Which regulator for both very cold & warm waters?

[Boyan]

If there's one reg that I see most of on technical rigs around here, it's the XTX50. In my family we have three reg sets: two XTX50, one XTX100. Why the XTX100? I got a sweet deal on a used set. If you want to pay extra for bling, buy an XTX200 set. As a bonus, the 1st stage has a replaceable seat.

Is bling the only difference?

 

[Boyan]

Yes. It is easily prevented, though. Don't (EVER) breathe your secondary on the surface in cold air and set your primary's IP to midway (simple adjustment, your shop can do that for you). Tiny bit more work of breathing, but you won't notice when under ice.

Thanks for the tip. Never heard of IP before. Reading about it now. So I need to readjust it after the dive right?

 

[eelnoraa]

scubapro or Halcyon.

scubapro mk25 evo or Halcyon h75p (same reg) have pretty perfect routing for DIR.

Apeks are solid regs too. I dont like the routing personally but i know alot of divers who swear by them.

Had my Halcyons in everything from 3ºC fresh water and 29ºc tropical reefs and never had a problem.

Would they work? Sure, but far from optimal choice for ice temperature. Especially OP is starting from skretch and with plan to do ice diving.

Most sealed diaphragm (legend, apekx, mk17 ...) are great, piston with seal ambient chambers (like atomics) are OK. Both are better than mk25 for those usage

 

[runsongas]

if you dont want to go with the poseidon xstream or apeks xtx50, check out the glacia and mtx-r.

 

[eelnoraa]

Is bling the only difference?

I could be wrong. I think the Supreme has user adjustable breather effort knob. The Lux by default doesn't. You can always upgrade on the next service.

 

[Ryan Mcshane]

Some people online suggest, that scubapro is more likely to freeflow in cold water and that mk17 is better than mk25 for cold water. Would you disagree with these statements?

The mk25 "evo" is cold water rated. Something to do with a coating on the main spring. I dive year round in the uk, our water gets pretty chilly and i've yet to have any problem.

 

[grf88]

The XTX50 is typically paired with the DST or sometimes the DS4. The DST has a swivel top which can make routing easier for some applications like sidemount. It can also accomodate a 5th port useful for some sidemount and doubles applications. All the first stages have similar internals and perform the same. The XTX 200 first stage has a removable crown which would be useful if the crown gets damaged but I have not seen that happen and if it should the part of the body that you would need to replace on the DST or DS4 is not overly expensive. There are also cosmetic and routing differences with the XTX 100 and XTX 200.

 

[Compressor]

All of the above mentioned regs are good regulators. Get in the water and breath only one the 2nd stage is in your mouth and your face is underwater.
Interesting the last time I did real cold water there was an ice block on my 1st stage enough that I could not get it off the tank valve until it melted once in the car. It was a Sherwood Blizzard. This is a long time ago like over 30 years ago.

 

[eelnoraa]

The mk25 "evo" is cold water rated. Something to do with a coating on the main spring. I dive year round in the uk, our water gets pretty chilly and i've yet to have any problem.

But do you think it is better than or even the same as AL legend or Apeks in ice cold water?

 

[lowviz]

Thanks for the tip. Never heard of IP before. Reading about it now. So I need to readjust it after the dive right?

I don't. I tend to focus so much on my dive that I ignore really minor things like that. I set mine midway and forget about it until the next service.

Some people want their secondary to anticipate their next breath, if so then yes you would want to reset it. No biggie.