Why would both primary and octo freeflow?

[keyshunter]

Please explain what "properly balanced" means.

TIA

Yes. How does one "properly balance" a Mares diaphragm first stage?

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

Sounds like a 1st stage problem, mares regulators are notoriously difficult to get properly balanced.

Why would that be?

Mares diaphragm firsts are about as simple to rebuild as it gets. Their 2nd stages are mostly classic unbalanced downstream 2nd's, nothing mysterious there... adjust orifice and lever height, pretty straight forward.... just curious why you think they are difficult to service, that has not been my experience...

Best wishes.

Hey LeadTurn_SD

I'm not trying to be a brand basher - I've nothing against the Mares brand in general, just never had great experiences with their regs - specifically protons which often have freeflow and balance problems - many documented on this site in fact! Also mainly because they use a completely different servicing set to that which is common throughout other brands, so are more difficult to self service. And every time I've come across freeflows and put in for servicing at a service centre, they've come back still freeflowing or with problems within a short timeframe.

Perhaps its just bad luck, but thats just my personal experience

Please explain what "properly balanced" means.

TIA

Yes. How does one "properly balance" a Mares diaphragm first stage?

Not trying to answer for Goodtime Adventures, but I'm guessing he meant "competently service" or "tune correctly"...

I find the Mares 1st stages devilishly hard to balance on top of my head while juggling cats ... but pretty darned easy to service

The only caveat I would mention is that I do not religiously follow the repair manual procedure for tuning Mares 2nd stages.

I think the procedure outlined in the manual was written as a "foolproof cookbook" aimed at the lowest common denominator fool, errr, I meant "qualified technician"; and while the cookbook tuning "works" and the result is a "safe" tune, it can result in a very mediocre-performing 2nd stage, often with a cracking effort hovering around 1.8 - 2.0". :depressed:

To get these 2nd stages to breath as well as they should the tech must spend a little extra time fine tuning! This will bring the cracking pressure right down around 1.2 - 1.3, and these 2nd's do breath really well once properly tuned, even though they are unbalanced and have no external adjustments.

Having said all of that, I wish Mares would go back to metal orifices in their 2nd stages!

My uninformed opinion is that at least some of the tuning issues and freeflows are caused by the cursed plastic orifices they now use.

Best wishes

 

[axxel57]

The Mares diaphragm 1sts are usually very well balanced, much better than the SPs for example, but I wouldn't know how to get them better or worse balanced (well, maybe using a new or an old diaphragm).

The 2nds, if properly tuned, breathe very good for unbalanced types.

I would prefer the possibility to adjust the Venturi, because they react sometimes too fast and powerfull and there is nothing one can do against.

The plastic orifices of the 2nds are crap (worse than the SP ones), unfortunately I slowly run out of metal spare ones.