Free Flow...

[CattMollins]

I experienced my first (and hopefully only) free-flowing reg the other day. I was 45 feet down in 44 degree water with 2 ft vis when my Sherwood SR1 started free-flowing on me. This is a pretty new reg. It has 6 dives on it. I'm still a relatively new diver (12 dives total). I got to my dive buddy, switched to his alternate, surfaced and ended the dive. Was just wondering if any of you have experienced a free-flow and how you handled it.

Matt

 

[H2O 70]

We'll they say that it is a dry sealed reg. You may want to take it to the shop and have them 'detune' it...lower the IP.

I've had free flows.

First try holding the 2nd stage with mouth piece down and whacking it. If that doesn't work, shut off the first stage.

Obviously there is going to be some switching to alternate air sources.

If you're going to be diving in cold water, practice this with your buddy. One of the joys of cold water.

 

[Shcubasteve]

I had some freeflow right out of the box. If you bought it from your LDS, you'll be able to bring it back for retune for free-

 

[RTee]

I purchased an SR1 one year ago and I did close to 85 dives since then in both cold and tropical water and I have yet to experience a free flow with it. Looking at my electronic logbook, I did several dives in low to mid 40s temperature and down to 100 ft and it worked as advertised. The one thing that I always do though is to only open the adjustment valve as much as I need and very rarely all the way open as I feel I do not have too. Having said that, I had my annual maintenance done on it this year and the technician had to change the spring of the adjustement control because when it was under pressure with the valve open all the way up, air would be leaking out with the reg not even in the water. You may want to have your LDS look at it and adjust it.

 

[a22shady]

It looks like the Sherwood is Siiliar the Atomics. I dive the M1's which is also a Sealed Piston and Have yet to experince any problems but I still am leary about them. I also have a Scubapro MK17-G250v which is a diaghram True sealed reg. The Piston reg's Atomics atleast are sealed by packing the inside with Tribolube which acts as an antifreeze protectant. And is not totally sealed. But I have dove the M1's in waters down to 38 so far with no issues but I also bring the MK17 on my other one just in case and If i make it to Ice diving I would only use the MK17.

 

[still new]

Geez I thought all regs were set to free flow at 60 ft...LOL!
I had my regs serviced in Feb and after 10 dives it started to sputter air from the octo, had it tuned again and it was fine.

 

[spectrum]

Any chance that the 2' visibility was stressing you and accelerated your breathing? One cold water rule is to avoid overworking the regulator. The increase in gas expansion will do a lot of chilling. Likewise for long bursts on a BC inflater. Dry suits are usually fairly restricted.

At those temperatures a little water in the wrong place at the wrong time is all it takes.

Good job in handling that situation. Did one of you then shut your tank down once you were sharing? First, that could avoid getting water in the system. Second, should there be another issue your regulator may thaw in the 44 degree water and become usable once more.

There have been some serious incidents where a diver has had a free flow. Upon sharing the donors regulator also went into free flow in the stress of supplying two divers.

What were the surface conditions and how long had you been down. I'm assuming that Indiana in April had non issue topside conditions.

It could be a borderline tune issue. Was it a full blown eruption like the first stage went into overdrive or a trickle like the 1st stage had just gotten out of it's happy spot? Did you try backing off on your 2nd stage control knob? (I think you have one on that model)

As for personal experience I have had light free flow during break-in after servicing events that called for a final tweak. I had a free flowing inflater while ice diving, that was interesting, twice.

Pete

 

[dhuskins]

When a technician overhauls a regulator, they can adjust the regulator's cracking point. Cracking point is the amount of suction you have to create to cause the regulator to flow air. (crack open the air flow)

The trade off is that the lighter the cracking point, the easier it is to dive with and the less energy spent to breath. At the same time, it increases the likelihood of free flows, making them easier to start.

In general, regulators switch the air on and off based on a sharp knife edge of a tube against a piece of soft material. When the air is not flowing, the knife edge is pressed against the seat (soft material). After a dive or two, the knife edge can score an indentation in the seat meaning the lightly set cracking point to no longer be pressed up against the seat. Free flow then occurs.

You can always go back to your LDS's technician and ask them to reset the cracking effort. They should be more than willing to make that adjustment for you. If not, find a better LDS.

 

[Xaryo]

I once had a SR1 and on a New year's eve dive, at 60 ft,against current and 33F water, I had a free-flow. Look like the 2nd stage froze. I felt it beguining to breath to easily and then Bam!, free flow.

I aborted the dive.

 

[CattMollins]

Spectrum - I think you're right on about what happened on this dive. The vis was bad, my mask was flooding due to putting it inside my hood for the first time instead of outside and had part of my hood letting water in (dumb move i know). Also was operating two lights. I was probably breathing pretty heavy, then I started to hear a steady hiss which made me breath faster. I've since had the regulator tuned and am going diving tonite to see how it is. Lesson learned - breath slowly and calm down. I'll also have my mask straightened out before we descend.

Thanks everyone for your posts.