Apeks flight free flow

[Xaryo]

make sure that the technician has the right repair manual. There seems to be 2 different versions of that manual with different specs for the adjustments. That's probably part of the problem.

[tphillipp]

All,
A recently released technical bulletin from Apeks on the Flight states that Apeks has a new 2nd stage silicone seat available that will address potential leaking issues as well as performance issues. When you bring your Flight in for normal service, the dealer should install a 2nd stage parts kit that includes this new silicone seat. If your regulator cannot wait for its routine service due to a leak, go ahead and take it in now and request that the new seat be put in.

[bkeyes]

My wife and I both have the flight. 20 plus dives on each reg. On my first dive with it, my reg was free flowing enough that I had to switch to a rental unit for the rest of my trip in Coz. Took the reg back to my LDS and they repaired it, or so I thought. Next dive trip, first inhale under water had me chocking on sea water, I was getting more water than air, back to the LDS, said it was a purge valve issue. Dove today and my reg is back to free flowing.In addition,my wife experienced the water when inhaling issue with her Flight. I can not recommend the flight. I spent a lot of money of these reg's and I have zero confidence in mine. Hoping to work out something with the LDS. These were bought in Oct, mine has been in the shop more than at my house or in the water, not real happy with it.

[axxel57]

The Apeks Flight is a nice, light regulator.
It has also hardly any tolerances concerning the use and adjustment. Everything is packed small in small, all components are only to use for Flights. I serviced a couple and it's no fun.
An instructor friend who looked me over the shoulder while servicing his Flight told me that he now was not wondering anymore why he had permanently smaller or bigger problems with this regulator. This regulator is no workhorse, it is a Diva.
So he sold it right away and got him another one.
I generally like this design approach to make regulators lighter and smaller, but I hope that the next Flight generation is addressing these problems to make the performance of the Flight more stable.

[t-mac]

Well, for what it's worth for people who may be following this thread, as I stated in an earlier post, my wife and I both have flights and other than the issues in cold water to be expected from a non-environmentally sealed regualtor, we have never had a problem. In fact we just returned from a trip in the Caribbean, logging 20 more dives each and still no problem. We are very happy with ours.

[petsin]

Well, it seems that this free flow (or air leak as in my case is very low) is something common to this regulator. I cannot complaint since my Flight has about 70 dives in 2 years and has worked flawlessly. This made me buy a another one for my daughter which was used for the first time last week and after the second dive it started to leak air on the second stage. The leak was variable and sometimes it stopped completely. It worked more or less Ok for the full week and 10 dives, though it was always leaking a little bit especially during the second dive of each day. I hope this can be fixed with correct adjustment since this regulator is not sold where I live and bought it in Europe after the experience from my first one. I will try to get it adjusted by a local regulator technician.

[MarkWLenox]

I am in the same boat so to speak. I have four Apex flight sets, one for each member of the family. When they work, they are great, but.... They are all doing this slow leak free flow at one point in time or another. We pretty much can't go on a dive outing and not have a regulator fail this way. Take them back to the dealer, readjust, they tell me it's fine, then at the next dive another one goes. All have been rebuilt in the last 6 months and I had three of eight second stages fail today. Unfortunately my LDS just went out of business so I am stuck with four sets of complete junk.

In my opinion, anybody who buys Apex is simply out of their mind. I won't even consider it again. A complete failure. Their engineering is not to be trusted.

[t-mac]

Sounds like problems with technicians. Unfortunate. I'm still happy with mine, though I also had a problem with the shop adjusting it improperly - so that it would not manually purge. They fixed it and both mine and my wife's are going strong.

[tphillipp]

Hi Mark,
While this is unfortunate, rest assured that you are not stuck with four sets of complete junk. Can you PM me with your contact information, where they were purchased and who the LDS was that worked on them? I'll find out if they were properly trained and authorized to work on Flights. I will also assist you in getting your confidence back in your Flights.

[Crass3000]

Don't lose your confidance in APEKS. While this regulator may have some issues that need to be worked out (I'm not sure and the only people you are hearing from are likely a smalle percentage that bought the flight) I have found my XTX50 is rock-solid in waters in the mid 30s. I personally had a free-flow on a Scuba Pro M25/350? I think that was the combo. We dive cold deep in MN and the LDS turned me onto APEKS. It said something that most of their instructors were using them. I just told them I didn't want anymore freeflows. I was going to buy the XTX200 but they said I really didn't even need that. He mentioned he had dove the XTX200 in Antarctica. My experience has been great. Probably 60 dives on the XTX50 this year and no sign of a freeflow.