Talk to me about the Conshelf XIV Supreme

[2airishuman]

I just think it's odd that I've asked so many times for a direct compare/contrast w some specific modern regulators.. and not one person has responded to that request.

Many people have responded. I'll add mine.

There isn't a difference during the dive. Almost any reg sold in the last 20 years is a good reg in the water. The manufacturers and dealers try to create "product line differentiation" to produce more revenue and profits by selling regulators at various price points with insignificant differences that do not affect the dive. With a couple of exceptions all the regs sold today come from Well Marine Diver in Taiwan where they are manufactured in various configurations for various brands.

Also. FYI. I'm a DM now. I work full-time at a shop. I'm going to be an instructor in the spring (doing my IDC here in the US). Then I'm going to instruct here in the US for a year, getting experience and becoming more knowledgeable, before I take off.

Have a blast

I have questions still.. (*please also keep in mind, save $2,000 range all-titanium regs.. I could get any reg still sold to public dealers cheaper than I could a new Conshelf with my employee discount).

Why would you possibly want a new Conshelf when you can get a used one for $100?

#1: The conshelf XIV Supreme. 1st and 2nd stage -- Marine Brass, Chrome Plated. The one question I have with this reg.. ***Is that big black exhaust thing under the 2nd stage going to make it bad to teach in!? I mean.. no student's going to have a reg like that. If you're going to teach students how to scuba dive, shouldn't you be teaching them using similar equipment??http://www.aqualung.com/militaryand...n/108102_Conshelf14_Users_Man_11_10_LoRes.pdf

That's the old exhaust T. The new exhaust is somewhat more compact. I have some of each. I don't notice any difference during the dive.

For teaching, most shops expect their instructors to teach in whatever gear the shop sells. So if you're teaching for a shop that's a Scubapro dealer, you'll teach in Scubapro regs. If you're teaching for a shop that's an Atomic dealer, you'll teach in Atomic regs. Etc. Shops find it inconvenient and unprofitable for their students to conclude that they can buy cheap regs online that are just as good as the ones from the store.

How are scubapro parts hard to find? It's like the biggest scuba co there is?

Try to buy some.

ScubaPro parts are tightly controlled and are only sold to dealers, who are not allowed to sell them unless they are installed. While Aqua-Lung has the same official policy, Conshelf service parts are readily available from several sources.

I've got a couple questions..

1. How often should an instructor doing 2,000 dives/year in salt water and chlorine rebuild his reg? Conshelf, Modern Scubapro/Aqualung/Apeks/etc.

You won't be doing that many dives. I believe the official recommendation is service every 500 dives or 1 year, whichever comes first. Services alternate between external inspections and disassembly/rebuild.

2. Could I just buy like 50 rebuild kits now (with my discount) and use them as I needed them over the years?

No, they have a finite shelf life. There isn't widespread agreement on what this is, and it depends on temperature and air quality, but I wouldn't recommend deliberately purchasing parts more than a couple years ahead.

3. It's easier to get Conshelf parts? The "gray-market" stuff is better? Or Aqualung sells parts to non-authorized dealers?

I don't know where all the parts come from but I do know that vintagedoublehose.com sells most of them, and they are available from other sellers as well, on ebay and elsewhere.

1
You're just making such a big deal out of nothing. Get whatever reg you want, it will work just fine. You could successfully teach OW classes in the lowest end rental reg in the shop. Many excellent instructors do just that.

Good advice

 

[2airishuman]

So yesterday a new diver on the boat had what appeared to be a conshelf first stage. The hoses (or at least one was sticking way up off the top the regulator. So we offered to "help" and maybe change a few hoses from different ports so hoses are running down not up where they can get whacked off if the diver is trying to catch lobsters in a ledge.

First we took off the main regulator hose and it had one of those extra large size ports (and matching hose of course).. So I was a little baffled with the large diameter port defining where the primary second stage ges and I though just one HP port, the hose routing options looked limited to me and not something I would like. Was I missing something or do you have to put up with this type of hose routing system (hoses sticking up)?

That was a Conshelf 21. The hose routing on those is poor if you use the1/2" port. Here's a photo of one of mine (a supreme model with the external fine adjust). The white paper shows the location of the 1/2" port, which I don't use, both because it's 1/2", and because the hose routing would be bad:

The Conshelf XIV hose routing actually isn't quite as good, at least if you route the SPG under your arm as I do, but it's still acceptable. There are just the four ports, and they're usually all 3/8". Here's mine. I have a HP hose with a 3/8" so there's no adapter:

 

[halocline]

I thought the newer conshelfs had better hose routing than my older one. Mine is a XIV. For some reason (I could be wrong about this) I thought there were newer ones called 14, not XIV, and these newer ones have a 7/16 HP port and better hose routing than the older ones. If they don't, then to me that's an issue. I will likely never use my conshelf first stage for OW diving solely due to the bad hose routing. Then again I have a whole drawer full of old SP 1st stages that I like quite a bit.

 

[guruboy]

someone probably mentioned this but many dive shops will force you to dive what they sell.

So you might not have a choice on what to use.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

That was a Conshelf 21. The hose routing on those is poor if you use the1/2" port. Here's a photo of one of mine (a supreme model with the external fine adjust). The white paper shows the location of the 1/2" port, which I don't use, both because it's 1/2", and because the hose routing would be bad: View attachment 386157

The Conshelf XIV hose routing actually isn't quite as good, at least if you route the SPG under your arm as I do, but it's still acceptable. There are just the four ports, and they're usually all 3/8". Here's mine. I have a HP hose with a 3/8" so there's no adapter:

View attachment 386158

Thanks! My first inclination would be to not use the big port, but I wasn't going to tell the new guy that he needed to buy a new hose (or some adapters) and then switch everything around and tell him the dive shop experts set it up weird. We took the hose off, looked at it and put it back together.. we were on a boat after all. Something like decent hose routing is pretty important to me - especially when you are trying to discern small differences and advantages.

Why the hell would they put the big port in the wrong place???

I guess I will just keep using my SP first stages. i recently got the MK 15 overhauled (I heard they can handle higher service pressures - I get fills to 3800 in my HP tanks) - so I am hopeful it will last a while before service.

 

[guruboy]

Lots of people put those at one time or another. You get more air that way...

 

[Bob DBF]

But it's not possible for a Piston to be environmentally sealed, really, is it? It's still letting water into the 1st stage.

Take a look at Sherwood regs with the air bleed system, I mentioned earlier in the thread, and get back to me on that.



Bob

 

[runsongas]

That was a Conshelf 21. The hose routing on those is poor if you use the1/2" port. Here's a photo of one of mine (a supreme model with the external fine adjust). The white paper shows the location of the 1/2" port, which I don't use, both because it's 1/2", and because the hose routing would be bad: View attachment 386157

The Conshelf XIV hose routing actually isn't quite as good, at least if you route the SPG under your arm as I do, but it's still acceptable. There are just the four ports, and they're usually all 3/8". Here's mine. I have a HP hose with a 3/8" so there's no adapter:

View attachment 386158

you have a conshelf se2, conshelf 21 does not have 1/2 inch port

Vintage Double Hose • View topic - Ultimate Conshelf Model Guide

 

[2airishuman]

I can't keep them all straight.

 

[2airishuman]

Lots of people put those at one time or another. You get more air that way...

That was the story, at least. In practice, of course, it makes no difference, because the air delivery rate is limited by other things, hose ID, 2nd stage valve diameter, size of drillings in the 1st stage.