Sherwood Regs on Pony Bottles

[Rand]

I was in the LDS today dropping off some older Sherwood Blizzard regs(from the mid 1980's) for servicing. My plan was to use these regs on some pony bottles I will be purchasing soon. The shop told me that most people don't like to use Sherwood regs on their pony bottles because of some sort of automatic bleed function that they have. She made it sound like your tank would eventually empty on its own due to this function.

Does this make sense to anyone or am I totally misunderstanding what she was talking about?

 

[skdvr]

I use a Sherwood Reg on my pony and I had this same concern at first but it is nothing to worry about. Most people attach the reg and then charge the line by opening up the valve on the tank, letting everything pressurize and then close the tank valve. I have just left mine open and did not shut it. The drybleed system on the sherwood valve is NOT going to leak much air at all. Even after a week long dive trip I had bairly any air out of my AL40 that I use for a pony.

I have dove with others that use sherwood valves on their ponys and they just charge the line and then close the valve. I have not personally tried it yet, but they say that unless you are going real deep or you are in the water for long time the drybleed system will not drain the air in the line. If they are going to be deep for a while then they just reach over and crack the valve on the Pony a time or two during the dive to make sure that the line stays charged. I have been wanting to try this but I have not yet.

It is probably better to not leave the valve on the tank open all the time, so that you cannot accidentally drain you backup air supply. The Blizzard is a great very bullet proof reg that will serve you well for a long time...

Phil

 

[herman]

It does. Sherwood uses a controlled bleed of air from the reg to keep the spring chamber dry so they do "leak" just a little and if you leave it on long enough it would drain your tank. Look on the reg between the LP ports, there will be either a hex head bolt with a washer around it or a rubber plug, depending on reg age/model. There is where the "leak" is suspose to be.....and if it's NOT leaking, you need to have the reg serviced.
However, if it's "leaking" properly your going to lose maybe 1 to 3 breaths during a dive, not enough I would worry about or spend the money on a new reg for.

 

[moshiach]

Sherwood's first stages constantly bleed air making them almost environmentally sealed. You can see the little bubbles coming out the reg when you submerge it. The bleeding is minimal and even though eventually it would empty a tank of any size, for practical purposes on a 12l bottle the bleeding makes makes no difference but perhaps for a pony it does.

 

[SteveAD]

Sherwoods have a "dry air bleed" system where the ambient pressure chamber is air filled and steadily trickles out a stream of tiny bubbles, instead of the typical ambient chamber simply being open to ambient water. As such they do waste a bit of air (maybe 100-200 psi per hour at the most). Whether or not this is an issue is up to you to decide.

 

[herman]

Not sure I would dive the reg depressurized. It may allow water into the spring chamber, not that would hurt anything during that dive but if it's not cleaned out....which will require dissambly of the reg, it will cause internal damage and possible malfunction at a most inopertune time. Leave it opened or at least crack the valve once in a while during the dive.

 

[palerider]

Thanks for all the great advise, revised regulator rig is Apeks xtx200/40 octo. Reserve bottle(that's what I call it)sports an Apeks ds1(1st stage) with an Apeks Egress octo(slim profile).I know its normal to have one source (single 1st stage) of air, but crap happens and maybe your buddy is not there, anyway stage bottles will be 13 to 19 cuft, attached by Zeagle straps. Thanks and le me Know what you think

 

[Luis H]

Not sure I would dive the reg depressurized. It may allow water into the spring chamber, not that would hurt anything during that dive but if it's not cleaned out....which will require dissambly of the reg, it will cause internal damage and possible malfunction at a most inopertune time. Leave it opened or at least crack the valve once in a while during the dive.

That is the primary reason why Sherwood would not be my first choice on a pony or stage bottle...you really don't have the option of leaving the valve closed as you are going deeper. You have to have the tank valve open to guarantee a dry environmental chamber. If water does get into the chamber it will not rinse out with normal service.