more than an inch of water. Less than 2", anyhow.

 

[Andyoak]

The regulator is an aqualung Mikron, I had the intermediate pressure checked and it was ok, what else would cause the increased breathing resistance?

I am not a big fan of the new Mikron, I had one of the first ones and loved it, when it wore out I bought another one (1st and second stage) and could never quite get comfortable with it, always felt the same that it was never quite delivering the right amount of gas. I would consider taking it away with me as a travel reg for light recreational diving, but my day to day reg is now something more robust.

 

[NCadiver]

Since a flowbench is not available you have to do it old school get a bucket of water and lower the second stage mouth piece up into the water until it free flows. Once it free flows measure the exact depth and let us know. Also by chance could this be the OCT version? most times the OCT version is detune to prevent free flow.

 

[Fishpie]

As others have suggested it's most likely a 2nd stage out of adjustment.
If you shake the 2nd stage does it rattle?
If it does it's WAY out of adjustment.........lever is adjusted too low.
.....rattle test is best done with reg pressurised.