Octo Performance

[Peter_C]

Personally, I donate my primary to an OOA diver for the very reason you describe. My regulator is an MK25/S600 with another S600 as the alternate air source. My alternate air source breathes just as well as the primary. All's I have to do is turn the venturi knob & crank down the adjustment knob to prevent free flow.

Same set up here with a long hose for the primary and my backup bungeed around my neck, so I can quickly find it :cool2:

 

[Hatul]

My octo is an Oceanic Alpha detuned to prevent free flow and breathes well. The second stage on my pony is the Oceanic Slimline 2, which breathes harder-- quite noticeably and has a totally different shape. The upside is that I'll never confuse the two, but don't know how it will be to use the pony under true out-of-air situation.

Adam

 

[Bubbletrubble]

You know, my wife has one of those stripped down yellow Legend octos that came free with the set, it will breath circles around most regulators and is not sub standard in any way. A yellow Titan LX octo came free with my Titan LX set, it breaths just as fine as the "black" one, which is better than the great majority of regulators ever made. Either are certainly capable of providing an OOA diver with all the air they need.

The air passing through the second stage does not know what color it is, if your units do not breath well then perhaps you need to adjust them a bit.

N

I've had the same experience as Nemrod with Legend regs. The Legend octo breathes just as well as its black counterpart. The only difference is the color of the rubber faceplate and the Venturi lever. In fact, the colored pieces can be swapped out very easily during an overhaul.

I always thought that people who regularly practice air shares appreciate the importance of a good quality, properly tuned octo. If the reg monkey purposefully de-tunes the reg during an overhaul, I'll adjust the lever height myself. It takes just a few minutes to set the cracking pressure properly. IMO, this kind of tweak should be described in the reg owner's manual.