Sherwood Oasis/Blizzard and the never ending Piston vs Diaphram

[diver69]

Hi all,

I'm looking to purchase my own equipment and have narrowed it down to Sherwood Oasis Reg, Sherwood Blizzard, and Dacor Vyper Tec.

For bcd, I'm looking at Sherwood Avid CQR and Dacor Talon (no airtrim). I like Sherwood Avid because it's supposed to be light-weight and durable.

Now the questions: I was told by LDS that the Sherwood Brut (he was trying to sell me) is sealed (it's got some special sealed sensor to detect the water pressure or something?)...does that mean that I don't have to worry about the argument of Piston vs Diaphram (big concern about salt water/dirty water getting into the 1st stage). I'm not tech savvy, and don't really understand the working of regulators, but any salt water or sirty water that can enter the equipment doesn't sound very appealing to me. I'm not quite sure what the difference is between Sherwood Blizzard and Oasis, other than the Blizzard is designed for cold water?

Also, should I buy the bcd and reg, oct, gauge from the same manufacturer? I'm planning to take my Padi Equipment course - does it matter? LP has a Sherwood package for $705 (Avid CQR bcd, Oasis Reg, Maximus Oct etc) - is that a good price?

I dive 95% in warm water, and plan to get my Dive Master. I travel lots with the dive gear, so light-weight is essential. Plus, I get dry-mouth a lot when I dive, so Sherwood's moisture retention fins sounds very appealing to me.

Any comments will be appreciated.

Diver69

 

[MikeFerrara]

The Sherwood brute is unbalanced and breaths like it. I changed out some parts and made all mine into magnums. Skip the Brute.

The other sherwoods are fine in cold water. They use a dry air bleed to sense ambient pressure rather than letting water in. It works. They aren't really what you'd call a high performance reg but are ok at recreational depths.

 

[MechDiver]

Hi all,

Plus, I get dry-mouth a lot when I dive, so Sherwood's moisture retention fins sounds very appealing to me.

Diver69

What are moisture retention fins that would alleviate drymouth? There is no moisture to retain, thats why you get drymouth.

MD

 

[Capt Jim Wyatt]

They use a dry air bleed to sense ambient pressure rather than letting water in. It works. They aren't really what you'd call a high performance reg but are ok at recreational depths.

I have used sherwoods as rentals for years. They are bulletproof. But they are not high performance regs.

 

[Greg Barlow]

Actually, there is moisture...Every time that you exhale a bit of water vapor is mixed in with the exhaust gases. While I question the claimed gain of the condensation plate, it does cause some vapor to condense into a liquid form. The warm air striking the colder plate causes this to occur in the same fashion as seeing your breath on a winter day. In other words, your are seeing the dew point in action.

For those of us who started diving years ago when metal second stages were much more common the "dry mouth syndrome" wasn't the general concern that it is today. The metal Mares second stages work in the same fashion as the Sherwood design. This thermal conduction is also what makes a metal second stage less vulnerable to icing problems.

The condensation effect is greater as the water temps drop.

Greg Barlow

 

[MechDiver]

Actually, there is moisture...Every time that you exhale a bit of water vapor is mixed in with the exhaust gases. While I question the claimed gain of the condensation plate, it does cause some vapor to condense into a liquid form. The warm air striking the colder plate causes this to occur in the same fashion as seeing your breath on a winter day. In other words, your are seeing the dew point in action.

For those of us who started diving years ago when metal second stages were much more common the "dry mouth syndrome" wasn't the general concern that it is today. The metal Mares second stages work in the same fashion as the Sherwood design. This thermal conduction is also what makes a metal second stage less vulnerable to icing problems.

The condensation effect is greater as the water temps drop.

Greg Barlow

Interesting. Then the moisture is either blown out with the exhaust air or forms in the exhaust area, which is wet anyway? Still don't see how this mixes with breathing air. I think we have a :doodad: alert!

MD

 

[mmcdds]

I'm not a huge Sherwood fan, my personal experience with them has been that they are not easy breathers, especially as your depth increases. However, it is my understanding that they are reliable and inexpensive to service.

Dacor has been purchased by Mares and I was told several months ago by one of my LDS (a Mares/Dacor dealer) that the Dacor name would cease to exist after January 1st. He also told me that he wasn't sure whether or not Mares would continue to manufacture Dacor regs, which left me questioning whether or not I wanted to purchase a Dacor product(at the time my son wanted a Dacor Viper). All that aside, Dacor regs seemed quite expensive when compared to Aqualung or Apeks products, and AL and Apeks in my opinion are better performing regs. I personally prefer Apeks regs.

If you can find someone who will let you try different brands of regs in the water you'll be able to see for yourself which ones breath the best for you

good luck

 

[Greg Barlow]

The Dacor rumor is news to me, and I am affiliated with two Dacor/Mares dealers.

As far as the Sherwood design goes, they claim that as the incoming gas passes over the copper(?) plate that it carries some of the moisture back to the diver. I've never used one, but have heard some divers swear by it. Now, granted, that certainly isn't an objective test. I do notice that the metal second stages don't "appear" to be as bad about the cotton mouth. Most of the polymer second stages have a fairly slick interior to encourage moisture to exit. Diving in cold water and having moisture collect in the valve area can be conducive to ice formation. The Sherwood plate is almost in the center of the mouthpiece projection if memory serves me correctly. It doesn't have any physical contact with the valve assembly.

Heck, I often have run times of over two hours and seldom find the dryness to be a problem anyway.


Greg Barlow

 

[DA Aquamaster]

With the metal second stages the metal conducts heat very efficiently and the relatively cold surfaces cause condensation to form. This essentially holds more of the moisture from your exhalations in liquid form rather than having it all go out the exhaust valve in vapor form. The dry incoming air from the tank then picks up some of this moisture and redelivers it to you. We are not talking major amounts of water here but enough to keep you from getting as bad a case of dry mouth.

The heat transfer characteristics of the metal second stages also work to keep things in the reg above freezing on ice dives and very cold water dives. I have never had a metal cased second stage freeze in cold water but have had the lever ice up on graphite/phenolic resin composite cased second stages.

 

[diver69]

Thanks for the comments. I'm leaning towards Sherwood Avid with Sherwood Oasis Reg and Maximus Oct.

Couple of you mentioned Sherwood is not "High Performance" Regs. I'm just wondering what constitute "High Performance"? I'll be using my equipment mostly for recreational diving, may be doing a bit of divemaster work here and there. I definitely will not be diving for an oilrig or anything. What is considered "high performance" anyway?