Why was the Cousteau 1st stage discontinued?????

[Hallmac]

you can keep your environmentally sealed atomics, i will just stick with my legends

Man try and help some people out and all they do is turn up their nose. I agree the Legend is a breeze to service. The Owner of our store hates to work on the Micra as well so you are not alone. Me, I would do them all day long.

 

[halocline]

The legend is over balanced and a much better performing reg.

This overbalanced thing is really starting to annoy me. Balanced 1st stages are designed to maintain IP throughout the range of supply pressures. "Overbalanced" in this case has nothing to do with IP and supply pressure, its about (supposedly) increasing IP at depth; more like "over depth compensating" than "over balancing." And as Luis pointed out, it's meaningless with a balanced 2nd stage, because as the IP increases, the 2nd stage will simply compensate for that.

There is the theory that the higher IP would result in a higher flow rate to the 2nd stage, but since any high performing 1st stage delivers 3 times the air (or more) that any 2nd stage can handle, it's also meaningless.

Far better to design a 1st stage that has a smaller IP drop under high flow; IP itself is a static measurement and as such doesn't tell you anything about how air is moving to the 2nd stage.

 

[jonenglishlee]

whatever your opinion is, you cant deny that the product works, and works well

 

[DA Aquamaster]

This overbalanced thing is really starting to annoy me. Balanced 1st stages are designed to maintain IP throughout the range of supply pressures. "Overbalanced" in this case has nothing to do with IP and supply pressure, its about (supposedly) increasing IP at depth; more like "over depth compensating" than "over balancing." And as Luis pointed out, it's meaningless with a balanced 2nd stage, because as the IP increases, the 2nd stage will simply compensate for that.

There is the theory that the higher IP would result in a higher flow rate to the 2nd stage, but since any high performing 1st stage delivers 3 times the air (or more) that any 2nd stage can handle, it's also meaningless.

Far better to design a 1st stage that has a smaller IP drop under high flow; IP itself is a static measurement and as such doesn't tell you anything about how air is moving to the 2nd stage.

I agree. It is in my opinion only a marketing gimick. If it really were present all it would do is pose tuning problems that would put either:

1. an unneccesarily high lower limit on inhalation effort at shallower depths, or
2. an absolute depth limit on the reg.

Who really wants either one, when neither one is required with a properly balanced first stage where the IP (relative to ambient pressure) remains the same regardless of depth or tank pressure?

However, I am not sad to see the micra adj go. it was the pain in my side, as far as reg rebuilding went. I cringe everytime a customer comes and brings me a micra adj.

AMEN. Those things are not fun to work on at all. They breathe better than they have right to (in most cases), but they were obviously not designed to be techician freindly.

 

[grazie42]

I heard there was a rift between AL and the Cousteaus...propably/maybe, just industry gossip though...

 

[pescador775]

I dive a Cousteau first stage with a Scubapro G250HP second. The second stage is what makes the regulator and the G250HP is a gem. I like the robust, water tight construction and proven design of the diaphragm operated Cousteau. I like the port alignment as well. It is easy to get manuals for these components which is a plus. It is a bit more difficult to get parts for the Scubapro second but that's old news, right? This setup is more bulky than some newer designs but I feel more comfortable handling and using heavy duty stuff.