cold water regulators

[Enrique]

Hello everybody !

I'm looking for a cold water reg. (t<10c) and I'd like to have a better idea on what's good and what's not from people who already had one or more.

I'd like to have comments about what you are using, what you like of dislike about your cold water reg. so I could make I "wiser/worth the price" choice !!

Thanks for your cooperation
Enrique

 

[Erik]

Cold Water

Hi Enrique, I have dived and taught primarily in cold water for 11 years, and have owned a fair few regs. In 10celsius water, you should be ok with just about any good reg. My experience has been that I have never had or seen a frozen first stage in 7c(or warmer) water. However, I have seen lots of freeflows ice diving. Every reg that I saw freeze up had a first stage that allowed water in. So, my first reccomendation would be to ignore all those types. I have never had freeflows with a Zeagle (Apeks) reg. Never from any Sherwood reg either, which are not considered great tech regs, but are extremely reliable and easy to service. I like Scuba Pro regs, but watched divers bolt to the surface of the ice as their regs iced up and freeflowed. If you buy a Sherwood reg, don't worry about looking for their "ice" reg...the first stages are all basically the same, and little fins in the second stage don't make a bit of difference; it's not the second stage that would freeze anyway. My suggestion is to spend the money on the Zeagle(Apeks) Tech reg; it's bullet proof and you can use it anywhere at any depth. Good luck, and stay warm, Erik

 

[Stephan Whelan]

Pretty Similar

Enrique,

I have to say that i've had very similar experiences to Erik.

I have used Scuba Pro, Dacor and Apexs regs without fault for years. My latest set-up is a Apeks TX-50 primary and octopus second stages on the standard TX-50 first stage...this has given me three years solid performance and not a single freeflow.

The Scuba Pro reg I had gave similar performance but I felt was slightly poorer in performance to the Apeks (plus most of my tech diving buddies were really into their Apeks regs at that point)

The Dacor was terrible and I personally wouldn't use it out of a pool training situation...

You might want to head on over to rec.scuba.equipment as i've seen a few discussions on cold water regs in there...you can get there via these forums by clicking on the link below:
http://forums.deeperblue.net/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=21

 

[Aegir]

Apeks TX50 no contest. The TX100 is overpriced and has exactly the same internal parts/materials as the TX50.

 

[Enrique]

Thanks

Thanks a lot for your comments !

Very useful to have such experienced pals who takes the time to give their opinion.

I finally fund an apeks TX100 at a very very good price in France (were my wife is working right now). She tried it once in France, at Étretat (near Le Havre) and she liked it a lot. The water was at 13c ... so the real test will be when she'll bring it back to me in Québec, Canada were I used to dive in a 6-7c water.

Regards,
Enrique

 

[Aegir]

Good to hear it, you should have a problem at all with the reg. Im from England where i often dive in around 1-2 degrees C in open quarries etc and i have never have an uncontrolled freeflow at anytime. Enjoy.

 

[Dr Scuba]

Apeks gets the current nod from most of the diving fraternity

 

[Cliff Etzel]

I'll pipe in on this one - I recently went with Poseiden Cyklon 5000's for primary and octo and have to say it is the best breathing open circuit reg I have ever tried.

 

[Bobco]

Sorry to be another Apex fan but that the way it is. I have ATX 200’s the best underwater kit insurance money can buy.

 

[Jon]

Apeks for me as well- I got rid of my Posieden's after they froze up on me and spit ice down my throat while doing a salvage job one winter under the ice. :vangry

Mares with the metal second stages work pretty well, but I've had the plastic ones freeze up on me in the middle of summer- ok, summer in the Great Lakes.

Scubapros are nicknamed "scubaflows" around here since they like to freeze up so often- unless your using a high helium mix and then they seem to work ok.

Some friends of mine have had luck with the Diverite regs, and they are cheaper than many others out there.

Cressi's have frozen up on me as well as Sherwoods- even their "blizzard" model. Posiden Odins have been the scariest since they freeze shut when they freeze and you don't get that comfortable freeflow that other regs give you when you make your way back to the surface- or do a valve shut down, depending upon the type of dive your doing.

Apeks have never given me trouble- and are what most of the divers I dive with end up using for all of their dives.

We've had soem reg's work fine one weekend ofr ice diver training and then freeze up the next weekend when we run charters out to the shipwrecks in the middle of winter. One charter, a few years ago, we had 14 divers and only two got to dive since everyone else had freeflows before they even hit the wreck!

Jon