No, I always breathe my regs before I enter the water, just as I was taught. I also regularly practice with the pony - both at depth and at safty stop. neither drains the tank and I top it off when I pick up/drop off tanks. And NO it's not a paperweight NOR do I have a false sense of security. You, however, certainly seem to depend on unsupported assumptions.
You said "It stays filled unless I have an emergency". If you practice with it regularly and breath off of it before every dive, this cannot be true. That is not an unsupported assumption, its simple logic. If your using them properly, you are going to need to either top them off regularly with your special adapter.
If you took the time to read my posts you would see that I have that covered. My 13 is set and I've got a Blue Steel LP 27 with a regular valve. A six????? - about the same use as a spare air - only for people who want enough time to repent & say a prayer before they drown.
If this regulator is so "superlative" for your 13, why don't you use it on your 27. That's right, its a pain in the butt to switch between tanks, so you now need 2 pony regulators. Exactly what I tried to explain.
So the knob is small. I turn it on before I enter the water. I want it small on a pony - I want everything as small as possible on a pony.
You stated "I don't see how it's non standard.", I pointed out the small knob, along with a couple of other things. Its not standard, it will work for you if you want a small pony, of course, knock yourself out. But its not standard.
Also, once again your lack of hands on experience with the product and your biased assumptions render your statements just so much bushwah. It breathes exactly the same as my standard.
No assumptions, no bias. I purchased one about 7 years ago and probably have more dives with it than you have had you entire life. When I am traveling and I need a the smallest possible pony setup, its an option I use. I have dived with a fair amount of gear over the past 35 years. My opinion is simply it is a specialized regulator. You have some benefits and some tradeoffs, choose wisely.
Moreover, I'm curious - why on earth would I ever be double breathing a bailout pony? If a buddy has an OOA, and I do too, both at the same time and we both have to share the pony, and we can't make that work - well - I guesss I've got bigger problems - another good reason to continue diving mostly solo.
I never said you would have 2 divers breathing the same pony reg. I was pointing out the differences between a standard reg and this one. It has different flow characteristics, one of the tradeoffs of the design.
By the way, it's not good enough for my purposes - it is superlative for my purposes.
If you want the smallest possible pony, I agree with you 100%. That was not the question posed by the OP, neither was your advice qualified to that purpose.
It's obvious you just want an argument so I will discontinue replying. Here are a couple of quotes to chew on:
Duh, the is Scuba Board! We have different views, you think your regulator is the best thing since sliced bread, I don't agree. Its you choice to continue the conversation or drop it.
