The frequency you report of ScubaPro reg freeflows seems unusually
high.  I am using MK20/G250's, equipped with what SP calls an
antifreeze kit (TIS?), and have not had any problems with them apart
from one freeflow, which was on a SAR working dive in a river with a
full face mask.  Water temp was 32F/0C.  

-Sean


On Fri, 08 Jan 1999 02:10:00 +0100, Ingemar Lundgren wrote:

>
>
>-That is odd and it certainly does not correspond to the experience i have
>with the reg. One of my dive buddy's used to have a Scubapro
>G250/mk20 reg and it freeflowed all the time.  He tried all kind of tricks
>with it like detuning it and even went so far as to apply silicon grease
>on the internal parts of the 2nd stage in a desperate attempt to prevent
>ice from forming.  It always worked well to a certain depth of about
>30-35m and then it started to freeflow. He finally got pissed off and
>bought an Apeks reg.  I have also seen loads of scubapros freeflow and
>have had a lot of people telling me it sucks for cold water. I should
>mention that i have never used a scubapro myself.  My experience with it
>comes from seeing other people using it and people  telling me it sucks.
>We have in fact several student kits equipped with scubapro regs
>that we rent out to our OW students.  I have seen scubapros freeflow even
>in the summertime when the water temp is pretty high and in the
>winter they freeflow all the time.  One of our instructors told me that he
>had a scubapro freeflow on him in the 20c pool. It sounds
>unbelievable but he insists it is the truth.  He was in the process of
>showing his OW students how to breathe from a freeflowing regulator. He
>did this by pressing down the purge  but when he did let goo of the purge
>button the reg still freeflowed. He could not stop the freeflow so he
>surfaced and to his amacement he found a big block of ice on the 1st
>stage.  There are witnesses to the insident and i do not think he would
>lie about this.  I laughed for a week when i herd the story.  At least our
>students get top training on freeflowing regs :-)  But we are changing
>them out now.   We have a saying about "Suckapro" as we call them. They
>will start freeflowing in the trunk of your car on the way to the
>dive site.   You know the Scubapro slogan  "deep down you want the best".
>When i see an advertisement with that slogan it always makes
>me laugh.
>
>But i have to admit that you are not the first that claims good cold water
>performance from Scubapro regs. I do not think you are lying either
>because i have seen people diving both deep and cold with out any
>problems.  I cant figure out why they freeflow on some and on others not
>though.  But that seems to bee the case.  I can certainly see that they can
>freeze eisier on beginners like our OW students because they are all
>enormous hovers.  They sometimes sucks so badly on that hose that you are
>worried about the cylinder imploding from the negative
>pressure. I have to tell you that we once had a student that hovered so
>badly that when watching his bubbles on the surface you thought a
>depth charge went off!!  That was amazing!  When he got out of the water i
>checked his gauge because i wanted to calculate his RMV. This
>could bee a new record i thought and it was indeed. He had an RMV of over
>70 liter (do not know how much that is in cuft )   per
>minute!!!   This most bee a new world record, i mean even if the reg DID
>freeflow he still would not bee able to empty that cylinder so
>quickly. This is totally off topic but i thought that it might amuse some
>of the readers.
>On the outer hand i have seen the reg freeflow on very experienced divers
>such as my dive buddy i mentioned earlier. One other explanation
>would bee bad air and water in the tanks. But that is not the case with us
>because we have a very good set of filters on our compressor and
>being very anal we send in cylinders for analysation  every 3 month.  Maybe
>Scubapro have difference in quality between reg to reg. I do not
>know.
>
>Best,
>Ingemar
>
>Peter Fjelsten wrote:
>
>> Den 17:07 07-01-99  skrev Ingemar Lundgren noget i som godt kunne ligne
>> ...
>> >Some of the regulators on this test has to few dives on them to give a
>>
>> >good picture of the reality.
>> >What i have found though from my experience and divers i have talked
>> >is that there seems to bee a few regulators which are better than
>> >others for cold water.  Apeks TX40-50 works very good. We have made
>> >thousands of dives with it and only 2 or 3 freeflows to date. Poseidon
>> >regulators also works great for cold water but they have other
>> problems >such as among other things a poor breathing 2nd stage.  All
>> the >Scubapro regs i have tested worked very poor in cold water. The
>> worst >being the R-190 and G-250 together with the mk-20 first stage.
>> At least >50% chance of freeflow. The problem seems to bee with the
>> first stage >because the G-250 works good together with a Poseidon
>> first stage.  >Scubapro might have solved the cold water problem with
>> the new mk18. I >have herd promising reports from divers involved in
>> testing it.
>>
>> Sorry to disagree, Ingemar, but I have owned a Mk20/G250 combo for
>> almost a year now and dived with it in our water (as cold as Sweden). I
>> have had NO freeflows of any kind. I has be slightly detuned.
>>
>> The Apekses have given me no problems at all.
>>
>> Hope this helps,,,
>>
>> Hilsen (Best regards),
>>
>> Peter Fjelsten
>> ___________________________________
>> TekDykningsWeb 3.0
>> http://welcome.to/pf
>
>
>
>--
>Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'.
>Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
>


--
Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'.
Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.

Navigate by Author: [Previous] [Next] [Author Search Index]
Navigate by Subject: [Previous] [Next] [Subject Search Index]

[Send Reply] [Send Message with New Topic]

[Search Selection] [Mailing List Home] [Home]