Regulator Advice

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

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

You can get a Z2 setup from LP for $415. The M1 is on sale for $500 and is made for cold water/tech type diving with an env. sealed first stage.

I don't think you can beat that without a significant compromise in performance. Keep in mind; Atomics require service every TWO years, not ONE year as with most others. This means you'll save ~$100 after the first year (no, I don't work for them or any other equipment seller).

How ya gonna beat that:wink:?

K :popcorn:
 
I rarely join in internet chat discussions, but in this case I'm compelled to comment. As a preamble for the purposes of qualifying my expertise, I've been professionally involved in diving for 37 years (ex-Chairman of NAUI, founder and ex-President of TDI/SDI training agencies, ex-President and CEO of UWATEC, founder and ex-publisher of Fathoms magazine as well as editing Scuba Times, Deep Tech, and Rodale's Scuba Diving, ex-world depth record holder on scuba 475 ft., co-founder of the world's largest diving operation Ocean Quest International, and author/editor of 37 books...), I'm retired now and living the good life but still traveling all over the world diving on special projects.

The best regulators in the frigging world are made by Atomic. They have superb performance, flawless reliability, and the best customer service in the industry. I've been using their Titanium series since 1996 and would not even think of diving with anything else. The guys that run the company are the best examples of business ethics you'll find. You can buy an Atomic regulator and rely on it for virtually any type of diving. I've known Doug, Dean, and Seamus for years and you can trust your life with their products.

It's the best investment you'll ever make in diving equipment. I can afford anything and most companies would pay me to use their gear. I choose Atomic because it's simply the best stuff out there.

Bret Gilliam
diving since 1959, professionally since January 1971

Wow, I'm impressed... Personally, I never even considered buying an Atomic Reg until now. Maybe when my Titan wears out I'll have to consider it.
 
Hello, i would definately suggest the atomic M1. I have poseidon xtremes and the M1 and i have to say the M1 is a better breather. Im a service tech and have tuned the xtreme to its limit and the M1 still is a better breather. Im not a fan of apeks, and yes i have owned them before, just dont think they are all that great for the price.
 
I believe you can 'seal' any Atomics 1st stage (they use Christolube) but the M1 comes "out of the box" environmentally sealed for cold water diving.

Cheers.

-J.-


That's my choice as well!
 
I love my Aqualung Legend XL. The auto-seal on the first stage is great. It is almost as good as my old Sherwood Magnum (the OLD one from the 80's) it was the easiest breather I ever used....and it is STILL my back-up regulator. Simple in design and easy to overhaul.
 
I rarely join in internet chat discussions, but in this case I'm compelled to comment. As a preamble for the purposes of qualifying my expertise, I've been professionally involved in diving for 37 years (ex-Chairman of NAUI, founder and ex-President of TDI/SDI training agencies, ex-President and CEO of UWATEC, founder and ex-publisher of Fathoms magazine as well as editing Scuba Times, Deep Tech, and Rodale's Scuba Diving, ex-world depth record holder on scuba 475 ft., co-founder of the world's largest diving operation Ocean Quest International, and author/editor of 37 books...), I'm retired now and living the good life but still traveling all over the world diving on special projects.

The best regulators in the frigging world are made by Atomic. They have superb performance, flawless reliability, and the best customer service in the industry. I've been using their Titanium series since 1996 and would not even think of diving with anything else. The guys that run the company are the best examples of business ethics you'll find. You can buy an Atomic regulator and rely on it for virtually any type of diving. I've known Doug, Dean, and Seamus for years and you can trust your life with their products.

It's the best investment you'll ever make in diving equipment. I can afford anything and most companies would pay me to use their gear. I choose Atomic because it's simply the best stuff out there.

Bret Gilliam
diving since 1959, professionally since January 1971


Hi Bret

It is great to see you here.

About the Atomic regulators, first I will say that I don’t own any and have limited experience with them, but they are very impressive. From a quality stand point they could very well be a step above any other regulator.

On the other hand they have made some design selections that as most things in life, have advantages and disadvantages.

Three design decisions come to mind that I will try to briefly point out their pros and cons.

1) The use of titanium obviously has excellent corrosion advantages, but as many things it is not a solve it all material. It does have some disadvantages…many of which (as machinability) translate into cost, but there are others.

2) The use of a seat saver in the second stage by retracting the volcano orifice is kind of a neat idea, but IMHO it has too many undesirable side effect. It is an extra complication with extra moving parts, it opens the second stage to water and contaminants if the regulator is not pressurized, you can’t do an on the spot vacuum test of the alternate second if air leaks back form the other second stage. The benefit of this feature is IMO not worth all the side effects.

3) The use of a piston first stage has many nice features for simplicity and performance, but the geometry is less that ideal for a good environmental seal. There are ways to design an environmental seal in a flow through piston regulator, but using a lubricant filled chamber is a mess. Back 30 years ago that was the state of the art, but now a days it would be close to my last choice in design. It is obviously a design compromise that the end user may not see (if it is serviced very regularly), but IMHO it is a compromised I would not want to deal with…I do my own service, but complicating the work of any technician is also not conducive for them to do their best job.

All I am pointing out is that it is a matter of choices…there is no perfect design…there are always compromises in any design.

Over all I think they are excellent design and superb quality…if money was no object I may own one or two to play with when I am not using one of my double hose regulators…on the other hand, they would probably collect too much dust. :wink:
 
The best regulators in the frigging world are made by Atomic. They have superb performance, flawless reliability, and the best customer service in the industry...I've known Doug, Dean, and Seamus for years and you can trust your life with their products.

Bret Gilliam
diving since 1959, professionally since January 1971

It sounds like you know the top dogs over at Atomic pretty well, this probably explains why your customer service needs have been attended to very carefully.

For some less fortunate peons that have not yet been inscribed into the holy grail of scuba diving history, I can tell you from experience that Atomic customer service is average (meaning that that do what they are expected/supposed to do), finding places to service them and getting parts can be very difficult (to say the least). Other than that, they are great regulators.
 
Hi Spartan Diver. I do most of my diving in Lake Champlain and the St Lawrence river in Upstate New York. I got ice diver certified last year. I use a Mares proton metal primary and Mares proton metal octo. Neither of them have ever free flowed on me or other wise failed me on any dive. I am deep diver certified and have about 70 dives on these regs. I have also read the results of some antarctic dives done with Sherwood Wisdom regs. They claimed in over 1300 dives in waters between 28 and 29 degrees they had a 2% failure rate (a failure equaled a free flow). Those are impressive stats under those conditions. I love my Mares but my next reg may be the maximus. Hope this info helps.
 
Thank you for all of your informative replies. My bro and I searched around and found a couple of good deals on used equipment. I now have an Apeks XTX 200 as my primary regulator and an Apeks XTX 50 as my backup.

I will be looking to find a regulator set for my wife in the near future and your info will help with that search.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

Back
Top Bottom