Why I love Atomic

[Geo7]

With a quick disconnect, you have removed the source of concern: water tracking up the hose due to the floating seat and into the first stage. If you disconnect your SS1 from the bcd hose, it's perfectly okay to soak in fresh water.

I also connect my regs to the tank after rinsing in fresh water, and press the purge button to blow any water out.

 

[rsingler]

Yeah, Atomic makes great regs and my favorite mask by far, I agree. However they need to get out and stay out of the computer business....IMHO

Can't argue with that. I gave my Cobalt to my son, because I couldn't stand the incessant beeping as I alternated between 15 & 30 feet along a shallow reef in Bonaire. Couldn't silence the warning that I'd arrived at Safety Stop. And then watching the boat above me with 400 psi in my tank, everybody was looking over at me for my low gas alarm. Again, couldn't silence it. Had to replace the buttons once. Had to return it for a case leak once. Finally, the algorithm is pretty aggressive. If they could add Buhlman with adjustable Gradient Factors and make ALL the alarms silenceable, it would be a nice computer, because the display is awesome.

 

[Jackie Treehorn]

I think they did exit the computer market. I don't see the cobalt as an offering any longer.

 

[rsingler]

I think you're right! The only thing on their website is support for the firmware, not that I expect any further updates. Good pickup!

 

[scuba2you]

I think they did exit the computer market. I don't see the cobalt as an offering any longer.

Good move, the four free ones they gave me as replacements for a variety of issues had to be hard on the finances....but I do give them credit for stepping up.

 

[Carlos Danger]

Another Atomic fan here; good service too!

I got a B2 back around 2005'ish, which has been my go-to ever since; great product. The only issue I ever had after years of faultless performance was one of the high-pressure ports got stripped, but that was not the fault of the reg's design. I sent the first stage back to Atomic for repair, along with the 2nd stage and my Octo for standard service. When I got everything back, the 1st stage literally looked brand new. However, the kicker was that Atomic had also rebuilt/replaced just about every other part on the 1st stage and Octo as well, including the purge covers, and only charged me for the 1st stage repairs. Needless to say, I was pretty happy!

I have also had just about every mask they make, and currently use/love their Venom Frameless.

 

[Geo7]

I also connect my regs to the tank after rinsing in fresh water, and press the purge button to blow any water out.

For those that are new to this: I should clarify that this blowing water out advice is about some drops of water (allegedly) getting into the 2nd stage. Though if you remove an Atomic second stage from the 1st stage and try sucking air in from the hose end, you'll notice that air has a hard time to get into the 2nd stage and through to the 1st stage side of the hose. So water will not easily travel into the reg/hose if there is only ambient pressure on both sides of the orifice, because the gap is too small and water is viscous. The floating orifice mostly relieves the pressure from the seat, but does not create a huge gap. Now under technical diving conditions with a depressurized reg taken deeper, things are different, but chances are water will seep into any reg under these conditions.

Caveat: If however you are unlucky wile rinsing and get water into the first stage because you for example forgot to put the cap on, then don't just connect the reg to the tank and blow air through. If you do that you might push water into the SPG, and they do not like that at all. In that case I'd disconnect the SPG and then blow fresh water out the 1st stage and then connect the 2nd stage purge the reg and connect the SPG again. Perhaps I'd change the metal sinter filter. I'd cut the service intervall short and would not go even a full year. If the water in the rinse tank was dirty water or saltwater got into the reg, I'd take the reg apart and service it right away. Sorry for the hijack, but I did not want to let this stand as bad advice...

Long story short: water ingress in Atomic regs due to the floating orifice is really not an issue, as has been discussed before.

 

[Jackie Treehorn]

Another Atomic fan here; good service too!

I got a B2 back around 2005'ish, which has been my go-to ever since; great product. The only issue I ever had after years of faultless performance was one of the high-pressure ports got stripped, but that was not the fault of the reg's design. I sent the first stage back to Atomic for repair, along with the 2nd stage and my Octo for standard service. When I got everything back, the 1st stage literally looked brand new. However, the kicker was that Atomic had also rebuilt/replaced just about every other part on the 1st stage and Octo as well, including the purge covers, and only charged me for the 1st stage repairs. Needless to say, I was pretty happy!

I've sent regs back to them for servicing as well. Not the cheapest route by any means but when they come back they do go above an beyond.

 

[Storker]

this blowing water out advice is about some drops of water (allegedly) getting into the 2nd stage.

I may be unsually dense, but isn't every 2nd stage getting water into it? A lot (like, the whole frikkin' ocean)?

 

[Geo7]

Yeah, I should have been more precise:

Water gets into the second stage of course, but hopefully not where it is not supposed to be: Normally the orifice seals against the seat, and air escapes if the lever is depressed. Or water passes into the hose if the reg is depressurized. With Atomic the orifice has a titanium spring washer that only lets the orifice fully seal if the hose(2nd stage) is pressurized. Hence the topic on this and several other discussions, whether the hose will fill up with water if the reg is rinsed unpressurized. My observations indicate that even if water is in the 2nd stage, and the hose unpressurized, only negligible quantities of water should seep past the orifice into the hose. Well, if you soak for 24 hrs (I sometimes do), then pressurizing is a good idea.