Environmentally Sealing Atomic Regulators

[Ouvea]

Hello All:

Have the equipment and intend on environmentally sealing my Atomic regulators. I have a question about the sealing process.

The tool by Atomic to introduce the lubricant into the ambient pressure chamber applies pressure to the piston (looks more like valve to me than a piston) and compresses the spring. At the point of maximum compression, the lubricant is injected until the lubricant barely extrudes out of the ambient pressure ports. The environmental sealing ring is then inserted over the ports.

The tool is then extracted but this decompresses the spring and allows a small amount of air in the ambient pressure chamber. You don't have an opposing piston on the other side as with an engine so the air pocket won't compress. Will it not just push the lubricant into and possibly beyond the sealing retaining ring? The service instructions do warn about underfilling the chamber, which will negatively impact hte performance of the regulator. If anything should I error on the side of slightly overfilling or would that just be wasted lubricant as it is extruded beyond the seal?

Thank you,
O.

 

[rsingler]

I'm not sure that's correct, @Ouvea . The tool has a plastic cup that sits inside the bell, and that cup fits over the end of the piston, so no grease gets into the intermediate pressure chamber. As you noted, grease flows around the head of the piston, up through the spring, and out the environmental holes. You can have the sealing ring in place as you inject, as long as you create a gap for air to escape, and "massage" the ring to eliminate air bubbles.
But the piston spring is NOT compressed significantly. If it were, the piston head o-ring would drop inside the body of the reg, and it would be impossible to inject grease. Instead, screwing the tool onto the body allows the piston spring to stay nearly fully extended, sitting up in that cap. Once the tool is removed, screwing down the turret will indeed compress the spring, and excess grease will flow out the holes. This can be saved to lube orings or discarded, or if the environmental ring has been left in place, the excess will fill the ring. I always keep a small syringe ready to fully fill the environmental ring, because trapped air bubbles are a sure source of water contamination inside the environmental compartment, as those bubbles get compressed by ambient pressure during a dive.
Actually, I'm not really pleased with the tool, given the viscosity of the grease. I make it easier on myself by pre-injecting Christo-Lube between the coils of the spring and the piston shaft, so that I'm sure there will be no trapped air bubbles. That also means I have to inject less grease via the tool, which is a frustrating process with a tube of Christolube screwed on top.

Whether you fill the compartment manually with a syringe or by using the tool, as long as there are NO air bubbles left inside, environmental sealing of this reg is the best thing since sliced bread! The worst thing Scubapro did was to discontinue the SPEC boot of the old Mk10, because Atomic, Sherwood and Genesis are now the only sealed pistons on the market. Your piston will last FOREVER if you keep salt crystals and grit out of the ambient chamber. If you don't, and aren't religious about flushing the ambient chamber after dives, you will only get ~20 years at best, and often much less:

20171107_110822

• rsingler
• Nov 7, 2017

20171107_110416

• rsingler
• Nov 7, 2017

Grit or dried salt sticks in the crevice between the piston head and the wall of the reg body. Next time you pressurize, the piston moves up to close the knife edge against the high pressure seat, and those hard rocks scrape the inside of the regulator. A lot with pressurization, and a little with every breath. I hardly dive my Mk25 any more. Atomic has left Scubapro in the dust, when it comes to pistons.

As far as I'm concerned, environmental sealing is great for EVERY salt water diver, cold or warm. Yeah, sealing helps protect against freezing, but more important, it protects against debris.

 

[happy-diver]

I stick a plug of aluminium with wet and dry on and do some twisting, for another 20 years

mate you should put some of those hard rocks, grit and dried salt in a horror movie together
taking over a village or something

 

[rsingler]

I stick a plug of aluminium with wet and dry on and do some twisting, for another 20 years

Yeah, we're on the same page. For me, the grit runs around 6,000 at the end. But you're right, it's a small pleasure, restoring something fifty years old to dive again. 'Course, that wouldn't be a Mk25, but you catch my drift. But my heart sinks when somebody brings me something that needs that kind of attention, due to neglect. I guess I'm a POV warrior for sealed pistons, so I better quit now before the Mods ban me.

 

[StefinSB]

I'm not sure that's correct, @Ouvea .
Actually, I'm not really pleased with the tool, given the viscosity of the grease. I make it easier on myself by pre-injecting Christo-Lube between the coils of the spring and the piston shaft, so that I'm sure there will be no trapped air bubbles. That also means I have to inject less grease via the tool, which is a frustrating process with a tube of Christolube screwed on top.

The tool works fine if you take the intermediate step of filling a syringe with lube and then using the syringe to inject the grease into the tool. No more busted tubes of Christo/Tribolube. ;-)