Has anyone ever heard of one regulator our performing another in cold water or warm water. I gave a buddy my first stage, reg and air 2, which are all atomic aquatics. His dive shop sells Apeks products and he is being told that Apeks is better in cold water... I have used atomic aquatics in the tropics as well as southern CA where water temps at depth can be low 40s (F). Never had a problem. Your input is appreciated!
Reg vs. Reg for cold and/or warm water
- Thread starter Your Name
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
Some regs breathe better than others, absolutely. Some 1st stages are environmentally sealed, making them better in cold water because they cannot freeze. Some are balanced, meaning they breathe the same at depth as on the surface. Some 2nd stages breathe better, or have a heat exchanger to reduce the likelihood of freezing.
Regs matter.
Regs matter.
phork
Contributor
^-- pretty much sums it up. I wouldn't say one brand in general is better than another for cold water, but some models are better than others. Like my ScubaPro MK17 would out perform a MK25 in cold water due to the MK17 being sealed and the MK25 not. In warm water though it would most likely be the exact same.
Cold and/or dirty water can make a difference. The other factor is extreme depths, but for typical recreational diving, most are more than fine... Rule these out, and you have a "relatively level" playing field for the "major" brands. Much of the hype can only be determined by expensive machines, and not the diver. Many times the perceived differences are the result of the tune the reg has.
This is a common misconception. Balancing has nothing to do with breathing at depth. Balancing comes in 2 forms but the objective of both is to keep cracking pressure of the second stage constant The first stage does this by keeping IP constant over the normal use range of tank pressure- roughly 300-3000+. Since the IP is kept constant (in relation to ambient pressure) the cracking pressure of the second stage remains constant over tank pressure. Now some regs claim they are "over balanced" which is a complete misnomer, they are "over depth compensated" but depth compensation is a completely different thing than balancing and it does have an effect on the performance of a first stage at depth however ALL scuba first stages are (and always have been) depth compensated. The second form of balancing is done in the second stage. In this case, the second stage balancing keeps cracking pressure constant as IP varies....which should not happen if the first stage is balanced so balancing both is redundant and unnecessary...although all the manufactures do it.
You are right, thanks for the correction. I hadn't thought about it in years so when I went to type it out that's what came out.
I have seen environmentally sealed regs freeze when sufficiently misused, with a layer of ice over the first stage up to 5mm thick. The regs were being used by novice divers, air temp was sub-zero and despite being warned not to breathe off the regs in the air the divers ignored (or more likely forgot) the warning and the regs free flowed. By the time the tank had been turned off the first stage had completely frozen.
Some 1st stages are environmentally sealed, making them better in cold water because they are less likely to freeze
Ideally, you'll have a regulator that has both an environmentally sealed first stage and an environmentally sealed second stage. Sadly, while they were very common 40-50 years ago, they are much less common now.
It becomes an issue when the water is very cold, below 40 degrees.
Similar threads
