Sidemount Freeflow Drill

[halocline]

I am just repeating what the manufacturer is saying. Their seat saving orifice retracts away from the seat when not pressurized which prevents damage during storage.

I don't think you have to worry about it too much during a valve drill, but my personal opinion is that I wouldn't buy a regulator with this type of seat saver anyways because it's less convenient to soak them. I want to be able to soak my regs unpressurized for extended periods of time after saltwater use.

A well designed balanced 2nd stage takes most of the force off the seat in storage anyways. That's because the majority of the force pushing the seat against the orifice is provided by air in the balance chamber.

Then again I know a very busy cave sidemount instructor that uses atomics and she does several valve drills every week, and she's never had a problem. Probably neither would you.

 

[Gone for diving]

Remember the seat savers the Sherwood had, the little pin that held the purge button down......
Or the dacor regs that had a plastic clip that pushed the purge...
Everything old is new again

 

[mdwalter]

Remember the seat savers the Sherwood had, the little pin that held the purge button down......
Or the dacor regs that had a plastic clip that pushed the purge...
Everything old is new again

If you are storing your regs so much that you need a seat saver, that just means you need to dive more store less. LOL

 

[halocline]

If you are storing your regs so much that you need a seat saver, that just means you need to dive more store less. LOL

Ha...it's the sad truth that even if you dove 4 hrs every single day, your regs would be unpressurized for 20hrs/day. But I like the sentiment.

I'm not a fan of the seat savers that move the orifice. The orifice adjustment is pretty precise and I want it to stay in one place. With atomic, every time they are pressurized, the orifice moves. It seems to work fine, you certainly don't hear complaints from atomic users. But I'm a bit of a luddite with regards to regulators, I'm still using 30-40 year old regs in caves.