You might be surprised how much that extra range benefits when using a 4:1 transfer case in low.
The New Atomic TFX
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No WOB adjustment sounds questionable, to me.
It's not ONLY for driving a DPV into current.
You could be swimming in a current that is hitting you at whatever angle makes it perpendicular to the purge button.
Of more concern than that (to me) is the possibility that it will be like other regs I've used, where you tune it right to the edge of freeflowing, for the lightest possible cracking pressure. Then you start diving it. New parts wear in just a little and now you start having a very small freeflow. On those regs where I have experienced this, a little turn of the WOB knob and the hissing stops and you have no problem.
Maybe the TFX is SO good that it will not have this problem. However you tune it will be exactly how it performs, for a looong time, even with all new parts from a service kit. But, I am a bit skeptical. I can see it taking longer to wear in enough to start to freeflow. The Seat Saver feature should yield that benefit. But, it still seems like, well, like something I'd like to know more about.
I have and use Atomic M1s, ScubaPro G260s, Dive Rite XT2 and XT4s, and Halcyon Halos. I pretty much use the WOB knob on all of them at times. I'm a little dubious that I wouldn't miss that feature on a TFX.
The alternative is that AA basically said to themselves, "the primary market for the TFX is going to be recreational divers with a big budget. Those people are by and large warm water, a-few-times-a-year divers. They are not going to miss having a WOB knob. The TFX will be tuned to be easier breathing than anything they've used before, and still have a healthy margin of cracking pressure to cover up any wearing-in that takes it closer to the point of freeflowing. That plus how long it will take to wear in because of the Seat Saver means we'll just tell them by the time it starts to hiss, they're at their 3 years/300 dives and should get it serviced."
This highlights another thing that frustrates me about AA. They really don't make stuff for technical divers. They don't have a single reg that is approved for 100% oxygen use. They don't have a BCD or fins or a computer that any tech diver would use. The M1 reg is great. I use them on my doubles, including for legit tech dives. But, even it is only approved for up to 80% oxygen.
The TFX is clearly not for technical divers (being Ti is sufficient evidence of that, by itself). But, my feeling is that no WOB adjustment is an example of a compromise made based on a presumption that it's really not even for serious, hardcore recreational divers. Or maybe the design of the valve and the case layout simply makes a WOB knob not feasible - like, they would have put one on, but they couldn't.
Or, HOPEFULLY, there really is no need for it on this regulator and I'll be very pleased to learn if that is the case. Barring that, I'll hope that the cracking pressure is quick and easy to adjust in the field, if needed.
It's not ONLY for driving a DPV into current.
You could be swimming in a current that is hitting you at whatever angle makes it perpendicular to the purge button.
Of more concern than that (to me) is the possibility that it will be like other regs I've used, where you tune it right to the edge of freeflowing, for the lightest possible cracking pressure. Then you start diving it. New parts wear in just a little and now you start having a very small freeflow. On those regs where I have experienced this, a little turn of the WOB knob and the hissing stops and you have no problem.
Maybe the TFX is SO good that it will not have this problem. However you tune it will be exactly how it performs, for a looong time, even with all new parts from a service kit. But, I am a bit skeptical. I can see it taking longer to wear in enough to start to freeflow. The Seat Saver feature should yield that benefit. But, it still seems like, well, like something I'd like to know more about.
I have and use Atomic M1s, ScubaPro G260s, Dive Rite XT2 and XT4s, and Halcyon Halos. I pretty much use the WOB knob on all of them at times. I'm a little dubious that I wouldn't miss that feature on a TFX.
The alternative is that AA basically said to themselves, "the primary market for the TFX is going to be recreational divers with a big budget. Those people are by and large warm water, a-few-times-a-year divers. They are not going to miss having a WOB knob. The TFX will be tuned to be easier breathing than anything they've used before, and still have a healthy margin of cracking pressure to cover up any wearing-in that takes it closer to the point of freeflowing. That plus how long it will take to wear in because of the Seat Saver means we'll just tell them by the time it starts to hiss, they're at their 3 years/300 dives and should get it serviced."
This highlights another thing that frustrates me about AA. They really don't make stuff for technical divers. They don't have a single reg that is approved for 100% oxygen use. They don't have a BCD or fins or a computer that any tech diver would use. The M1 reg is great. I use them on my doubles, including for legit tech dives. But, even it is only approved for up to 80% oxygen.
The TFX is clearly not for technical divers (being Ti is sufficient evidence of that, by itself). But, my feeling is that no WOB adjustment is an example of a compromise made based on a presumption that it's really not even for serious, hardcore recreational divers. Or maybe the design of the valve and the case layout simply makes a WOB knob not feasible - like, they would have put one on, but they couldn't.
Or, HOPEFULLY, there really is no need for it on this regulator and I'll be very pleased to learn if that is the case. Barring that, I'll hope that the cracking pressure is quick and easy to adjust in the field, if needed.
ps. Sorry to derail the car talk... 
LOL!
LOL!
Tractor to haul a race boat...
I have not yet driven a 6 (My 1993 FD RX7 is a 5), and I might be running out of time.
The End of Manual Transmission
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Geo7
Contributor
Agreed, and just as an interesting bit of info, this also seems to be an insurance thing. In Europe you can only certify a reg to either 21% O2 or all the way up to 100%, so the german manual for the M1 clearly states 100% oxygen. I once sent Rob a copy...
