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Vintage Equipment DivingPre-1980 "Vintage" SCUBA Gear, including Double Hose Regulators, Conshelfs, Voit, Aquamaster, Horsecollar BC's and other classic pieces of gear. Sea Hunt, Jacques Cousteau and the early history of this great sport.
With silicone hoses, mouthpieces, valves (both mouthpiece and duckbill) and main diaphram available, why would you get rubber ones? Rubber deteriorates faster, takes a set and might harbor fungus, etc. more than silicone. If you are trying to be 100% original then I understand, but using Al tanks isn't vintage. I use Al 50s and silicone parts. To the unknowing silicone parts look the same, but work better, IMHO.
With silicone hoses, mouthpieces, valves (both mouthpiece and duckbill) and main diaphram available, why would you get rubber ones? Rubber deteriorates faster, takes a set and might harbor fungus, etc. more than silicone. If you are trying to be 100% original then I understand, but using Al tanks isn't vintage. I use Al 50s and silicone parts. To the unknowing silicone parts look the same, but work better, IMHO.
Good point! When I went to VintageDoubleHose.com, the site was down. I will very likely order the silicone parts or even have them installed when I send it in for the Phoenix upgrade. I want everything to be pristine when it comes back.
For this particular regulator, as it is the first DH I have ever bought, I don't especially care about true vintage appearance. The Phoenix nozzle pretty much eliminates that possibility. If I like diving a double hose regulator, I will buy another one and try to restore it to a near vintage condition. But I still don't think I will get into the Steel 72 business.
I don't know when the upgrade will actually occur. The parts are supposed to be ready at the end of January but who knows for sure?
In the meantime, I can go swimming. I would very much expect the new neoprene hoses to outlast me! Even if they are never replaced.
There is no reason not to go ahead and get the hoses and the rest of the parts now, you will want them on the Phoenix anyway and all of them will be reused. If you are ordering a mouthpiece and don't care about it being "original" the black Voit reproduction mouthpiece is a lot more comfortable IMO. I have a yellow and a green one in the new silicone reproductions plus a reproduction black Voit one. The Voit ended up on my Phoenix because it liked it a lot more than the straight ones or my original curved USD one.
OK, I'll get them ordered as soon as the site comes back up. I haven't looked at the details. Are these silicone hoses longer that the original USD hoses?
I'm still a little confused about your reluctance to take the hoses off, something about "keeping the inlet sealed" or something like that? Removing the hoses is nothing, you just take the clamps off and remove them from the cans. You don't disassemble any working part of the regulator. I must be missing something.
I will say that unless you have a recent duckbill replacement, you might find that the existing duckbill is in bad shape, and you should go ahead and get a new silicone one. To replace that, you do have to separate the cans, but you don't have to remove the diaphragm or get into the workings of the reg.
Here's a list of parts I got for mine apart from the rebuild stuff:
Improved wagon wheels
Silicone mouthpiece valves
Silicone duckbill
(I would have ordered a silicone diaphragm if he had them at the time)
SS band clamp....this one is important if you have any intention of ever taking your reg apart. Just looking at those clips and trying to imagine a good seal was giving me a headache.
Double hose regs are fun, I'm enjoying mine. It's definitely different than working on a single hose.
Email Bryan directly at Bryan@vintagedoublehose.com Tell him what you want and he will be sure to get them to you. His store is apparently down, but it is still open via his email.
I'm still a little confused about your reluctance to take the hoses off, something about "keeping the inlet sealed" or something like that? Removing the hoses is nothing, you just take the clamps off and remove them from the cans. You don't disassemble any working part of the regulator. I must be missing something.
I have no reluctance to remove/replace the hoses. That's pretty simple. At the moment, I would rather not open the can. I don't have one of the clamp rings to put it back together with and I would rather not mess with the C clips. It's not that I don't have the skills or couldn't build the tools, I just don't want to get it apart and have a problem with reassembly. I want to dive the thing - soon! Saturday would be good. It's not happening but it would be good.
