Atomic Z2 Octo?

[lexvil]

Just look for a used second, you will save a lot of $$. The Z has a plated air barrel and the B is titanium which can stand up to a bit more neglect but the Z is a much better deal usually.

 

[SHaase]

Thanks for the input everyone! I was able to get the rubber hose off my Scubapro octo and replace it with a braided hose and I'm hoping to give it a try in the next couple weeks. This should give me plenty of time to find a deal on a used secondary.

BTW, I must have really just lucked out with my existing reg when it comes to maintenance/etc. My reg is about 15 years old, has about 250 dives on it, and I just had it serviced for the *1st time* a few weeks ago. I know it's supposed to be serviced far more often, but I've never had any issues whatsoever with it and simply never thought about it. I plan to be more diligent about servicing going forward (it's on the calendar!), but it does make me wonder about the problems people have talked about with their regs. I always rinse/clean my gear after every dive, but never thought I was particularly detailed about it. I expected that the servicing guy was going to tell me that this thing was on its last legs and was only held together by sea weed and dried spit, but he didn't. Turns out there was nothing particularly interesting about it. Makes me wonder if I was just super lucky, or if this might be another one of those cases where a going the cheaper route on something means you end up with something that works forever vs buying the expensive version that ends up having all sorts of issues (e.g. like my fridge, and my oven, and my range... /sigh)

 

[rsingler]

BTW, I must have really just lucked out with my existing reg when it comes to maintenance/etc. My reg is about 15 years old, has about 250 dives on it, and I just had it serviced for the *1st time* a few weeks ago. I know it's supposed to be serviced far more often, but I've never had any issues whatsoever with it and simply never thought about it. I plan to be more diligent about servicing going forward...

Congratulations on what must be excellent routine post dive maintenance. Without corrosion as a factor, there's nothing (with modern orings) that necessitates first stage maintenance at all. And pistons are simple designs.
And the Atomic seat saver feature has just proved itself in this post! There's not a second stage out there that doesn't have a seat saver, that couldn't use a yearly retune as the LP seat takes a groove from the knife edge. That doesn't happen to Atomic, and you showed us in spades!

To be honest, however, I would suspect that you have not gotten the best possible performance out of your octo. After all those years without a seat saver, I suspect that seat had quite a groove! And since it wasn't freeflowing yet, it must have been pretty severely detuned 15 years ago. Most folks will say, who cares? If it delivers air in an emergency, that good enough.
But I keep recalling my wife's open water Qual dive when she had to air share. She trained on my regs, and my octo is as easy to breathe as my primary. When she put her Instructor's POS Aqualung ABS in her mouth, it was so stiff she almost panicked and bolted, thinking she wasn't going to get enough air.
For me, with primary donate especially, I want my necklace reg to breathe as well as my primary when I'm helping a panicked buddy.

I rather agree with your plan to consider more frequent service in the future.

 

[MattK911]

Thanks for the input everyone! I was able to get the rubber hose off my Scubapro octo and replace it with a braided hose and I'm hoping to give it a try in the next couple weeks. This should give me plenty of time to find a deal on a used secondary.

BTW, I must have really just lucked out with my existing reg when it comes to maintenance/etc. My reg is about 15 years old, has about 250 dives on it, and I just had it serviced for the *1st time* a few weeks ago. I know it's supposed to be serviced far more often, but I've never had any issues whatsoever with it and simply never thought about it. I plan to be more diligent about servicing going forward (it's on the calendar!), but it does make me wonder about the problems people have talked about with their regs. I always rinse/clean my gear after every dive, but never thought I was particularly detailed about it. I expected that the servicing guy was going to tell me that this thing was on its last legs and was only held together by sea weed and dried spit, but he didn't. Turns out there was nothing particularly interesting about it. Makes me wonder if I was just super lucky, or if this might be another one of those cases where a going the cheaper route on something means you end up with something that works forever vs buying the expensive version that ends up having all sorts of issues (e.g. like my fridge, and my oven, and my range... /sigh)

Congratulations on what must be excellent routine post dive maintenance. Without corrosion as a factor, there's nothing (with modern orings) that necessitates first stage maintenance at all. And pistons are simple designs.
And the Atomic seat saver feature has just proved itself in this post! There's not a second stage out there that doesn't have a seat saver, that couldn't use a yearly retune as the LP seat takes a groove from the knife edge. That doesn't happen to Atomic, and you showed us in spades!

To be honest, however, I would suspect that you have not gotten the best possible performance out of your octo. After all those years without a seat saver, I suspect that seat had quite a groove! And since it wasn't freeflowing yet, it must have been pretty severely detuned 15 years ago. Most folks will say, who cares? If it delivers air in an emergency, that's good enough.
But I keep recalling my wife's open water Qual dive when she had to air share. She trained on my regs, and my octo is as easy to breathe as my primary. When she put her Instructor's POS Aqualung ABS in her mouth, it was so stiff she almost panicked and bolted, thinking she wasn't going to get enough air.
For me, with primary donate especially, I want my necklace reg to breathe as well as my primary when I'm helping a panicked buddy.

I rather agree with your plan to consider more frequent service in the future.

Gotta love atomics. I bought a used titanium 2nd stage (ti2) last serviced in 2004 and when it arrived I hooked it up and it was still within spec. That’s 16 years! Of course I went a head and serviced it anyways for piece of mind.

I know the owner of T1 #8 that went 24 years and over 3500 dives without having it serviced. When he finally brought it in it was just because if something did happen, no one could have replaced the seat as it still had the original knife edge piston and seat. It was still preforming at out of the box specs.

I highly advise against doing that for reasons too numerous to list, but take it for what it’s worth. Hands down the most reliable regulator on the market in my opinion.