The New Atomic TFX

[Geo7]

You just show up: Regulator Geeks 4: The Atomic TFX

 

[BoltSnap]

@rsingler

Are these presentations recorded and posted somewhere for us who will be sound asleep when you are having these presentations please?

 

[Joneill]

I got 4 proper dives on the TFX this weekend. I was helping with OW checkout dives, so the dives were not deep. But, I got 150 minutes, total, on the TFX.

Random thoughts:

When I got in for the very first dive, I dropped down 2 or 3 feet doing a weight check on a student. When I cam back up, the TFX was freeflowing. Not a full-on rager, but more than just a tiny hiss. I could not get it to stop via any of the normal means. Block the opening. Blow out through the reg. Put it in the water mouthpiece down. Nothing. Then I hit the purge for just a moment, and it quit!

I don't know what was going on there. It did not do it again. The water was pretty trashy. All I could think was maybe I somehow had the fantastic luck to get a piece of trash in there the very first time I went underwater, and that was somehow making it freeflow. I don't know. Just really glad it quit and didn't do it again!

It really wants to freeflow in the water, all the time. Pretty much any time I took it out of my mouth in the water, if I didn't keep the mouthpiece pointing down it would freeflow. Fortunately, it seems to like to float mouthpiece down. So, when I would take it out while floating on the surface, I could have the mouthpice pointing down and let it go and it would stay like that and not freeflow. The venturi adjustment did not seem to make any difference to its propensity for freeflowing.

That all has me really curious what the cracking pressure is. I may check that at the shop if/when I have time and remember...

The thing I noticed that really got my attention more than anything else was that it felt like the very back of the roof my mouth (the soft palate area?) got more dry during the dives than it does with other regs. I think the way the valve directs the air into my mouth when I inhale is more of a direct jet of air rushing straight in than I get with more conventional styles of regs. It feels like it is blowing directly on the back of my throat. I found myself swallowing because of mouth/throat dryness a lot, later in my dives. My longest dives were around 50 minutes.

I did a lot of turning my head down to look back between my legs to make sure students were right behind me. When my head was down like that, I again noticed it breathing just a little wet.

I really like how little "reg" I can see in my lower peripheral vision. Maybe it's just in my head and I'm just seeing what I think I should see. But, it seemed like there was less reg in my field of view. I didn't think to swap to my octo and actually compare while I was in the water...

I didn't do any real A/B comparing of stuff on these dives. Believe it or not, I was pretty much just focused on keeping up with my students. LOL

I just got back from Little Cayman Beach Resort and got 17 dives in on my new TFX.

Prior to leaving I had set it up on a tank at home and checked IP. The first time I purged to check IP lock, it free flowed like crazy and only stopped when I purged it again - orientation and a finger in the mouthpiece would not stop it. I also noticed the second stage initially had a slight rattle like something was loose - that rattle went away and I no longer hear it if I shake the second stage.

It also purges with more force/air velocity/volume than my T3 or B2 second stages.

In the water, it would free flow very easily if not kept mouthpiece down - but would immediately stop once oriented down. I got a strong blast in the face while inflating my DSMB as I inadvertantly pulled it straight out and didn’t rotate it mouthpiece down quickly.

It was all giant stride boat entries with reg in mouth all week, and I had no issues with free flowing while entering the water or diving at all.

All in all, I love the reg - it is definitely the smoothest breathing regulator I’ve ever breathed from. It feels completely linear: you can just lightly sip air or take a deep breath or anything in between. It will deliver exactly what you want - as light or deep as you breathe.

I’ve always loved my T3 but, by comparison, the T3 feels less linear - almost like you can sip lightly but once you pass a certain level of inhalation, it gives you a higher flow - almost like there are 2 “speeds”. The TFX just gives you whatever you pull from it.

It also breathed the same whether horizontal (normal diving position or on my back looking up at the surface) or vertical and was dry-breathing. I did not really do any fully inverted head down diving so I can’t comment on how it breathed in that orientation, but slight head down peeking under an occasional ledge was easy and felt dry.

Overall, very happy with the way the TFX breathes.

On another note, there is massive bleaching of hard corals n Little Cayman at present - I’d say over 90% of the hard corals are completely bleached with some starting to show signs of death. Water temps were consistently 87-88 on my Shearwaters - even at 100 feet. Hopefully, cool water moves back in soon as it does not look good at present. I was shocked at the level of bleaching: the worst I’ve seen anywhere to date. I’ll post some videos of it when I get a chance to edit/color correct.

 

[tridacna]

I just got back from Little Cayman Beach Resort and got 17 dives in on my new TFX.

Prior to leaving I had set it up on a tank at home and checked IP. The first time I purged to check IP lock, it free flowed like crazy and only stopped when I purged it again - orientation and a finger in the mouthpiece would not stop it. I also noticed the second stage initially had a slight rattle like something was loose - that rattle went away and I no longer hear it if I shake the second stage.