In any event, the regulator goes to VDH as soon as the Phoenix nozzles are available where it can be upgraded by a pro. Given my natural curiosity and a newly installed clamp ring, I will probably get more familiar with the internals after the upgrade.
Then I can start looking around for another regulator to which I plan to add the banjo and hookah fittings. No Phoenix kit, just a more or less stock regulator.
Okay, just to be clear, you can remove the hoses to clean them without separating the cans, no need to soak the whole reg in bleach. In fact, if you have not done that, I'd do it right away so you can get a sense of the state of the duckbill.
Out of curiosity, you said there's a odd smell/taste in the hoses. Have you hooked it up to a tank and breathed through it? How is it? One other question, do you have a hookah port on it? If so, there's a simple adapter that turns that into a LP port. Actually, I forgot to add that part to my list of stuff I bought just to get the reg going. I needed it so I could check the IP. If yours has the adapter already, you can just put a LP inflator hose on it and clip an IP gauge in. That will tell you alot about the condition of the reg.
Since you're getting the phoenix upgrade, it almost doesn't matter and I wouldn't spend money on the hookah port adapter, unless you think you want to dive it stock someday. The great thing about the phoenix is that it solves many problems; SPG connection, alternate 2nd and LP inflator, and it balances the 1st stage which will almost certainly let you tune the reg better. I'm sure you already know all about this or you wouldn't be spending the money on it.
Having said that, I'm diving mine stock for a while. I want to get a feel for the vintage reg as it was built (sort of) and I was actually really pleased with the way it breathed after I finished the rebuild. I even just bought a LP72 to dive it with, and someone sent me an old, extremely grungy plastic BP and horsecollar. That horsecollar will never see water again unless it rains at the dump, but I'll use the backpack.
Out of curiosity, you said there's a odd smell/taste in the hoses. Have you hooked it up to a tank and breathed through it? How is it? One other question, do you have a hookah port on it?
Yes, I did breathe through the regulator. Several times, in fact. It seems that I got a bit of a sore throat but it's always hard to be certain. So, I will just replace the hoses with neoprene.
Why neoprene? Well, there IS a second DAAM in the future. I don't know where I'll get it but I'll have new hoses for it. This reg won't be getting the Phoenix upgrade, just the LP adapter and the HP banjo. I may try to dive that reg with just a horse collar and weight belt. Or, I might just dive it in the pool with a single Al 50. When summer finally gets here... But the idea is to keep it mostly vintage.
The reg I am having upgraded will be used in the ocean and I really need/want the modern conveniences. It is likely that it will be used with double Al 50s. It will get new 'everything' when I send it to VDH.
Yes, I did breathe through the regulator. Several times, in fact. It seems that I got a bit of a sore throat but it's always hard to be certain. So, I will just replace the hoses with neoprene.
Why neoprene? Well, there IS a second DAAM in the future. I don't know where I'll get it but I'll have new hoses for it. This reg won't be getting the Phoenix upgrade, just the LP adapter and the HP banjo. I may try to dive that reg with just a horse collar and weight belt. Or, I might just dive it in the pool with a single Al 50. When summer finally gets here... But the idea is to keep it mostly vintage.
The reg I am having upgraded will be used in the ocean and I really need/want the modern conveniences. It is likely that it will be used with double Al 50s. It will get new 'everything' when I send it to VDH.
Richard
Richard,
You can get an idea if anything is "growing" in the hoses by simply taking them apart, weting your finger, and doing a hard wipe of the inside of the hoses on each end. If you come out with just a bit of black stuff, you can probably simply wash it out. If you come out with a crusty or really "gooy" amount of materials, then I'd go with new hoses before diving it. But having a smell, and your description of a possible sore throat, is not a good indicator of the cleanliness of the interior of your hoses.
SeaRat
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I've been called an "old Coot." Well, that would be the American Coot (Fulica americana ) or mud-hen, and I've done my share of mucking around in low visibility, so it applies. But, you're never too old to learn something new.
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