Non-sealed Atomic IP issues?

[Johnsonsa93]

I have trouble envisioning dirt working past the sealing O-Ring and traveling up the inside of the piston to the HP seat without the regulator showing signs of leaking air out of the ambient chamber. Are you sure of the air supply?

It does seem kind of out there but it's the only way I can explain finding dirt inside the piston bore and on the HP seat. I can actually wipe it off with a Q-tip from both the bore and the seat. I ALWAYS find black sand inside the ambient port and my guess is the super fine particles slip past the piston o-ring as it moves up and down. Not sure if this sounds crazy or not but it's the best explanation I can think of at the moment for how dirt could get on the HP seat.

100% on the air source. Fill our own tanks and I know the system, the filters and how often everything is changed.

My advice, worth every penny, is that you have a solution already, and that is to seal them. Seems like a lot of christolube, but better than having to replace the seat every 2 months....

30 regs would probably be like 2+ lbs of christolube a year if only servicing them once a year. So like $350? seats cost $6.40 a seat so say I used 60 in a year (low guess) $384. This will be fun to pitch, not to mention I don't really want to service 30+ atomic regs filled with lube every year...I don't even enjoy doing mine.