SCUBAPRO New parts for life program

[SangP]

All good points. I do sometimes miss the old Darth Vader AIR1. As far as used equipment, you're right. A good tech can do wonders. I kind of liked being able to service the old Sherwood myself, though. I just serviced it and put it up with an extra LP seat and its last Sherwood overhaul kit.

I guess I just wanted something new to last me the next 20 years. It's ironic I went from SCUBAPRO's high end to Atomic's low end, though. A kudo for my LDS manager friend; he didn't actually sell me the SCUBAPRO regulator, one of his people did. He said he would have pointed my to Atomics to begin with.

Seems to me I can't find ANY negative comments about the Z2X. Oh, just got off the phone with an Atomic tech. Answered all my inane questions pleasantly and without sounding bothered. Qualities SCUBAPRO tech support has been losing over the last few years.

I'm curious if you have ever considered a Hog or an aqualung?

 

[akeegan2]

I'm curious if you have ever considered a Hog or an aqualung?

Yes, both. Unfortunately, my LDS manager could only accept back my MK25/S600 against store credit (not his policy.) At least I gave a good bit of credit left now.

 

[SangP]

Yes, both. Unfortunately, my LDS manager could only accept back my MK25/S600 against store credit (not his policy.) At least I gave a good bit of credit left now.

Ouch, the Atomic are great regs, the Z2X looks like a great reg for the price! Happy diving!

 

[elan]

A bad feature of an atomic second is their seat saving feature that requires you to have the reg pressurized if you want to soak it otherwise you can flood it. G250V purge lock is a better design imho. The hype about how well they breath compared to other regs is just that - a hype. G250v apeks atx/xtx and many other regs breath just as well. And SP D series regs and Air1 breathes better than all the above including atomics.

 

[Dr. Lecter]

A bad feature of an atomic second is their seat saving feature that requires you to have the reg pressurized if you want to soak it otherwise you can flood it.

If you're soaking the whole reg, it's better practice to pressurize it anyway. Will the first stage cap hold out the water? Maybe, maybe not. If you're just soaking the second stage, it doesn't matter what the design is -- keep the second stage lower than the first stage and flood away.

G250V purge lock is a better design imho.

It sure is, if you like a mechanical feature that locks the second stage in freeflow mode being built into your regs. Me, I'll stay away from that particular failure point. I want my regulator optimized for use, not cleaning.

The hype about how well they breath compared to other regs is just that - a hype. G250v apeks atx/xtx and many other regs breath just as well. And SP D series regs and Air1 breathes better than all the above including atomics.

I know I should take your word for that, but how about you point me to some objective test numbers anyway?

 

[halocline]

If you're soaking the whole reg, it's better practice to pressurize it anyway. Will the first stage cap hold out the water? Maybe, maybe not. If you're just soaking the second stage, it doesn't matter what the design is -- keep the second stage lower than the first stage and flood away.

It sure is, if you like a mechanical feature that locks the second stage in freeflow mode being built into your regs. Me, I'll stay away from that particular failure point. I want my regulator optimized for use, not cleaning.

I know I should take your word for that, but how about you point me to some objective test numbers anyway?

1. Of course the dust cap will keep water out. That's what it's designed for. It's often not possible or practical to soak a regulator while pressurized.

2. The G250 style storage lock on the purge is hardly a 'failure' point, it's actually a pretty elegant way of solving the seat imprinting issue. If you had any understanding of how it works you'd realize that there's nothing about it that can cause your reg to fail. OTOH, the atomic floating orifice is a nice idea, but I don't see how it offers any advantage over a mechanical anti-set. What is this nonsense about 'optimized for use'? If you wanted to 'optimize' a barrel poppet style 2nd stage for performance, the last thing you'd do is have the orifice set on a spring washer; after all, tiny adjustments in alignment and location of the orifice, meaning small fractions of a millimeter, have a big effect on cracking effort. I think you'd want that orifice edge to be very solidly in place. The fancy anti-set design is a bit of a gimmick IMO.

3. There are numbers that attempt to evaluate breathing performance, but they're hardly relevant to how the regulator actually performs. The breathing machines don't measure things like case geometry fault, venturi assist issues (like drymouth) all things that affect how the reg 'feels' in actual diving. Ultimately evaluating reg performance is a subjective thing, probably more like evaluating high end audio or even wine tasting. Lots of regulators score high on breathing machine tests.

 

[elan]

halocline saved me from a lot if typing on iphone (thanks). One thing to add is that the antiset feature of atomics render it useless for stage and deco bottles. In those cases it basically quarantees the reg to be flooded. It might not be relevant for recreational divers in this particular case but even rec diver sometimes use ponies and atomic seconds cannot be used for cases where you just pressurize the bottle.

 

[BoltSnap]

halocline saved me from a lot if typing on iphone (thanks). One thing to add is that the antiset feature of atomics render it useless for stage and deco bottles. In those cases it basically quarantees the reg to be flooded. It might not be relevant for recreational divers in this particular case but even rec diver sometimes use ponies and atomic seconds cannot be used for cases where you just pressurize the bottle.

Do you leave your regs on the deco/stage bottles pressurized? If so, what is the problem with using Atomic SS there?

 

[redacted]

halocline saved me from a lot if typing on iphone (thanks). One thing to add is that the antiset feature of atomics render it useless for stage and deco bottles. In those cases it basically quarantees the reg to be flooded. It might not be relevant for recreational divers in this particular case but even rec diver sometimes use ponies and atomic seconds cannot be used for cases where you just pressurize the bottle.

Do you leave your regs on the deco/stage bottles pressurized? If so, what is the problem with using Atomic SS there?

If you bump the purge you can lose all pressure from the regs leaving an opportunity for water traveling through the 2nd into the the hose and into the 1st stage. Of course, you can do the same thing even with a reg without the seat saver design (Atomic and some Scubapro) if you bump that purge enough after losing pressure. That said, I use a G500 (seat saver design) on a slung bottle on a Mk2 (more vulnerable to damage from SW incursion) and have never had any problem. But I do monitor and restore the pressure often and keep the user adjustment cranked in when not in use providing some seal even with pressure off.

 

[eelnoraa]

I'm looking at an Atomic Z2X now. Good, clear warranty. Thoughts?

I will lose that X and save $100.