Soaking multiple Reg sets (DIY Manifold)

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James79

Reinventor of Wheels
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Well, attempt 2 at this thread... Let's all hope the servers don't crash again! lol
Long story short, between kids that dive with me and friends borrowing gear, I often find myself cleaning up multiple sets of gear at a time. To save space soaking regs, I now put one reg on my pony bottle, put the other regs dust caps (the good ones with an O-ring) on, and attach them together with their inflator hoses through a DIY mainifold. So one gets pressurized by the pony, and the rest get pressurized by the that one at 145ish psi... and the dust caps hold it just fine. This way they all fit in one rubbermaid tub for soaking at one time.

I used a few of these:
DGX Adapter: 1/4-Inch NPT Male = BC Inflator QD Post
one of these:
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Hyper-Tough-3-Way-1-4-Air-Manifold-with-Quick-Connect-Couplers/348745610
and some miscellaneous fittings to make this:
20210806_094335.jpg 20210806_094349.jpg

I removed the Male air compressor fitting from the manifold and replaced it with a BCD fitting. The Female compressor disconnects are self sealing, so this can be used for as few as 2 regs and up to four. And if you don't have a pony, you could use this without moving the Male fitting to pressurize your regs off a household air compressor for soaking (just make sure its oil free or has a good oil separator before the outlet).

Respectfully,

James
 
Does reverse-pressuring any variety of 1st stage present a damage risk? (i.e. Piston / Diaphragm / weird variants ...)
 
Nope. A first stage (diaphragm or piston) is closed by the low pressure side exceeding the set point (spring pressure plus ambient). If the reg on the pony has a lower IP than the others then they won't even close. If it has higher IP, then the HP side of the others will reach their IP set point before sealing. In theory if you had a major IP disparity and put the high IP reg on the pony, it could cause the HP seat to groove a smidge deeper (due to being closed with more force than usual)... But that would take quite the IP disparity!

Respectfully,

James
 
Just bumping as I think I'm going to make one of these.
 
My only concern would be on sealed regs since the hp side isn't pressurized the dust caps leaking by and getting moisture into the hp side of the soaking regs
 
My only concern would be on sealed regs since the hp side isn't pressurized the dust caps leaking by and getting moisture into the hp side of the soaking regs
In the event the dust cap doesn't fully seal, it will leak air out not water in... Provided the lowest IP reg you're soaking is the one attached to the tank.

Edit to add; IP closes the HP seat... As long as the provided IP through the manifold is lower than the IP setting of the reg, the HO seat doesn't close and the HP side is pressurized at the lower IP setting.
 
In the event the dust cap doesn't fully seal, it will leak air out not water in... Provided the lowest IP reg you're soaking is the one attached to the tank.
I appreciate the work you put into this, and I could see it working. The HP chamber would be pressurized to IP before the valve closes and in theory the dust cap is sealing air in, not water out. But I'm not sure what you are actually getting out of it. If the dust cap seals, then there's no problem soaking. If it doesn't seal, then the IP air in the HP chamber leaks out and then water can leak in.

For me, the very simple test is to put the dust cap on and then try to draw a breath from the 2nd stages. If you can't, then you're perfectly safe to soak the reg. If you can draw air, then there's a vacuum leak somewhere and you shouldn't soak unpressurized until you find the leak. Often its in a 2nd stage and that doesn't matter for soaking. 2nd stages that have a seat saver (like atomic) will act like a vacuum leak, and those you can't soak unpressurized, so you have to know whether your 2nd stage has that feature.

I've been soaking regs unpressurized (usually for hours) after salt water use for many years, I have never had any problem with water intrusion. But the dust caps that I use seal. Actually this is an advantage of DIN regs; the screw-on dust caps seal exactly the same way the tank does, and they are perfectly reliable for soaking.
 
The HP chamber would be pressurized to IP before the valve closes and in theory the dust cap is sealing air in, not water out. But I'm not sure what you are actually getting out of it. If the dust cap seals, then there's no problem soaking. If it doesn't seal, then the IP air in the HP chamber leaks out and then water can leak in.
As long as you use your lowest IP reg as the one attached to the tank, the other regs HP valve never closes (IP side doesn't get to THAT reg's IP setting, so HP seat remains open) and that provides the failsafe of air out vs. water in from a poorly sealed dust cap.
As to value of soaking pressurized vs. unpressurized.... that is the subject of too many threads to count. This is just a way to pressurize multiple regs off one tank for those who do subscribe to pressurized soaking.

Respectfully,

James
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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