Question about regulators little help please.

[pentiumchic]

Ok here's my story and I'm sticking to it! No really. I'm new to diving and have been using the LDS rental pos regulator I've heard good things about the brand but am so not happy with it at all.(Oceanic Delta) I'm telling you the brand so you don't tell me to get one of those.Well anyway I've got all of 12 dives under my belt but 3 cert to my name one of them being peak performance buoyancy.So before you say I'm doing that cause my buoyancy sucks no I do it cause I find it FUN I just love getting an eyeball look at some stuff.Not recommending you do that before you know what you are looking at that close some eels and other citters may not like you doing that!Every time I'm playing upside down I suck ocean with the blasted reg.I'm not going to stop playing upside down any time soon so what I need is a few names of some good regs that don't have this problem.Problem being me drinking half the Pacific with what feels like a REG straw!So for those of you wondering why the ocean looked a little low lately now ya know.lol Thanks for any help you can give me.

Jen

 

[JT2]

Howdy pentiumchic, and welcome to the board!

Some regulators are known for breathing wet, although even the ones that breathe wet shouldn't drown you, so there was probably something wrong with the reg you were using. You will hear many suggestions on this board about who makes the best regs, however the truth is that the best reg is the one that is best suited to you, your budget and what type of diving you mostly plan on doing. I personally recommend Zeagle/Apeks regs because they are excellent breathers, very durable and they have an entry level inexpensive reg as well as their other regs that can be and are used in the most extreme environments in diving. All that being said, I will also say that others such as Scuba Pro & US Divers also offer a wide variety of well made regs for all levels of diving. My advice to you would be to shop around and see what your local dive shops have to offer and ask to try them out in the pool, or better yet see if they have some demo's you can take out and dive. A couple models that I would recommend checking out as far as performance for the money are the Apeks tx40 or atx40, and the U.S. Divers Micra, the reason I recommended the Micra is because I know a lot of women who really like the Micra because it is very small and light as well as being an easy breather and can be found at a good price usually. One more thing to remember, don't put too much stock into the reg reviews you may come across in magazines and other places, while there is some good info in these articles it is hard to tell how biased they are, so your best bet is going out and trying them yourself in my opinion. Hope this helps!

 

[Diver0001]

pentiumchic once bubbled...
Ok here's my story and I'm sticking to it! No really. I'm new to diving and have been using the LDS rental pos regulator I've heard good things about the brand but am so not happy with it at all.(Oceanic Delta) I'm telling you the brand so you don't tell me to get one of those.Well anyway I've got all of 12 dives under my belt but 3 cert to my name one of them being peak performance buoyancy.So before you say I'm doing that cause my buoyancy sucks no I do it cause I find it FUN I just love getting an eyeball look at some stuff.Not recommending you do that before you know what you are looking at that close some eels and other citters may not like you doing that!Every time I'm playing upside down I suck ocean with the blasted reg.I'm not going to stop playing upside down any time soon so what I need is a few names of some good regs that don't have this problem.Problem being me drinking half the Pacific with what feels like a REG straw!So for those of you wondering why the ocean looked a little low lately now ya know.lol Thanks for any help you can give me.

Jen

Try an Aqualung Titan or a Legend if you think the Titan breathes too wet upside down (The Legend is the driest reg I've ever tried). Stay away from Sherwood, Apeks and Oceanic if you like to breath dry inverted. The Dacor Viper may also be an option for you if you swim inverted a lot but it's known as a wet breather in the "normal" position. YYMV.

I don't have any experience with other brands (like Mares, Scubapro or Poseidon) so don't write them off just because I didn't mention them. In any case I hope I gave you a good starting point.

R..

 

[Max]

Have to put in a good word for the Aqualung legend it is a fantastic breathing machine (unfortunately its my wife's). Mine is ok too, the scubapro mk25/S600 comes into second place. max

 

[stiebs]

Rick Murchison once bubbled in another thread...
Try as we might, we just can't avoid that pesky physics. When you cut away all the fancy pieces, it all boils down to this... During normal operation, all mechanically actuated underwater demand regulators require displacement of a diaphragm to open the valve that provides air. In scuba, the regulator is tuned so that this diaphragm moves effortlessly in a normal swimming position. On the "hockey puck" style regs (includes Apeks) this is with the diaphragm slightly lower than the mouthpiece, so there's the tiniest little bit of water pressure already on it. When you turn it "upside down" you're positioning the diaphragm above the mouthpiece, and now you have a "bubble" under the diaphragm - the pressure differential has been reversed, and you now have to overcome that half inch or so of water pressure before the diaphragm can move and open the valve to provide air. It's the same reason you can usually stop a regulator freeflow by simply turning the mouthpiece down.
Attempts to overcome this have been made by placing the diaphragm to the side (Poseidon, for example) rather than the front of the reg, and that works - but - now you've just moved the "hard to breathe" position from "upside down" to "on your right side."
So what you're experiencing is "normal operation" - irritating to many, with a little experience it'll be something you learn to expect, compensate for and eventually you won't even notice it.

Hi Jen,
As I've quoted from Rick, you will probably find it difficult to find a reg which breathes well upside down and the right way up. You best option would probably to try a reg that has the purge on the side rather than the front.

Rick mentioned the Poisedon ones, but since your LDS already has Oceanic rentals, they may be able to let you try and Omega.
Personally I use an Omega as my primary, and a Delta as a secondary. I find the Delta an extremely comfortable reg to use, but as you have experienced, it does breathe wet when upside down.

The Omega breaths well either upside or the right way up, but if I lie on my side it will breathe wet.

 

[pentiumchic]

I'm now taking a hard look at the side mount diaphragm style/type of reg and from the looks of them I'm thinking they would be just the ticket for me.Now if uncle Sam would just hurry up and get those W2 forms to me.I sure know where my refund is going! But if anyone of you can think of any others I should take a look at do please let me know I still have 3 or 4 weeks to make up my mind.Thanks again.

Jen

 

[t_dogg]

Check out these reviews at Divernet. They group regs by price range, and include ratings of inverted breathing performance. You'll have to convert prices from pounds to $.

http://www.divernet.com/equipment/1202regtest.htm

http://www.divernet.com/equipment/0302regtest.htm

http://www.divernet.com/equipment/0401regtest.htm

 

[Rice]

It's really quite frustrating that pritish magazines in every field I've had interest have been FAR superieor in terms of content than every single American offering.

Does anyone out there know why such a tiny little island has so amny better publications???

And how can they survive when frigging Skin Diver can't? (granted Skin diver was crap)

Argh! Does anyone know where DIVER can be bought in Fl?
Thanks,
Didn't mean to be off topic
Rice

 

[nickjb]

You could subscribe:

https://secure.divernet.com/diversub.htm

The international postage is pretty cheap and with the current discount cheaper than buying over the counter

 

[pentiumchic]

Living in some of the import expensive places.(Hawaii and Alaska) I have become the online shopaholic so for those that don't have a price converter yet this is a good one.lol
http://www.searchenginez.com/currency.html

Jen