What temps determine the need for a "cold water" regulator?

[Jim Lapenta]

The other thing one needs to understand and I think it generally is not, os that the correct term is not cold water sealed. It's environmentally sealed. Which generally means that not only will the reg be less likely to free flow in cold water but it will also not have crap like sand, silt, salt, etc. coming into.contact with the internals at all. So maintenance is easier. And to reiterate, the cost of sealed over non really is negligible in the overall.scheme.
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[TheDiveShopDubai]

Good point Peter_C, and like Halocline mentioned there is practically no way of telling what is the suggested working range of a regulator without reading manufacturer guidelines for each model. We would like to add that although the MK25 is not freezing water rated because water does comes in contact with dynamic surfaces, it does boast heat transfer fins (the ridges on the turret designed to transfer the cold into the water) and a rubber insulator around the piston to keep the low pressure chamber from freezing. This makes the MK25 a good all around choice, but for the extremes an environmentally sealed diaphragm offer the best possible performance. Good luck.

 

[tdtaylor]

I dive an environmentally sealed set of regs for all my cold water diving- down to around 40 degrees, even in summer. When I go deep and cold, I always add a pony. Have had utilized this rig with a buddy's free flow situation while we were deep and he was panicking, and while environmentally sealed, I was glad is was pulling air through a separate, independent set of regs. Don't know if my reg would handle the volume of two of us in a stressful situation at 95 feet and 42 degrees- don't really want to find out.

I knew my life was not a good exchange for saving a few dollars on cheaper equipment, and am now convinced of it. I'll save my money on other items like SStl instead of titanium for a knife or line cutter.

I also believe in simplicity- man, the rig in the picture is scary!