It also purges with more force/air velocity/volume than my T3 or B2 second stages.

In the water, it would free flow very easily if not kept mouthpiece down - but would immediately stop once oriented down. I got a strong blast in the face while inflating my DSMB as I inadvertantly pulled it straight out and didn’t rotate it mouthpiece down quickly.

It was all giant stride boat entries with reg in mouth all week, and I had no issues with free flowing while entering the water or diving at all.

All in all, I love the reg - it is definitely the smoothest breathing regulator I’ve ever breathed from. It feels completely linear: you can just lightly sip air or take a deep breath or anything in between. It will deliver exactly what you want - as light or deep as you breathe.

I’ve always loved my T3 but, by comparison, the T3 feels less linear - almost like you can sip lightly but once you pass a certain level of inhalation, it gives you a higher flow - almost like there are 2 “speeds”. The TFX just gives you whatever you pull from it.

It also breathed the same whether horizontal (normal diving position or on my back looking up at the surface) or vertical and was dry-breathing. I did not really do any fully inverted head down diving so I can’t comment on how it breathed in that orientation, but slight head down peeking under an occasional ledge was easy and felt dry.

Overall, very happy with the way the TFX breathes.

On another note, there is massive bleaching of hard corals n Little Cayman at present - I’d say over 90% of the hard corals are completely bleached with some starting to show signs of death. Water temps were consistently 87-88 on my Shearwaters - even at 100 feet. Hopefully, cool water moves back in soon as it does not look good at present. I was shocked at the level of bleaching: the worst I’ve seen anywhere to date. I’ll post some videos of it when I get a chance to edit/color correct.

I’ll be fhere in June 24. Sounds depressing… How were connections with Cayman Air?

 

[L13]

@rsingler

Are these presentations recorded and posted somewhere for us who will be sound asleep when you are having these presentations please?

He recorded the last 3, I bet he did this one too.

 

[Joneill]

I’ll be fhere in June 24. Sounds depressing… How were connections with Cayman Air?

Cayman Airways connections went well (on time) - however, they did have to leave 3 people’s bags behind (including my nephew’s) on the return trip back to GCM due to weight limits. It’s getting delivered to his home as it couldn’t get to GCM in time for his flight back to the US (same for the others).

 

[Yellowdog]

The first hand feedback of free flow seems to be a common theme.

 

[Joneill]

The first hand feedback of free flow seems to be a common theme.

In actual diving, free flow never occurred unless the reg was out of my mouth and pointing up. I’ll take that tradeoff for how easy it breathes any day as it’s an easy thing to avoid.

 

[rsingler]

The first hand feedback of free flow seems to be a common theme.

I think this recurs in initial evaluations of this regulator because of its case geometry.
With a diaphragm lowest in the water, the valve is preloaded by the extra inch and a half of ambient water pressure. When you remove the reg from your mouth, it's raring to go.

What's needed with this design is a slightly different technique to flood it, after stopping the freeflow by the usual inversion.
Let's look at the mechanics:
Here's a standard reg that was freeflowing and stopped after inverting it:

The diaphragm is ABOVE the egress point for bubbles, so the valve stays closed.
As you roll it with the traditional technique to flood the reg...

The bubble egress point is now higher than the center of the diaphragm, but only by a half inch or so, which is less than the cracking effort of the valve. So the reg doesn't start freeflowing again before the inside is flooded.

In contrast, the TFX has a very low diaphragm.
Here it is again, after freeflowing, but now inverted.

Once again, the center of the diaphragm is ABOVE the bubble egress point and the valve stays closed.
As you rotate it with the traditional technique, by the time the mouthpiece is high enough to allow bubbles to escape, the diaphragm is already lower in the water than its cracking effort, and the valve opens again and starts freeflowing. It's even worse if you've hot-tuned the reg, to say 0.7" like I did.

With the standard technique, you can't win! It'll always start freeflowing, because that's the physics. There'll be a legion of haters until they learn to change their technique...

 

[rsingler]

So what's needed is a simple way to flood the reg without getting the center of the diaphragm lower in the water column than the cracking effort.

And that's very easy. Just a little different.
Here's your freeflowing reg again, now stopped because you inverted it.

As you can see, the center of the diaphragm is HIGHER in the water column, and the valve stays closed.

If you simply rotate the reg around THIS axis, instead of the traditional way,

the reg's diaphragm never gets lower in the water column than the cracking effort, even if you've hot-tuned it, before the reg floods and the problem disappears.

Easy-peasy!
Just different.

Unfortunately, I think it'll be easier to teach divers how to flood their new TFX than it will be to teach shop techs how to tune it properly.