Poseidon aficionados, tell me about your kinks

[jborg]

Today I was the happy recipient of a pair of Xstream regulators from a decent eBay deal. Obviously, I knew going into it that the first stages don't have a bottom port (they have a "fifth port", it's just not in the place that implies on Apeks etc.) and that my hose routing would be ... different. Now that I've set them up initially, I'm not thrilled. Here's what that looks like with my wing fully inflated. I do realise it's not going to spend much time fully inflated except on the surface, but anyway.

Those kinks on the wing & DS inflators don't give me a warm and fuzzy feeling. Then again, these are flexible hoses, and the second stage hoses are fine (those hoses being pointed more backwards, dodging the wing). Then I saw this thing (the 90-degree elbow on the first stage):

(Not me, not my photo, image from the Internet...)

Is that what I'm supposed to be doing? Is that more or less janky than the kinks? Is it better to mount the first stages vertically and have the long hose & dry suit inflator go straight out to the side and then down? What's the hivemind opinion?

 

[iointerrupt]

For doubles, I run my first stages 'normal', vertically oriented. Hose routing is fine for me this way, perhaps not 100% optimal, but certainly no kinks.

For sidemount I run them sideways, with an addition of a LP swivel (like in the 2nd picture) for the inflator hose.

I'm slowly coming around to the idea that Xstream first stages perhaps just work better with LP swivels if you really want perfect hose routing. In the US, you can get really cheap ones from piranhadivemfg.com.

 

[jborg]

For doubles, I run my first stages 'normal', vertically oriented.

Looking at that now, it puts the hose pretty much straight in front of the valve. I'm not sure if that's an issue or not, I'll have to try it in the water and see how it feels.

 

[evandroairton]

Try them 45 degrees
Mine are the old ones, at right is inline (deep) with only 3 ports, and left ports only at down side (deep 90) the idea originally was the less failure points for doubles. Still Love them

 

[Bigbella]

It would also depend upon the MK3 model.

Some of my earlier ones had the DIN adaptor at the base first stage body; though I am very curious why the OP had them oriented in that fashion. For the sake of the transmitter? I too have used doubles and none of my arrangements were ever as kinked as that.

As an aside, my Xstream originally came with a couple of those 90˚ LP and HP swivel couplings . . .

 

[rx7diver]

Have you considered running your power inflator hose from your left 1st stage, over your left shoulder straight down to your power inflator? (And your drysuit inflator hose from your right 1st stage, straight down your right side, under your right arm and then up to your drysuit--if you're using a drysuit.)

Running things this way means that only one hose, the IP hose to your back-up 2nd stage, takes a sharp turn. And if you angle your left 1st stage a bit, then this sharp turn will be "eased" a bit.

Simple. No elbows required.

This is how I ran my Poseidon Odins with my manifolded HP100's/120's.

rx7diver

 

[happy-diver]

OTG 360 degree Swivel Scuba Diving First Stage Low Pressure Port Adapter #OG-16 | eBay

Enjoy diving!

www.ebay.com

OTG 360 degree swivel scuba diving first stage high pressure port adapter #OG-18 | eBay

Enjoy diving! high pressure port adapter #OG-18.

www.ebay.com

and if you're concerned completely unnecessarily about extra orings be there or be kinky

 

[jborg]

Yeah, I ordered a couple of 90-degree elbows to sort this out. I did a dive this morning with the 1st stages at 45 degrees and hoses pointing outward-downward and inward-upward, which is also fine apart from there being a couple of hoses to feel my way through to reach the manifold valve. Ideally, I want no hoses in front of (any of) the valves. (I also put the transmitter on a short hose downwards instead, so it doesn't look or feel like an extra valve...)