"nitrox upgrade"

[jgscuba]

email response from sherwood:

Yes, the first stage would need to be oxygen cleaned and upgraded with a
4000-15N nitrox kit. The kit and service can be obtained at most authorized
Sherwood dealers. If you need help finding a local dealer, please reply
back with your city and zip code and we would be glad to help.

Thanks for your support of Sherwood Scuba.

 

[mike_s]

email response from sherwood:

Yes, the first stage would need to be oxygen cleaned and upgraded with a
4000-15N nitrox kit. The kit and service can be obtained at most authorized
Sherwood dealers. If you need help finding a local dealer, please reply
back with your city and zip code and we would be glad to help.

Thanks for your support of Sherwood Scuba.

there should be no reason to "oxygen clean" a first stage for EAN mixes 40% and under.... if so, it's just a poorly designed and/or manufactured regulator.

Personally, I'd take that $150 cost of the "nitrox upgrade" and use it towards purchasing a better regulator that is already "nitrox compatible" and then sell your Sherwood on Ebay or Craigslist to cover the rest of the cost.

 

[cdolphin]

.....

 

[halocline]

Amazing....the scuba gear industry will never learn.

 

[iztok]

Wow, that is an interesting discovery. Sure is reason not to buy such regulator in the first place or sell it and buy something else.

 

[diver 85]

OP, who did you 'the telling' of this needed upgrade??....



Bet I can guess.....

 

[fire_diver]

GO ask Sherwood what type of o-rings and lube they use in the first stage. I promise you they are the industry standard, nitrox versions.

When I bought my Sherwood Oasis 6 years ago, and it was listed as being nitrox ready. I can't see a company taking a step backwards to make thier gear less-safe.

 

[uncleavi]

Maybe its an ANDI shop? I know that they for some crazy reason go with the CGA and say that you treat anything ofer 23% as if it were 02.

 

[muddiver]

I second what uncleavi said. I kind of got roped into that when I got my advanced Nitrox training from and ANDi shop. After reading the Oxyhacker, most of ANDI's manuals and did some engineering reasoning, I figured out that they are going a bit overboard for folks that will never use any thing richer than 36%.

On the other hand, as an ANDI trained diver I do plan to use 50% mixes as a deco/ascent gas when I dive deeper than, oh say 60 fsw. So knowing the engineering and physics behind the use of enriched mixes and high oxygen gas handeling I use regulators that were designed for just that purpose instead of trying to re-build my air rigs for Nitrox/Oxygen compatability.

Back to my point, to ungrade your regulator to be safer with richer mixes get you ready if you plan to go past the typical recreational scuba Nitrox level of 36% oxygen. It is a prepretory step to doing deco mixes and technical type diving. That is where the ANDI programs are geared to move divers to as opposed to the triditional air range courses that the vast majority of divers will stay within.