Octo of a Different Brand?

[scuba.ie]

I used to have a Poseidon Cyclone with a Spiro Octo. It was a b***h to setup, as the Primary had a high interstage and the Octo had a much lower interstage pressure. Worked fine, but the octo could free flow at will, so I ended up using it as a deco reg (without the octo of course) and getting a complete new main reg....

 

[gt3073b]

well, I have a scubapro reg. I originally had a Sherwood octopus because that's what the shop suggested. It worked fine and the combo was not a problem to service for 14 years. I bought a new octo of a different brand a couple years ago, only because I decided I wanted a side venting type octo that worked the same whichever way someone stuck it in their mouth. Scubapro doesn't make one of those so that wasn't even an option, and I certainly wasn't going to get rid of my whole reg to get one. (Rather attached to the old MK10.)

Damselfish, I guess you kinda answered my question and made me even more confused at the same time. I can see what you are saying about wanting a different style for your octo and I'm sure the regs work fine together but I just (in my very limited experience) don't see where my requirements or preferences for the two regulators would be different. FWIW, I dive an ATX40 and ATX50. The only difference between the two is a breathing control that I have NEVER ONCE used and the mouthpiece. I'll probably swap the mouthpiece out too sometime so they are the same. At 100 feet, I dont want a lesser reg if I need it, and if the octo is just as good and cheaper, smaller, etc then why not two of those?

I guess I'm having a mental block. Hopefully Scubaboard will come to the rescue again.

Thanks,
Bryan.

 

[Damselfish]

Damselfish, I guess you kinda answered my question and made me even more confused at the same time. I can see what you are saying about wanting a different style for your octo and I'm sure the regs work fine together but I just (in my very limited experience) don't see where my requirements or preferences for the two regulators would be different. FWIW, I dive an ATX40 and ATX50. The only difference between the two is a breathing control that I have NEVER ONCE used and the mouthpiece. I'll probably swap the mouthpiece out too sometime so they are the same. At 100 feet, I dont want a lesser reg if I need it, and if the octo is just as good and cheaper, smaller, etc then why not two of those?

I guess I'm having a mental block. Hopefully Scubaboard will come to the rescue again.

If you don't want to mix brands or 2nd stages or whatever, cool. (Though it's not clear if you're more worried about the brand, or the performance? Would you consider an equally performing octo of a different brand ok? Or a different second stage of the same brand, say the Apeks Egress which is intended as an octo? Is the second stage you're using as an octo detuned anyway so it won't freeflow?)

I think the point to be taken is there is more than one way to do anything and a lot of them are perfectly fine. The original poster asked if it's ok to mix and in most cases it is. I assume they have their own reasons. Heck, maybe a friend gave them an octo so they get to save some money or spend more on the reg. Another perfectly valid reason if it works.

 

[gt3073b]

Would you consider an equally performing octo of a different brand ok?

The brand doesn't bother me unless service becomes an issue. If they're bought from the same shop, then I guess service would be no big deal. If the performance is the same, then go for it? But if the performance was the same, was everything else the same? If no, then why not two of the better/cheaper/smaller one?

What is different about a reg "intended as an octo"? If they are smaller or shaped differently, is the performance the same?

Heck, maybe a friend gave them an octo so they get to save some money or spend more on the reg.

Oooh, where can I meet them?

Is the second stage you're using as an octo detuned anyway so it won't freeflow?

Honestly, I don't know. I cant tell the difference underwater (other than the mouth piece and the hose routing).

The original poster asked if it's ok to mix and in most cases it is. I assume they have their own reasons.

You've nicely summed up my question in much fewer words than I, and the reasons are what I was totally confused on. I'm still not getting it.

Unless someone is really interested in enlightening me, I'm willing to totally drop it before I sound like a 4 year old (why? why? why?)

Thanks,
Bryan.

 

[JodiBB]

I have an Aeris Atmos Pro regulator and the Mares Brigade octo. This was suggested to me from ScubaToys and since I didn't have a real preference for octos either way, I went with their recommendation.

 

[CompuDude]

It can be good to match first stages to primary regs, because there are cases where they are specially tuned to work well together, but in a setup with a dedicated octo, it's ok to mix and match because the octo, being detuned to avoid freeflow, isn't designed for high performance needs anyway.

I use a ScubaPro MK25/S600 with an AquaLung ABS Octo.

 

[kidspot]

I'm not trying to stir up trouble. This is an honest question and not a troll. What reason would you have for buying two different brands?

Different regs would help eliminate common-mode failure, but other than that, I can't see why you'd want to put up with the service headaches mentioned above. Besides, if I NEED to use it, why would I want something less than what I normally breath? I'd prefer the comfort of a good reg when I need it most.

Again, I'm not trying to stir things up. I've seen people do this before and I would love to know the reason behind it.

Thanks,
Bryan.

Here is "my" reasoning behind using 2 different regs. Both are high performance regs, my backup is considerably smaller than my primary (which would not fit comfortably under my chin as a bungeed backup) also my backup was intended to be the primary and was packaged with the 1st stage, however I replaced it with a more expensive reg which I use as my primary. I test my backup on nearly every dive to make sure I am satisfied with it's performance.

Aloha, Tim