Most of the time I dive on a closed-circuit rebreather, both at home and one trips. Occasionally I make a trip to a destination that does not have easy access to CCR supplies and dive open circuit. Due to the pandemic, it's been a while since I dove OC on a trip in February 2020 to Galapagos. I have a trip coming up next month to Fiji and plan to bring my OC gear.
I decided to put together two sets of OC regs for our trip. Given the time since my last OC trip all my regulators have been mixed, swapped, stirred, and shaken up all over the place. I decided to put together two sets with Mk25 1st stages and an S600 primary. Secondaries were an odd Atomic Z2 and Apex TX50. I also have a pair of G250v 2nd's that I've been using for bailout bottles with the CCR's.
I started out putting together the Mk25 rigs and getting the S600's tuned and balanced. No problems there. I did a little tear down and cleaning but no parts swaps as they had not been used much since their last service a couple years ago. While testing both of the S600's I was surprised to find that the Exhalation Effort was quite hard. The inhalation effort was fine after the tune up but the exhalation on both of the S600 felt a little like blowing up a balloon. I would expect it to be effortless, but it feels like more work than expected.
I tried the other 2nd's on hand (Atomic Z2, G250v, Apex) and they all breathed much better than the S600's. Exhale is far better on all of them. The G250v has a much better work of breathing on both inhale and exhale. So much better that I have ditched the S600's and will bring the G250v regs as our primaries.
This was all evaluated out of the water. I will try them in the pool today to do one more comparison between the S600 and G250v.
What do I do with these S600's? I know how to tune up a regulator for easier breathing, but what if it has a rough exhale? Is this just a result of the body design? Is the exhale mushroom valve old and stiff? Has anyone else experienced this issue and come up with a solution?
I decided to put together two sets of OC regs for our trip. Given the time since my last OC trip all my regulators have been mixed, swapped, stirred, and shaken up all over the place. I decided to put together two sets with Mk25 1st stages and an S600 primary. Secondaries were an odd Atomic Z2 and Apex TX50. I also have a pair of G250v 2nd's that I've been using for bailout bottles with the CCR's.
I started out putting together the Mk25 rigs and getting the S600's tuned and balanced. No problems there. I did a little tear down and cleaning but no parts swaps as they had not been used much since their last service a couple years ago. While testing both of the S600's I was surprised to find that the Exhalation Effort was quite hard. The inhalation effort was fine after the tune up but the exhalation on both of the S600 felt a little like blowing up a balloon. I would expect it to be effortless, but it feels like more work than expected.
I tried the other 2nd's on hand (Atomic Z2, G250v, Apex) and they all breathed much better than the S600's. Exhale is far better on all of them. The G250v has a much better work of breathing on both inhale and exhale. So much better that I have ditched the S600's and will bring the G250v regs as our primaries.
This was all evaluated out of the water. I will try them in the pool today to do one more comparison between the S600 and G250v.
What do I do with these S600's? I know how to tune up a regulator for easier breathing, but what if it has a rough exhale? Is this just a result of the body design? Is the exhale mushroom valve old and stiff? Has anyone else experienced this issue and come up with a solution?