Unbiased regulator comparison?

[DA Aquamaster]

Several good points have been made regarding what is really important in a regulator's performance. One thing I noted when working as a tech is that some brands of regulators show much more improvement before and after annual service than others - or looking at it the other way, some brands of regulators experience more degradation in performance over the average diving season. This became pretty obvious working in a small shop on the same regulators year after year where you knew how it performed when it went out and how it performed when it came back in for service the next year. Some of it is due to design but most of it is due to materials selection for the soft parts.

As an aside one the companies where I notice the most increase in performance with an annual service also allows for a two year service interval with only an inspection required every 12 months. So in that case the tech has the not so wonderful choice of sending the reg back out for another year in safe but less than peak condition or making the customer potentially mad by suggesting a full annual service - one of those cases where before and after performance numbers can be very valuable.

So in effect, I think there is more value in testing a reg with several months and 50 or so real world dives on it if you want to determine how a regulator will perform in real world conditions.

I also agree with Phil that testing a super well tuned reg can be misleading as that same setting may not provide and adequate degree of reliability as the reg is used over the season - another good reason to test regs that are middle aged in terms of their annual service schedules.

 

[Rickg]

Is there such a thing as an independant company testing different brands of regulators under the same conditions and posting their findings.

Multiple searches have come up with nothing....

You might want to try:

Divernet - Diver Magazine Online and much more | Diving | Dive Shows | Gear Tests | Travel | News

But since they are "Euro-orientated" you might not be able to find the regulator you are interested in.

Rickg

 

[*Floater*]

Several good points have been made regarding what is really important in a regulator's performance. One thing I noted when working as a tech is that some brands of regulators show much more improvement before and after annual service than others - or looking at it the other way, some brands of regulators experience more degradation in performance over the average diving season. This became pretty obvious working in a small shop on the same regulators year after year where you knew how it performed when it went out and how it performed when it came back in for service the next year. Some of it is due to design but most of it is due to materials selection for the soft parts.

As an aside one the companies where I notice the most increase in performance with an annual service also allows for a two year service interval with only an inspection required every 12 months. So in that case the tech has the not so wonderful choice of sending the reg back out for another year in safe but less than peak condition or making the customer potentially mad by suggesting a full annual service - one of those cases where before and after performance numbers can be very valuable.

So in effect, I think there is more value in testing a reg with several months and 50 or so real world dives on it if you want to determine how a regulator will perform in real world conditions.

I also agree with Phil that testing a super well tuned reg can be misleading as that same setting may not provide and adequate degree of reliability as the reg is used over the season - another good reason to test regs that are middle aged in terms of their annual service schedules.

DA, good info as usual. Tell me, did you service in DR regs (RG 2500 types)? How did they fare? What about the air2-type octo-inflators?

 

[PhilEllis]

Phil, are there physical screws or something else that needs to be fiddled with by the dealer to tune my new regulator to me personally?

Should my instructor be the one to do this?

Thanks for your posts!

No, not really. Everyone has their own preference for how they want the air delivery to "feel" with a regulator. When we set them up prior to delivery to the customer, we try to acheive an easy breathing regulator that will not have a severe tendency to free flow when not in the mouth. Of course, this is much easier with a regulator that has a diver-adjustable cracking effort. After tuning, you then need to make sure that the regulator continues to deliver high vloumes of air (3CFM to 8CFM) without too much breathing effort. We have seen MANY regulators that have a static cracking effort of 1.2-1.5 inches of water, only to require 5.0 or 6.0 inches of water when delivering high volumes of air. This is not acceptable. If it cannot be adjusted to correct this problem, there is a clear design fault.

There is so much more to this than many regulator rebuilders think. I have always said that ANYONE can disassemble a regulator, reassemble it, and set the static IP lockup pressure. The skill is in the real tuning, testing, and problem diagnosis. Thanks.

Phil Ellis

 

[PhilEllis]

There is another issue that is confusing to many people................

When we test a regulator and talk about air delivery, many people make statements like "there is no need for a regulator to be able to deliver more than x CF of air per minute. After all, even a bad surface air consumption is only 2CFM."

This statement misses an entire understanding of how a regulator functions. If you put a second stage in your mouth and make a single sharp, deep breath....you may be TEMPORARILY putting an air delivery demand on that regulator of 5CFM or even up to15CFM! When we hear that someone has "overbreathed" their regulator, this is exactly what has happened! Due to nervousness, panic, or some other condition, they have TEMPORARILY placed a demand on the regulator that it cannot meet. The result....the person feels TEMPORARILY like they are starved for air. This is why it is so important to fully test a regulator after service.

P.S....when you rebuild your personal regulator and mess with the position of the air valve lever in an attempt to tune your regulator, what have you done to the maximum air delivery capability of your regular. Without testing, you don't know.

Phil Ellis

 

[Stu S.]

You might want to try:

Divernet - Diver Magazine Online and much more | Diving | Dive Shows | Gear Tests | Travel | News

But since they are "Euro-orientated" you might not be able to find the regulator you are interested in.

Rickg

This site worked for me. There was an Oceanic regulator on closeout at a local store. I looked it up on this site and two reviews said Oceanic Alpha 7 was excellent. I think the store was using it as a $99 come-on, as the sales guy told me it would not work below 100 feet, unbalanced, etc. I trusted Divernet and got the same good results they did. I got another one for my daughter after that.

Divernet has had some bad things to say about a variety of products. That's unlike a popular American scuba magazine that has a flowery-sweet review for every product tested.

It worked for me.