Atomic M1 or ...

[itacal1001]

I am a recently OW and AOW certified diver. I am trying to decide on what equipment to buy and absolutely hate bubbles in my face. I am interested in the Atomic M1, but would like the comfort swivel on the second stage; I have no plans to do cold-water diving, so I don't care if I have to get rid of the heat sink in order to get the confort swivel. How do I get an M1 with a second stage comfort swivel? Is this an after-market modification or can a retailer order this from Atomic Aquatics for me? Any info would be helpful. I have sent a few e-mails to someone at Atomic Aquatics, but they have yet to fully understand my question, I guess, because they have yet to answer any questions about the comfort swivel.

Thanks,


John Henley Jr.

 

[Scared Silly]

Welcome to da board. Two options buy the M1 and then buy the comfort swivel hose as an accessory and swap the hose out. Or buy a B2 and buy the M1 exhaust separately (it comes in gray or yellow only). The latter would be less expensive.

My suggestion would be to buy the B2 and try it out and see if the bubbles bother you enough to swap out the exhaust. If you think you want go that route you should also consider the Z3X which also comes with the comfort swivel hose.

 

[itacal1001]

Thanks Scared Silly, but a few more questions, if you don't mind ...

The M1 with the comfort swivel hose as an accessory ... how hard is this to change out? Do I have to remove the heat sink? Do I need to find an LDS to do this? Do I have to buy an Atomic comfort swivel hose to do this or can I buy one from another manufacturer?

Thanks,

John Henley Jr.

 

[Dr. Lecter]

Buy a B2 and put the M1 exhaust (and purge cover if you dive heavy current/surge) on it.

Keep in mind that there's no real reason to get an M1 as a rec diver (all the AA regs can be used with any EAN mix up to 40% without being dedicated). If you hope to use it for tech later there's the slight potential issue of the B2 second stage having a Ti orifice and valve tube in it vs. the M1s chromed brass valve tube and SS orifice...so there's not much sense in getting an M1 first stage and a B2 second stage.

If you really want the M1 for some reason, it's the work of moments to remove the heat sink and screw on an AA atomic (not universal) comfort swivel hose. Personally, I hate the damn things but to each their own.

 

[eelnoraa]

In you case, ie, no concern about cold water, want 2nd state comfort swivel, I will do what Dr. Lector said, get B2 in dark or yellow color, then get M1 exhaust. They use to make M1 exhaust in other color, but I can't seem to find them anymore. I have a blue M1 exhaust myself.

However, I must point out that between B2 and M1 exhaust, I don't really notice the difference in bubble. If anything, the more agressive look is what it is doing mostly. If I were to do it again, I will just keep B2 exhaust and don't bother to spend the money.

If you happen to get M1 and want to swap out the heatsink for swivel hose, PM me, and I will buy the heatsink from you. All my current and future B2 will have swivel removed, so I need to stock up on the jam nuts.

 

[Scared Silly]

The M1 with the comfort swivel hose as an accessory ... how hard is this to change out? Do I have to remove the heat sink? Do I need to find an LDS to do this? Do I have to buy an Atomic comfort swivel hose to do this or can I buy one from another manufacturer?

Swapping out the hose is easy as long as you know how to use an open ended wrench, no need for dive shop to do that. With the Atomic comfort swivel hose the jam nut/heat sink needs to be removed. There are other swivel hoses that IMHO are not a nice as the one from Atomic and for those you would not need to remove the jam nut/heat sink. FWIW the Atomic swivel hose is so nice they make a universal version for non Atomic regs.

That said and as I other have said, I would recommend going the B2 route and giving that a try first.

 

[Dr. Lecter]

As eelnoraa notes, there's no longer much of a difference between AA exhaust tees. The M1 is slightly wider than that found on the other current AA regs, but ever since those regs' exhaust tees were revamped some years back, they're almost the same as the M1. Now, the old exhaust tees on AA regs like the Z1? Those were tiny compared to the M1 exhaust.

 

[Bison Ravi]

I have M1 and B1 regs, and much prefer the B1. I don't notice any difference regarding the bubbles, and like the smaller and lighter second stage better.

Also I prefer a 90 degree elbow with a 40" hose under the arm instead of the swivel. Sometimes stuff that "looks" better isn't.