I always wished for an adjustable venturi in the Atomic regs. Now we are getting it with the TFX, but the cracking effort control is not offered. I can't complain though, as the D400 did not have it either, and it does keep the reg pretty simple.
The DAN oxygen kits and aviation oxigen have aluminum O2 regs, so I personally would trust titanium second stages with LP O2. But none of this contradicts your point: Atomic is not after the tech market, and it seems Huish aquired Zeagle for that segment...
Attachments
Interesting. I wonder if the M1 they sell in Germany has ANY different parts at all. My understanding has been that the only difference for 100% would be O-ring material.
I have never wished for an adjustable venturi in my Atomic regs. The AFC gives that and seems to work fine. I like not needing to remember to flip a switch back and forth between Dive and Pre-dive.
I don't think there is a problem with Ti in 2nd stages. They are only exposed to ambient pressure. The problem is Ti in the 1st stage, where it is exposed to, potentially, 3500 psi.
As for Huish, they already had Hollis, right? Not sure why they would need Zeagle to cover the tech segment.
I guess AA does what they do for similar reasons to why Ferrari doesn't make farm work trucks. The people that use those kind of vehicles don't want to spend 2 or 3 times as much for something that is only 2% better. Whereas, in the recreational dive (or sports car) market, there is an adequately sized market of people who are happy to do that with their dive gear.
It does make you wonder, though, why they bother to make the M1 reg at all. Maybe it is really to sell to the tech-wannabe recreational divers? (I'm allowed to say that, since I have a pair of them myself
)
OP
@James79 will make a 3D printed lid with an o-ring sealed knob to do on-the-fly cracking effort changes, I'm sure.
But @stuartv , I can't recall the last time my D400 started to freeflow from seat indentation, except for one I had tuned to 0.5" and ignored in storage for a year. That one hissed on first pressurization until I added 5 minutes on the clock. Thirty seconds to fix, though I couldn't have done it underwater, lol!
But @stuartv , I can't recall the last time my D400 started to freeflow from seat indentation, except for one I had tuned to 0.5" and ignored in storage for a year. That one hissed on first pressurization until I added 5 minutes on the clock. Thirty seconds to fix, though I couldn't have done it underwater, lol!
I truly hope that Atomic has, as @rsingler had suggested, "hit it out of the park" with the TFX; and that it will be used -- heavily used -- and not just consigned to being an expensive paperweight, any time soon, out of some fear of wear and tear. I have a couple of friends, who now seem to collect more than dive, and have their "burnt" titanium T25s displayed like the Shroud of Turin.
Ironically enough, we'd have received demerits for producing such an inconsistent though oddly-fashionable finish in middle-school metal shop.
I don't know whether I am interested in any more regulators in this life, at any price-point; but would certainly like to see the TFX put through the @rsingler, take-no-prisoners paces.
The pricing, while certainly high, is a bit relative, given the raw materials; though it would have been a far more grievous issue, had the first and second stages just been chromed brass.
When we were last purchasing a number of new regulators, around 2003-4, we were leaning toward either Scubapro or Poseidon, at the time, which had just released its Xstream. I had preferred Poseidon, since I had used them since being a teenager and was "familiar" enough with much of their servicing and my business partner, at the time, had always used Scubapro. Also, I was just itching to take one apart (I have a problem).
But we were looking at about 600.00-plus per regulator for the Xstream and similar for whatever upper Scubapro model was then distributed, which I don't recall. In 2023 terms, they were all over 1000.00 each -- and a few colleagues thought that we were nuts for spending that much back then -- some claiming that we'd be fools to spend half of that.
The real deal breaker was that Scubapro never met a list price that they didn't love and want to have babies with; and that the then-distributor for Poseidon was even willing to throw in a few octopuses and some analogue gauges.
Those regulators are still used today; have seen very heavy use and even some outright punishment. We truly dropped a tidy chunk of change back then, far more than my car in college -- but it was well worth that then-considerable expense, considering the uninterrupted decades of use . . .
Ironically enough, we'd have received demerits for producing such an inconsistent though oddly-fashionable finish in middle-school metal shop.
I don't know whether I am interested in any more regulators in this life, at any price-point; but would certainly like to see the TFX put through the @rsingler, take-no-prisoners paces.
The pricing, while certainly high, is a bit relative, given the raw materials; though it would have been a far more grievous issue, had the first and second stages just been chromed brass.
When we were last purchasing a number of new regulators, around 2003-4, we were leaning toward either Scubapro or Poseidon, at the time, which had just released its Xstream. I had preferred Poseidon, since I had used them since being a teenager and was "familiar" enough with much of their servicing and my business partner, at the time, had always used Scubapro. Also, I was just itching to take one apart (I have a problem).
But we were looking at about 600.00-plus per regulator for the Xstream and similar for whatever upper Scubapro model was then distributed, which I don't recall. In 2023 terms, they were all over 1000.00 each -- and a few colleagues thought that we were nuts for spending that much back then -- some claiming that we'd be fools to spend half of that.
The real deal breaker was that Scubapro never met a list price that they didn't love and want to have babies with; and that the then-distributor for Poseidon was even willing to throw in a few octopuses and some analogue gauges.
Those regulators are still used today; have seen very heavy use and even some outright punishment. We truly dropped a tidy chunk of change back then, far more than my car in college -- but it was well worth that then-considerable expense, considering the uninterrupted decades of use . . .
Carlos Danger
Contributor
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