Sound off!! Whats your favorite Regulator?

[dbg40]

Thanks!

Laugh all you want, I have the latest greatest from scubapro and still think that my MK VII and D300, super tuned, out rock em all.

 

[SwimJim]

try it deep and sub 35 and see what happens

Jim

 

[scubaren]

For those who have had issues with the x650 what are they? I'm a new diver with a new x650 and would like a heads up if I'm open to a problem.

 

[Lt9]

Does anyone know where i can buy a sherwood first stage by itself without the secound stage? I would like to build a modern day ultima with a sherwood first stage and a poseidon secound stage.

 

[FZJ80]

Atomic M1 for me. Scubapro Mk2/R190s for my students.

Different ends of the spectrum...

 

[Lil' Irish Temper]

AquaLung Titan LX

 

[doole]

Does anyone know where i can buy a sherwood first stage by itself without the secound stage? I would like to build a modern day ultima with a sherwood first stage and a poseidon secound stage.

How come?

 

[Marcin2005]

MR22/Abyss circa 1997

 

[steve2281]

Apeks DS4/TX50

 

[DA Aquamaster]

For those who have had issues with the x650 what are they? I'm a new diver with a new x650 and would like a heads up if I'm open to a problem.

The inital batch of X650's breathed well when new but performance faded after about 20 dives, prompting development of a new lever and a new diaphragm design. I purchased a new and improved X650 second stage for evaluation purposes but have not been overly impressed yet.

In cold water it has consistently had a very slight freeflow between breaths due to air leaking out the exhaust valve and the inhalation effort has had to be adjusted to 2" of water before it will stop. This makes it breathe more or less like a rock.

In contrast to my experience, many divers really like them a lot and this suggests that:

1) Theirs work a lot better than mine, or
2) they are not real picky about slight freeflows in their second stages, or
3) they do not know what a good breathing regulator is really like.

I noted that there is no slack in the lever at all when tuned for minimum cracking effort. My suspicion is that as air leaks out the top of exhaust valve, which is located alomost 1.5 inches higher than the center of the diaphragm, the diaphragm is sucked in very slightly which immediately depresses the lever and opens the poppet slightly continuing the freeflow. My thought is that creating some slack in the lever may resolve the problem. This is problematic however given that it is in essence a single adjustment balanced poppet design with no provision for separate lever adjustment outside of what occurs when you adjust the poppet.

So I have increased the IP on the first stage from 125 psi to 145 psi which requires the orifice to be adjusted slightly farther inward and in turn creates a tiny bit of slack in the lever. This, in conjunction with setting the cracking effort at 1.4 inches (creating a tiny bit more slack in the lever) will hopefully enable me to actually use the reg with a 1.4" of water inhalation effort with no freeflow issues. This would still not be nearly as good as my D400 second stages, which will operate reliably at .7 to .8" of water, but would be far better than the 2.0" performance I have now.

I am going to test and experiment with it more in an 80 degree pool this weekend. If it works better with some slack in the lever I will probably attempt some judious bending on the lever to create about 3 mm of slack with the reg adjusted for a decent inhalation effort of about .8 to 1.0" of water. Theoretically it should resolve the problem and turn it into a very good breathing regulator. As levers go, the lever in the X650 is quite long and complex and small differences in the bends in the levers could account for why some X650's are reported to breathe very well while others generally breathe like rocks.

On a positive note, it does deliver air very smoothly and the inline poppet assembly is easier to adjust and maintain than the center balanced poppet assembly on the D400.