What regulator configuration makes the best pony tank reg system?

[beanojones]

You do want to avoid Sherwoods with the dry bleed. The check viable is not 100% positive so you need to keep the first stage pressurized while wet. Otherwise a chamber flood is possible and it will not rinse clean. That may or may not be your planned technique but why be constrained?

Don't most people pressurized their ponies anyway? I hate the dry bleed because I soak my gear when not diving and it definitely floods the chamber just from being in a soak tank, but since I pressurize the pony when diving it would not be a concern there for me.

 

[beanojones]

People have said that having a swivel on a deco fist stage is more useful than it might seem to appear. Swiveled down to lay the hose along the tank before being deployed, swivel up for ease of use after being deployed.

Personally I like unbalanced piston because o2 cleaning them is really simple, and o2 deco is why I would want a pony in most circumstances.

 

[halocline]

I'd get a used MK2 and a used 109 metal case 2nd stage. Total cost under $100, maybe the perfect pony set up. Unbalanced 1st for a near-empty warning, adjustable 2nd, extremely tough 2nd to spend most of its life strapped to a tank, and if you dive plastic 2nds (like almost everybody these days) then the metal 2nd will be easy to spot and distinguish.

 

[halocline]

Don't most people pressurized their ponies anyway? I hate the dry bleed because I soak my gear when not diving and it definitely floods the chamber just from being in a soak tank, but since I pressurize the pony when diving it would not be a concern there for me.

I think the concern is that often the pony is pressurized and turned off, and if the 2nd stage gets bumped it can lose the pressure and flood the dry bleed chamber. Besides, who wants a stream of bubbles coming out of a slung tank?

 

[spectrum]

I think the concern is that often the pony is pressurized and turned off, and if the 2nd stage gets bumped it can lose the pressure and flood the dry bleed chamber. Besides, who wants a stream of bubbles coming out of a slung tank?

Halocline, You are correct that there are some schools of though that have you dive a pressurized regulator with the tank valve closed. This is so you know for sure that your back-up air is not being lost in a freeflow. The dry bleed is substantial enough to deplete chamber pressure during the dive hence the flood potential if the diving with a closed cylinder valve.

Beanojones, As above, not all divers want the tank valve open. If you soak pressurized, as I always do it's a non issue for cleaning. It does make opening the valve mandatory before it gets wet. You also need to close the valve afterwards, which can be an easy oversight. The dry bleed's air consumption is imaterial in the contex of a dive. Left to bleed in storage it will polish of a cylinder. All of the issues can be managed with careful usage except that you don't have the "dive with a closed valve available. I have head of divers periodically cracking the valve to maintain the dry bleed while diving with a closed valve.

Pete

 

[beanojones]

Besides, who wants a stream of bubbles coming out of a slung tank?

This is why I like reading things. I never used a Sherwood for a pony, so I never thought about it, but damn it would be annoying doing a bubble check when the dry air bleed was bubbling intentionally.

I'm now fully in agreement with the idea: "Don't use a dry air bleed Sherwood for a pony."

 

[Capt.Gene]

The new Sherwood regs don't spritz air continously, and only burp during the ascent. The amount of air released is almost unnoticable. Maybe a tea spoon of volume.
This is a big improvement from the earlier Sherwood models. If any part of your post dive maintance involved soaking while unpressurized your spring chamber would flood and you would discover you needed to purchase a new piston.
Next gen replacable flow restrictor recently evolved into the design the Genesis regulators have been using in their high end regulators.
I think the engineering is very well thought through, these will be as maintance free and idiot proof as anything you could buy from anybody.