Continuous Problems With A Mares Proton Ice

[SSharkk]

I have had a Mares Proton ICE that I bought new some years ago. Ever since the initial purchase the thing has had problems leaking air and free flowing. It has been serviced by the local dive shop where I purchased it several times and I have sent it back to Mares in the USA to have it overhauled.

It works for brief periods of time then starts leaking again. I had it overhauled one last time, dove it once without a problem, then purchased an Aqua Lung Conshelf XIV which has worked perfectly through about 300 dives. I sent the Conshelf in for an overhaul and broke the Mares out of storage as a spare until the Conshelf comes home. After 4 dives the high pressure seat utterly blew out on a shark dive.


Background information:


The regulator is hooked up to a tank, pressurized, sprayed and then soaked in fresh water while pressurized for one to ten hours. Both the primary and the octopus are purged a few times while submerged. This procedure takes place at the end of every dive day.

The regulator is used with nitrox mixes of 29 % to 36 % on all dives. I inquired with Mares and my LDS about Nitrox use and they both told me that it should not present a problem.

The regulator is not exposed to high heat or cold. The underwater environment is mostly clear water with little sand, silt or turbidity.

Does anyone have an idea why this regulator persists in free flowing?

Thanks in advance for your comments.

Jeff

 

[Fishpie]

There was a well known problem with the old Mares HP seat.....they just didn't last and pitted very quickly.
The new Tri-Material seat has supposedly cured this. I elected to use the Aqualung seat which is very durable and since it's about 1/3 the price never bothered to try the new Mares seat.
I have also found that the Proton second stages have a very soft LP seat that almost continually need tweaking to prevent them from leaking.

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

I'd start trying to diagnose this problem by checking the Intermediate Pressure (IP) of the first stage. The IP needs to be addressed before moving on to the Proton 2nd stage.

Is the IP stable and within "factory spec", or is it stable but too high, or is it within "spec" initially but then slowly "creeps" higher? If the IP is too high, or there is "creep", the 1st stage requires service. Special attention needs to be paid to the balance chamber, since a tiny scratch on the interior of the balance chamber (tech-induced!) can cause an insidious and hard to diagnose IP "creep". The HP seat and seating surface need a close inspection as well.

If the first stage is "ok", then I'd look at the 2nd stage soft seat, which if the reg was stored for a period of time may have indented enough to cause a freeflow. It is possible that a simple adjustment can solve the problem, but if the seat is too indented it will need to be replaced (actually, it can just be flipped if you are doing the repair yourself). The other possibility is a defect in the edge of the orifice in the 2nd stage... I believe your reg probably has a plastic orifice (many do these days) rather than metal.

Good luck with getting the problem sorted out.

Best wishes.

 

[SSharkk]

There was a well known problem with the old Mares HP seat.....they just didn't last and pitted very quickly.
The new Tri-Material seat has supposedly cured this. I elected to use the Aqualung seat which is very durable and since it's about 1/3 the price never bothered to try the new Mares seat.
I have also found that the Proton second stages have a very soft LP seat that almost continually need tweaking to prevent them from leaking.

Thanks a lot Fishpie. That seems to explain it.

---------- Post added April 22nd, 2013 at 07:30 PM ----------

I'd start trying to diagnose this problem by checking the Intermediate Pressure (IP) of the first stage. The IP needs to be addressed before moving on to the Proton 2nd stage.

Is the IP stable and within "factory spec", or is it stable but too high, or is it within "spec" initially but then slowly "creeps" higher? If the IP is too high, or there is "creep", the 1st stage requires service. Special attention needs to be paid to the balance chamber, since a tiny scratch on the interior of the balance chamber (tech-induced!) can cause an insidious and hard to diagnose IP "creep". The HP seat and seating surface need a close inspection as well.

If the first stage is "ok", then I'd look at the 2nd stage soft seat, which if the reg was stored for a period of time may have indented enough to cause a freeflow. It is possible that a simple adjustment can solve the problem, but if the seat is too indented it will need to be replaced (actually, it can just be flipped if you are doing the repair yourself). The other possibility is a defect in the edge of the orifice in the 2nd stage... I believe your reg probably has a plastic orifice (many do these days) rather than metal.

Good luck with getting the problem sorted out.

Best wishes.

Thanks LeadTurn_SD, That is very good advice. The reg has been in shop quite a few times and it could have been damaged along the way.

 

[Nemrod]

I believe Mares also had a problem with the volcano orifice. Check the orifice and see if it still has a good edge.

There is a reason the Conshelf XIV is considered highly a reliable, if not most reliable regulator ever and the Mares various offerings not. That despite certain elements being a copy of the Conshelf. I guess something was lost in the translation.

N

 

[WB2GLP]

I had the same reg set a few years ago and I got rid of it for just that reason. 1st stage was always creeping and I got tired of servicing the thing. Bah - bye! Out it went.

 

[keyshunter]

HP seat problems along with poor company support are the reasons I moved away from Mares regs. In the early '90's, I was working with a shop whose primary line was Mares, so I tried (even though I had an AL, and a Sherwood reg) to use a Mares reg. I had an MR-12 IV, and an MR-12 Navy. I never got more than about 60 dives before a HP seat failed. And, at that time, Mares HP seats were very difficult to get. Since I was in the water almost every day, this became a real PITA. The rep said that Mares knew about the problem and was "working on it". They must have worked on it pretty slowly since it was at least another 15 years before they introduced the Tri-Material seat. When the shop took on the Zeagle line, I got a Zeagle/Apeks reg. Not only was this a great breathing reg, but I could go many, many more dives before even thinking about a rebuild.

 

[c5diver]

I have several mares regs, and had problems with the SCS in a v32 with ip creep until a slow free flow.
it is currently being upgraded to the new tri-material valve, the other 3 sets of mares I have with the
tri-material valve have been flawless.