Regulator Strategy (Atomic and Apeks)

[Jackie Treehorn]

Read pretty much all of the threads and searched quite a bit. I think I got it mostly sorted out, but before I drop a significant chunk of change (which i'm not opposed to) I thought I'd seek opinions here.

Current Setup: Atomic M1 primary on a 7ft Halcyon rubber hose. Atomic M1 alternate on bungee necklace on a Miflex hose. I have both a yoke and DIN first stage.

Usage: Warm water recreational single tank ocean dives. Love the setup actually.

New Requirement: I've started doing some doubles diving (Completed Tec40 and Tec45) and plan to do a bit more and complete Tec50 over the summer. These are primary warm water wrecks but also want the option to dive Ohio quarrys, great lakes, sidemount, possibly ice, and later do some cave diving (with training of course).

Solution: Two XTX50/DST with 5th port for a doubles routing conifguration. Reconfigure the DIN Atomic M1 to be for 50% Nitrox deco and purchase an Apeks XTX40/DS4 for dedicated 100% O2 use.

I think that will give me the ultimate options for doubles hose routing, side mount capability, cold water, and the ability to use the M1 for non O2 clean situations (Atomic says the reg can be used up to 50% without being O2 clean).

Any opinions? What am I missing?

Thanks in advance!

 

[tbone1004]

why have to deal with two different regulators come service time? You're already invested in Atomic, just use them. The swap from yoke to din and back takes 5 minutes at home. The socket for the yoke side is like $25 from Scuba Tools and the din uses an allen key.

Get a pair of new Atomic M1 for dedicated O2 use *yes I know it says 80%* and you're good to go. One for EAN50, the other for 100% and happy days.

Cheapest way is probably to contact Mike at @Dive Right In Scuba and see if he'd put a pair of 40" hoses in this package instead of the 84/22. Gets you two firsts/seconds/pressure gauges/bolt snaps, so just need the right hose lengths and you're set
M1 Sidemount Regulator Package

 

[Jackie Treehorn]

TBone, glad you replied. Been reading lots of your posts on similar topics.

So you are saying reconfigure my yoke 1st stage to DIN as needed? That's interesting. I don't maintain my own regs but not opposed to that I suppose.

Yes, the 80% Atomic limit made me consider otherwise.

What about cold water? M1's would be fine?

 

[tbone1004]

TBone, glad you replied. Been reading lots of your posts on similar topics.

So you are saying reconfigure my yoke 1st stage to DIN as needed? That's interesting. I don't maintain my own regs but not opposed to that I suppose.

Yes, the 80% Atomic limit made me consider otherwise.

What about cold water? M1's would be fine?

I would reconfigure as needed, but that's just me. If you have a good relationship with your LDS, they should do it for free for you if they're halfway decent

The M1 can be used with high O2. I believe @jebernot is using one with O2 on a regular basis and he breathes more O2 in a week than most divers do in a year.

The M1 can be sealed for cold water use if you need it.

This is only coming because you have the M1's already and I assume you like them. It isn't something I would invest completely in new regs for since you have some already.
Me personally? This can't be beat for $180. I've been using that first stage for about 4 years on one of my O2 regs and it's worked well
DGX O2 Deco Regulator Package

 

[Jackie Treehorn]

Yeah, I love the M1's. Plus my family members have them all as well (ST1, Ti2, B2, SS1, etc).

I'll talk to my LDS about converting and/or showing me the ropes on that. They're great.

Thanks much.

 

[Magnus Lundstedt]

When getting more regs, and your family have the same, you have a whole bunch. Its good to have regs that is the same or have same service kits and/or service in the same shop.

Maybe considering learning a little about servicing them. I don't say that you have to do the service yourself if you don't want to, but learn a little about how so adjust and fine tune, how to switch between the DIN and A-clamp, and how to do an inspection. You need some tools, but not that much.

 

[Scared Silly]

I would suggest buying up a couple of B2s or you can do like we did custom order Z2s with the swivel first stages (e.g., B2 first stages). We use those for back gas and the M1s for deco gas. Actually,

Back gas B2 first stages w/ M1 second stages
Deco gas M1 first stages w/ Z2 second stages

Of course once you go that far buy a yoke Ti reg for traveling so no need to swap back an forth yoke and DIN.

At that point you will have enough regs to justify learning to service them yourself ...