Piston or Diaphragm Regulator

[battles2a5]

In that case I would go with a sealed diaphragm to keep the worms out of your reg

 

[LavaSurfer]

In that case I would go with a sealed diaphragm to keep the worms out of your reg

You beat me to it! :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[redacted]

In clear warm water you can go either way. There is no clear advantage of one over the other so you can let price and servicability drive your decision.

I wish I could deal with any other language as well as you are dealing with english.

 

[battles2a5]

You gotta jump on the low hanging fruit.

 

[captain]

A dry sealed diaphragm reg does work well for people who are too lazy to rinse. However failing to rinse an unsealed diaphragm reg will result in corrosion in and around the ambient chamber, spring and spring adjustment pad. It can get really nasty in there.

If you ever use a reg for high O2 percentage deco mixes, one thing to consider is that the diaphragm itself is one great big fuel source.

Where is the difference between diving regulators and o2 welding regulators with 100% oxygen at high pressure and rubber diaphragms and hose. If enerything is o2 clean and the right material I don't see an issue.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

Nothing is really what you would consider fire proof in an O2 environment. So in my opinion it is less an issue of being concerned with O2 clean as it is ensuring there is no ignition source due to compression, sharp edges in the flow path, etc. and to then reduce the fuel load as much as possible (the idea behind keeping things O2 clean).

This is one area where I think welding regualtors differ - flow rates in a welding reg are quite low compared to even a low performance scuba reg and in general welding valves turn on much slower reducing the potential for heating in the reg due to rapid compression.

In comparison, some scuba valves (my Thermo valves come to mind) go from off to almost full on in under 1/2 a turn, so unless you are very careful in opening them, some risk of ignition does exist.

If I have to have a fire in a regulator, I'd prefer it be in a piston reg where it would just char a couple o-rings and go out after a second or two as opposed to occuring in a diaphragm reg where the significantly greater amount of rubber/fuel etc, has the potential to create a much larger, longer and hotter fire.

 

[pescador775]

DA, you are over thinking the whole thing. Diaphragm medical regs and welding regs pressurize just as fast as any SCUBA reg; speaking of which, the only regulator fires I've ever heard of occurred in titanium PISTON regs. Besides, a diaphragm is exposed to low pressure gas only, not a suspect situation for ignition. The low pressure (IP) hoses in all regulators are exposed to this same pressure and flow as well and are not a known or even suspected ignition source.

 

[oxyhacker]

There have been O2 fires in grease-packed piston regs. One of the DAN books has pictures of toasted SP MkV.

I have ever been a big fan of BP 1sts, but suspect their day is ending - it just doesn't make sense to me to have to pack them with $30 worth of Christo-Lube just to keep them from freezing up, but no one seems to be able to find an alternative, and it sure isn't for lack of trying.

DA, you are over thinking the whole thing. Diaphragm medical regs and welding regs pressurize just as fast as any SCUBA reg; speaking of which, the only regulator fires I've ever heard of occurred in titanium PISTON regs.