Regs problem...

[Amy B]

I've recently bought some news regs, Proton Ice ones. I absolutely love them, the colour is fantastic! And they're really easy to breathe through.

The trouble is, I keep breathing water in through them as well. I've been on three sea dives with them now, and tested them twice in a pool. They seemed ok in the pool, but not in the sea. I've tried positioning them differently in my mouth, gripping them harder with my teeth, everything... Nothing has worked. It's usually only a bit of spray coming in so I've not aborted the dive or anything... But yesterday it was pretty bas, so I switched to me alternate.

My alternate has a larger mouthpiece and I didn't breathe any water in with them. My sister has the same regs as me, and said she gets a little trouble with them too. I was considering changing the mouthpiece but... the colour of the mouthpiece matches the reg (baby blue)... I know it's silly but they look good and I'd like to keep the blue mouthpiece!!

My instructor has suggested we use a neoprene ring on the regs to make them neutrally buoyant, which is something I can try. But is it really so much to ask that diving equipment works properly AND looks good??! Does anyone else have any other suggestions? I don't want to be slated for being fussy with this, I'd like some genuine advice here...

The other thing is, when I switched to my alternate yesterday, I had a bit of a problem with it. Whenever I looked down, loads of air was escaping from the reg. I don't mean it was freeflowing, but even when I wasn't breathing out, air was coming out of the regs, as if I was. Anyone have any ideas why this was? I ended up swimming around holding me reg in my mouth! I'm not a panicy diver and there was no problem so long as I didn't look down without holding the reg.

I'm thinking it might be a bit over-sensitive, and just need some adjusting? Can't remember the exact make of my alternate but I think it's Mares (but under a different name).

As I said, they're brand new regs, really easy to breathe through, and they loook good too. But if anyone has any ideas why these things have happened... Please let me know!

 

[gj62]

First, I'm unsure by your description (and perhaps you are unsure as well) - is the water coming in through your reg, or is there a leak between your mouthpiece & your reg, or between your mouthpiece and your mouth? Unless the mouthpiece doesn't fit your reg or your mouth, that should not be the source of your problem.

Second, are you sure your alternate was not free-flowing just a little bit, causing the continuous bubbles? It would help to know what your alternate is. If you bought it through a local shop, I'd just run them in for a quick check-out...

 

[Pixelated]

I've recently bought some news regs, Proton Ice ones. I absolutely love them, the colour is fantastic! And they're really easy to breathe through.

The trouble is, I keep breathing water in through them as well.

[snip]

As I said, they're brand new regs, really easy to breathe through, and they loook good too. But if anyone has any ideas why these things have happened... Please let me know!

Never prefer looks over function in your life support gear. It's your life we are talking about, not how good the gear looks.
Try purging the regulator at depth to see if it's residual water stuck in a pocket somewhere or if it's refilling with each breath. Looking at the pictures on the Mares site, it's hard t o tell if it's adjustable or not. Talk to the pros in the shop where you bought it. Talk to Mares service and see if they are aware of this issue. If it's the mouthpiece, don't be a fashion plate and sacrifice comfort for color.

 

[Amy B]

Never prefer looks over function in your life support gear. It's your life we are talking about, not how good the gear looks.
Try purging the regulator at depth to see if it's residual water stuck in a pocket somewhere or if it's refilling with each breath. Looking at the pictures on the Mares site, it's hard t o tell if it's adjustable or not. Talk to the pros in the shop where you bought it. Talk to Mares service and see if they are aware of this issue. If it's the mouthpiece, don't be a fashion plate and sacrifice comfort for color.

Trust me, if I need to change the mouthpiece, I will. But if you look up a pic of the regs you'll see what I mean, I'm sure!
The regs are adjustable, I've already had them done a bit - tried them out in the pool before I used them on a normal dive, and they free-flowed really badly if they went in the water upside down. Think they might just need adjusting a little more? I'm no gear expert so I don't know...

The air was coming out of the alternate where it normally comes out when you breathe out, not out of my mouth, and as I said it was when I looked down, so yeah, they could have been free-flowing a bit, but not enough to make the reg fly out of my mouth or anything, if you know what I mean...

 

[PRL]

When a reg hits the water upside down it will usually free-flow and that does not constitude an adjustment.

Check an another thread for your other problem http://www.scubaboard.com/t54294.html

 

[Amy B]

When a reg hits the water upside down it will usually free-flow and that does not constitude an adjustment.

Check an another thread for your other problem http://www.scubaboard.com/t54294.html

I know they normally do that, but mine did it a LOT, so it was fine-tuned a little by the guy at the shop, where I bought them. That was also on my instructors advice (who is a friend of mine and wouldn't give me bad advice), who was present when I tested them. It's not just me being picky. I didn't want to roll back off the RIB and have them free-flowing as I hit the water! Which they would have done, and now they don't.

Thanks for the link, but I already read that thread before I posted mine... My instrucotrs checked my reg and it's ok, and the chances of it happening three times in a row are pretty slim if it was down to the reg hitting the water just right... Normally dive from a RIB, so no giant stride either... Less likely for that problem to occur when you roll in backwards so I've been told!

I HAVE already considered the obvious, I'm just looking for advice if someone can think of something else I might have missed.

But thanks for the help

 

[Diver0001]

Amy,

Let's take it from the top.

Is there a tiewrap holding the mouthpiece on? Is it tight enough? (ie, can you rotate the mouthpiece?) and/or are there any nicks, holes, deformations etc on the mouthpiece. Stretch it and look for nicks and holes, especially where it attaches to the regulator body.

let's start with that.

R..

 

[Scubaroo]

The water in the reg is possibly a folded or damaged exhaust diaphragm (the "mushroom valve"). That can cause a reg to breath wet - water comes in instead of merely air going out. Have a look into the reg through the exhaust tee (where the bubbles normally come out when you breathe), you can probably see what looks a circle of light coloured rubber (maybe two depending on the reg design, but most have one) - does it look like it's laying flat and neatly sealed, or does it look loose/torn/folded?

 

[Diver0001]

Your gett'n ahead of me there Ben. That's step 2 if it's not the mouthpiece.

R..

 

[Amy B]

Amy,

Let's take it from the top.

Is there a tiewrap holding the mouthpiece on? Is it tight enough? (ie, can you rotate the mouthpiece?) and/or are there any nicks, holes, deformations etc on the mouthpiece. Stretch it and look for nicks and holes, especially where it attaches to the regulator body.

let's start with that.

R..

Yes there's a tiewrap, I'm pretty sure it's tight enough...
Nothing wrong with the mouthpiece (it's brand new, but I did check anyway just in case!).
My sister gets the same problem, with water getting into the reg, but not so bad as me. She's got the same regs as me. She said she just bites it a bit harder and it's ok, but I tried that, I tried holding it to get a better position, holding it less loosely too, everything, none of it worked... In the end I switched to my alternate because I got fed up of breathing in water. The more I fiddled with it to try to fix it, the worse it got. Plus I kept knocking my mask and getting water in that too... Not so easy to clear when you're getting water in your regs!! (ARGH).

Scubaroo... the circle bit in the regs looks fine. Do you think it would be worth hassling my instructor to take the regs apart and check it properly? (He's pretty busy at the mo and I've already pinched some of his ankle weights and a reg clip recently!)

Or... ideas for step 3?!?