On rinsing regulators - split from Hey SCUBA gear heads - best regulator for under $1,000 = ?

[reefrat]

At some point I have owned and /or used just about every one of the regs cited on this thread and the one that I have kept is my Atomic M1 that I bought on sale from Leisurepro fro (I think) $499! My wifes B2 is 11 years old, lots and lots of dives and is still the easiest breathing reg I have ever tried. Most of the time I use a Hollis Explorer ESCR rebreather but sometimes I just don't have the time to prep it or the dive might be a shallow one where they don't work as well.
My recommendation is Atomic- any model with a turret first stage.
Look after it properly and it will go several years of active diving between services with barely any drop in performance, but remember to keep salt water OUT of the the first stage internals:

• After diving always rinse or soak the reg pressurized- otherwise water WILL enter the hose through second stage and if it gets to the first stage internals will cause corrosion. I've seen the evidence of the water in the hoses even after careful unpressurized rinsing.
• Always be careful when you remove a first stage after a dive not to let any water or spray get into the open filter- dry the dust-cap before you put it on. And don't be one of these numpties that (because they have seen other people do something similar) remove the first stage and immediately blow high pressure gas from the tank directly on the filter area- they are forcing any salt water vapor into the first stage. BTW- this applies to ANY regulator system.

 

[ronscuba]

I have no way or rinsing and soaking the reg pressurized. How can you minimize the chances of water getting into the 1st stage if you rinse and soak un-pressurized ? Should I not exercise the purge button ?

 

[buddhasummer]

I have no way or rinsing and soaking the reg pressurized. How can you minimize the chances of water getting into the 1st stage if you rinse and soak un-pressurized ? Should I not exercise the purge button ?

I never soak my regs pressurized, I ensure my "dust cap" is sealing, and they all have, and then soak. I've never had any issues. And no, don't press the purge button as this will break the seal and allow water into the hose.

 

[snowdog61]

I have no way or rinsing and soaking the reg pressurized. How can you minimize the chances of water getting into the 1st stage if you rinse and soak un-pressurized ? Should I not exercise the purge button ?

Not trying to be patronizing here...... Rinse/soak 2nd stage(s) with the 1st stage higher and out of the rinse tank followed by rinsing the 1st stage with the now clean 2nds lower than the 1st. Let gravity work for you. NEVER press the purge button unless you've got pressure on the reg set while it is in the water otherwise you'll be forcing water past the 2nd stage seat/poppet and into the LP hose due to the delta P (ambient in the hose and how many inches of water your 2nd is soaking at when you press the purge lever).

Seat savers are a neat engineering solution but they come with a cost. Getting a little fresh water into the stage likely won't cause too much of a reduction in usable serviceability but it if pulls any salt with it, that corrosive will. Best practice is to always pressurize during the soak but if that isn't possible, at least do a pressurized purge following your soak to blow out any moisture that may have found it's way to the internals. That said, I don't soak mine on the bottle but then again, I don't have any seat saver designed regs. I do blow down the set after the soak. Keeping the salt out of the tank connection seems to be the major source of salt intrusion so that's where I tend to focus my efforts.

but back to the OP - if you can afford the titanium, most of the corrosion concerns can be relaxed but remember the filter on that 1st stage isn't going to be Ti so if it starts going green, your efforts to keep the salt out aren't working.

 

[Joneill]

I never soak my regs pressurized, I ensure my "dust cap" is sealing, and they all have, and then soak. I've never had any issues. And no, don't press the purge button as this will break the seal and allow water into the hose.

But you need to press the purge button to get your reg off the tank... unless you like to blow o-rings!
With the Atomic seat saver design, the path is then slightly open after the reg is depressurized - still not a good idea to press the purge while rinsing /soaking unpressurized, but the seal is already broken.

During dive trips, I rinse/dip the 1st (dust cap in place) and 2nd stages on my T3/B2 reg set separately after each day of diving and always keep the 2nd stages below the first stage to prevent any water running back up through the hoses and getting into the 1st stage. I also pull back the hose guards when I do this and let it dry with the hose guards pulled back. If possible, I'll hook back up to a tanks after I rinse to blow out the second stage lines via purge.

When I get home after a trip, I hook it up to a little 6 cu.ft. tank and and soak in the bathtub with warm water - no issues with that approach so far.

 

[buddhasummer]

But you need to press the purge button to get your reg off the tank... unless you like to blow o-rings!
With the Atomic seat saver design, the path is then slightly open after the reg is depressurized - still not a good idea to press the purge while rinsing /soaking unpressurized, but the seal is already broken.

During dive trips, I rinse/dip the 1st (dust cap in place) and 2nd stages on my T3/B2 reg set separately after each day of diving and always keep the 2nd stages below the first stage to prevent any water running back up through the hoses and getting into the 1st stage. I also pull back the hose guards when I do this and let it dry with the hose guards pulled back. If possible, I'll hook back up to a tanks after I rinse to blow out the second stage lines via purge.

When I get home after a trip, I hook it up to a little 6 cu.ft. tank and and soak in the bathtub with warm water - no issues with that approach so far.

The reg is not sitting in a bucket of water when I take it off the tank. Pressing the purge to remove pressure blows down the hose, nothing is coming in. It's a non issue.

Edit: I'm not referring to Atomic regs.

 

[kelemvor]

People on scubaboard seem to make a much bigger deal of rinsing regulators than I've ever done or even seen someone do on a boat. Of course SB seems to have lots of folks who don't ever take regs in for service so maybe that's the reason.

I'm not saying I don't rinse my regs, but it's definitely a precise and delicate procedure with a checklist or anything like that. So far it's worked for me. I do take my regs for service ever year as the manufacturer recommends.

I'm thinking the OP can get pretty much any regulator priced in the $500-$999 range and have a great reg while still being within budget. Only a couple OC regs are more than $1000 and there really are few differences in performance from what I understand. It comes down to minor feature differences, and support that comes from the manufacturers chosen service path (self service/local repair shops/centralized repair shops/etc).

 

[cerich]

People on scubaboard seem to make a much bigger deal of rinsing regulators than I've ever done or even seen someone do on a boat. Of course SB seems to have lots of folks who don't ever take regs in for service so maybe that's the reason.

I'm not saying I don't rinse my regs, but it's definitely a precise and delicate procedure with a checklist or anything like that. So far it's worked for me. I do take my regs for service ever year as the manufacturer recommends.

I'm thinking the OP can get pretty much any regulator priced in the $500-$999 range and have a great reg while still being within budget. Only a couple OC regs are more than $1000 and there really are few differences in performance from what I understand. It comes down to minor feature differences, and support that comes from the manufacturers chosen service path (self service/local repair shops/centralized repair shops/etc).

if ya want corrosion on a reg, rinse it in the boat/shop rinse bucket after others, the rinse bucket water ends up being as dirty/salty as the water you were diving in

 

[buddhasummer]

if ya want corrosion on a reg, rinse it in the boat/shop rinse bucket after others, the rinse bucket water ends up being as dirty/salty as the water you were diving in

As salty as sea water? I think that's bit of a stretch, assuming it's for gear only and not wetsuits.

 

[kelemvor]

if ya want corrosion on a reg, rinse it in the boat/shop rinse bucket after others, the rinse bucket water ends up being as dirty/salty as the water you were diving in

I think that depends greatly on the shop/boat. Dive Paradise at Hotel Cozumel had the nastiest rinse buckets I've ever seen. You had to rinse your gear with seawater if you'd inadvertently used one of their buckets.

Bay Adventures in Roatan was another story, their rinse buckets were very clean every time I used them. It's pretty easy to tell if a rinse bucket is nasty or clean.