Upgrade? SEAC Set Px100 to scubapro c370

[hils78]

Hi all,

I've just got back into diving and done my first liveaboard. I bought by own dive gear for this. I got the SEAC Set Px100 as it seemed a good entry level regulator and it was totally fine. However, I did notice that my dive experience improved by being able to alter the venturi effect but the dial for the SEAC is pretty limited, it's pretty much, open, halfway and 'closed'. I noticed a lot of people on the boat had the scubapro c370. My question is, is it worth the upgrade? Will I notice that much difference? Can I expect in upgrade to improve air consumption in any way? Are there any other regulators I should consider? The scubapro seems to largely be sold with the MK11. For info, diving warm water but I did choose the SEAC as it also seemed an option in colder water. Thanks in advance.

 

[Mobulai]

The other dial on the 370 isn’t for Venturi

The venturi dial is there for one main function, to supress it completely when you do your giant stride

You detune it to prevent violent freeflow, and then when the reg is in your mouth you dial it back close to max to have better flow
(Sometimes half way is better, but that’s a can of worms, I’ll leave that out for now)

The extra knob on the 370 is to adjust the cracking effort, which is how much suck you need to apply so the reg starts to deliver air

it tends to be tuned already to “max”, and users mostly dial it in to increase the “stiffness” of the reg; another way to reduce freeflow

Properly the c370 is gonna be an easier to breathe reg, but bot because of the knobs; the demand lever design on it is just super smooth ; probably also the px100 is un balanced so that could contribute to higher (worse) cracking effort

Probably the air consumption will not differ as well, unless you do pretty demanding dives there might be slight improvement

I haven’t used either reg so these are just “generic” observations
Someone who used either/both can weigh in with more on that comparison

If you’re interested in knowing more about that stuff, here’s a highly educational (and dense) seminar about 2nd stage designs:

EDIT:
the PX100 is an unbalanced 2nd stage, as I could see from this "schematic" (from their youtube), the 370 would probably be an improvement .-- but not for the reasons you think:

balanced 2nd stages maintain a stable response to changing IP coming from the 1st stage; so their breathing characteristics don't deteriorate with change in tank pressure (esp. on an unbalanced 1st stage like the PX100 one)

What you’ll notice more is how smooth the air comes out, but again SAC is more of your side of things; diving against current, the rate you breathe at, kicking efficiently (against current)…
A smoother reg might help, but a lil bit

 

[BoltSnap]

The C370 is miles ahead of the seacsub second stage, there is no comparison.

 

[lexvil]

You may or may not notice a difference but the 370 is a great second and there will be a difference.