Stage Bottle

[scubacowboy]

One quick tip about the regulator that I did not find here.

Keep in mind , when you start to do decompression dives you will find yourself spending more time breathing from your stage bottle than you do your backgas. Wouldnt you want a reg that breathes just as good? I wouldnt consider price over quality in this case.

 

[MechDiver]

One quick tip about the regulator that I did not find here.

Keep in mind , when you start to do decompression dives you will find yourself spending more time breathing from your stage bottle than you do your backgas. Wouldnt you want a reg that breathes just as good? I wouldnt consider price over quality in this case.

Not necessarily. I use SP Mk2+/R190 for deco bottles and Mk20/25/G500 for backgas. The simpler regs work very well at the depths required for deco, and would work in a pinch for backgas if necessary.

MD

 

[DA Aquamaster]

Actually a properly tuned R190 or R390 breathes pretty well. They don't come that way from SP as all their non adjustable second stages (like everyone elses non-adjustable second stages) are set a little on the heavy side (1.2 to 1.4 inches of water) to meet CE freeflow standards. But you can get them adjusted down to the .8 to .9 range where they breathe very well and are still stable. You do pick up a small amount of additional breathing effort as the tank nears empty but this is not objectionable if they are tuned for minimum effort at full tank pressures.

 

[Curt Bowen]

So, I have a few questions... and as they can fit under a few topics (DIY, Tanks, Regs, Tech, DIR), I decided Basic Scuba Discussions was a good place to start. Mods feel free to move it if you want.

A bit of background info. I am slowly working my way into tech diving, slowly as I am acquiring the equipment at a time stands still pace. Right now I am looking at setting up a 30 cu ft stage bottle. Why 30?? My sac rate is good enough that it can help me handle any situation that I would encounter at the depths I dive to now, and eventually it would become my oxygen deco bottle.

So for the questions:

1 - I am pretty sure I understand that I should use Aluminum for stage bottles as that way if you use it up you can let it float up your line and get rid of it. Also it doesn't add to your weighting.

2 - I want DIN Valve and reg. Any recommendations for valve? What kind of regulator would i be wanting for a sling tank? What kind of features do I want to be looking for? I am very impressed with Apeks... sorry not big into Scubapro - too parts intensive. Why would you go with an TX Nitrox 40 reg instead of an ATX200 (besides price) or vice versa?

3 - Now, I am hoping to move towards DIR so any of you knowledgeable on the subject please feel free to contribute

4 - How is the best way to set up my stage bottle? I want to do it with materials available from a hardware store as Halcyon, and stage kits haven't made it to my island. Please keep in mind when recommending the clips to use that the eyelets have to be large enough for me to use when I go back to a cold water environment. This is to be done once, and once only and for use in multiple environements. Thus, consider the dry gloves when choosing eyelet size and clips.

5 - Thank you in advance.

Radagalf

Check out my web site and see how we set up our sidemount stages at

http://www.advanceddivermagazine.com/armadillo.html