Titan LX vs Delta 4, tell me what you think

[mason417]

For anyone that wants to read the origional post from NOAA I'll put it up here again.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced its new regulator pick. In the June issue of Undercurrent, we wrote about NOAA's new rules and regulations for government divers in response to the death of two Coast Guard divers in Alaska last summer. One major change was giving the boot to all regulators Coast Guard divers had previously used for cold-water diving. After testing of multiple regulators, NOAA found Oceanic's Delta IV to be the most reliable.

"It consistently came up first for meeting all our criteria, and it won't freeze up in cold water," says Lieutenant Eric Johnson of the NOAA Diving Program. The Delta IV is an environmentally sealed diaphragm regulator and its first stage has Oceanic's Dry Valve Technology, designed to stop moisture and contaminants from entering and to prevent corrosion of internal components. NOAA bought 350 of the regulators and now requires its 500 divers to use that model when diving in water temperatures of 50 degrees or less. Johnson says the Navy's experimental dive unit is using them, too. The Delta IV is also commercially available for sport divers; Oceanic's suggested price is $570.

Cold-water divers should definitely invest in a good regulator that won't freeze up underwater. Two people died last April because of that problem. Jason Balsbough and Daniel Frendenberg, both age 21, and Sherry Eads, 43, went diving in a quarry in Gilboa, Ohio, where the water temperature was 38 degrees. Another diver called 911 to report the divers were down. Balsbough had regulator problems but was able to surface by himself. Frendenberg and Eads were too deep and their regulators were too iced for them to breathe.

Thanks for the information, This is good to know. I guess they have done serveral tests out there and they choose this product to rely on. The only thing si I will being doing tropical dives since I live in florida....no ice diving here

 

[leapfrog]

Delta 4.

 

[mason417]

Thanks Leapfrog, what kind of diving do you do? Tropical? or mostly cold?

 

[leapfrog]

Thanks Leapfrog, what kind of diving do you do? Tropical? or mostly cold?

Certainly don't get much tropical, unfortunately. My main stalking grounds are the Mediterranean and the European Atlantic I get max temperatures of about 69F for most of the year and diving in 57F in winter. Very ocasionally I get a 78F dive say in the Balearic Islands in Summer.

I am particularly interested in what a reg is going to do at depth and I want easy breathing and to stick the Octo in someone's mouth real quick.

On certain regs I need to know that the Octo is really reliable because I usually use regs that don't freeflow.

 

[mason417]

Is the Delta 4 easy to service when traveling?

 

[mike_s]

Is the Delta 4 easy to service when traveling?

It's prob about the same as any other regulator to service... (traveling or not).

If you're paranoid about needing to rebuild it on a trip, you might want to buy a service kit for it to keep with you in case the shop you go to for the repair doesn't have one in stock for your exact regulator. Also download and print out the repair/rebuild manufal for the reg and put in your bag (in waterproof ziplock back). this is more important if you're on a liveaboard as you can't pull over and buy one. But then again in any of these cases you could alway use a backup reg in the case of a failure until you get home an option.

 

[mason417]

It's prob about the same as any other regulator to service... (traveling or not).

If you're paranoid about needing to rebuild it on a trip, you might want to buy a service kit for it to keep with you in case the shop you go to for the repair doesn't have one in stock for your exact regulator. Also download and print out the repair/rebuild manufal for the reg and put in your bag (in waterproof ziplock back). this is more important if you're on a liveaboard as you can't pull over and buy one. But then again in any of these cases you could alway use a backup reg in the case of a failure until you get home an option.

Thanks Mike, I will take that into consideration. You the Man! with great advice