timothyk
Registered
As someone who agonized a bit over my recent regulator purchase I thought sharing my first impressions of the device might be helpful to someone who is considering an Atomic B2.
So far I have nothing but positive experiences to relate with my new Atomic B2/Z2 setup. I purchased the regulator online from nearby dive shop in the UK (online sales and competitive pricing are allowed in Europe, and Atomic even has its own online merchant). The ability for small shops to compete here is wonderful and with a bit of searching you are easily able to find great deals while still supporting your local or semi local lds's.
The regulator was shipped with an environmental kit attached at no extra charge. As I did not order the kit (but was planing to upgrade at a future date) I called atomic to confirm that the environmental notation on the box was in fact the installed kit and the customer service was very polite, receptive, and helpful.
My first dives were wonderful, the regulator and octopus needed no adjustment out of the box and were smooth and comfortable. As soon as I got underwater the breathing was the most natural and consistent I have experienced (to be fair my experience is limited, but the B2 did offer a positive contrast to the other regs I have used). The regulator was comfortable throughout all of my dives and the hoses and bubble exhaust were note worthy in their ability to never be noticed during the dives. The breathing was consistent throughout the dive, and truly identical from 1m to 25m. I did notice the breathing a bit stiffer right around the surface interface but it was really a minimal difference.
The dive leader was curious about this regulator and on the check out dive he asked to swap primary regs during our air sharing exercise rather than the octos so he could breath it. His impressions were similar to mine in that the B2 at shallow depth 4-5m was more comfortable and smoother in its air delivery than the Aqualung legend he was using.
The only issue i ran into were 2 or 3 free flows at the surface (B2 primary not Z2 octo) when i let reg go of it for a moment and it floated upside down. I am sure i could turn up the cracking pressure via the adjustment knob, but i never bothered as it was not a frequent enough occurrence to bother me, and my inattention to its floating position was the cause.
I hope this brief report is helpful to someone interested in this regulator, given my experiences so far i would certainly recommend it.
So far I have nothing but positive experiences to relate with my new Atomic B2/Z2 setup. I purchased the regulator online from nearby dive shop in the UK (online sales and competitive pricing are allowed in Europe, and Atomic even has its own online merchant). The ability for small shops to compete here is wonderful and with a bit of searching you are easily able to find great deals while still supporting your local or semi local lds's.
The regulator was shipped with an environmental kit attached at no extra charge. As I did not order the kit (but was planing to upgrade at a future date) I called atomic to confirm that the environmental notation on the box was in fact the installed kit and the customer service was very polite, receptive, and helpful.
My first dives were wonderful, the regulator and octopus needed no adjustment out of the box and were smooth and comfortable. As soon as I got underwater the breathing was the most natural and consistent I have experienced (to be fair my experience is limited, but the B2 did offer a positive contrast to the other regs I have used). The regulator was comfortable throughout all of my dives and the hoses and bubble exhaust were note worthy in their ability to never be noticed during the dives. The breathing was consistent throughout the dive, and truly identical from 1m to 25m. I did notice the breathing a bit stiffer right around the surface interface but it was really a minimal difference.
The dive leader was curious about this regulator and on the check out dive he asked to swap primary regs during our air sharing exercise rather than the octos so he could breath it. His impressions were similar to mine in that the B2 at shallow depth 4-5m was more comfortable and smoother in its air delivery than the Aqualung legend he was using.
The only issue i ran into were 2 or 3 free flows at the surface (B2 primary not Z2 octo) when i let reg go of it for a moment and it floated upside down. I am sure i could turn up the cracking pressure via the adjustment knob, but i never bothered as it was not a frequent enough occurrence to bother me, and my inattention to its floating position was the cause.
I hope this brief report is helpful to someone interested in this regulator, given my experiences so far i would certainly recommend it.
