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Kent, This is what I was thinking about, but you were better able to articulate it for me. Around here- Mid Atlantic region- the ocean tends to run from a low of 45-50F to a high of 50-60F. The lakes and quarries are about the only choice for local diving when the dive boats hang it up for the winter. There the temps stay in the mid 30's all winter. Never have any problems with freeze ups in the water. So, from what you and others are saying, the problem is not the water that gets into an MK20 that is the problem, rather, its the moisture in the breathing gas. Ergo the query... recalling what us old farts used to do to make ice cream at home- mix rock salt and ice to make a slushy brine and then use that to surround and "super cool" the cream inside the container. Does the same principle apply in diving- i.e.. a salt water solution at 0 C is going to be able to conduct heat away from the reg more efficiently than a fresh water solution at 0 C and therefor make you more susceptible to freeze up? I know this is a 75% B.S. discussion, but hey, next weekend is a long way away. Wendell Kent Lind wrote: > > Wendell: > > Obviously saltwater freezes at a lower temperature than fresh water. That's > why the put salt on the roads. > > There's a place in Juneau where the highway runs on a narrow roadbed with a > lake on one side and the ocean channel on the other side. Most of the > winter the lake is frozen solid while the channel is open water and free of > ice. > > In addition to that, when seawater does freeze, it is a more slushy and > crumbly ice, not the sharp hard glassy stuff you get with freshwater. > > The question though, is what causes a regulator to freeze? Is it the > seawater that washes into the balance chamber of the regulator that freezes > and causes failure? Or is it moisture in your breathing gas that condenses > and freezes to cause failure? > > I suppose that either could cause a reg to fail. I've never torn apart a > frozen reg to see what went wrong. However I suspect that ice forming > inside the air pathways of the regulator from moist air is the more common > failure. In which case the medium you're diving in would not be a factor. > > On the other hand, you guys in the Great Lakes sure seem to have a lot more > problem with freezing than we do here in Alaska. I used to dive MK20s all > winter in mid-30s degree water and never have any failures. And I know > people who sport dive for king crab in the winter with all kinds of old clap > trap gear without problem. Horrifying stuff like old Dacor regs. I > recently switched to Apeks DS4 firsts because they were cheaper and more > reliable and I've never had one of those fail either. But I hear about you > guys in the Great Lakes having regs fail all the time. So maybe regs do > freeze faster in freshwater. > > Kent Lind > Juneau, Alaska > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Wendell Grogan [mailto:wgrogan@dc*.ne*] > > Sent: Monday, April 23, 2001 6:04 PM > > To: techdiver@aquanaut.com > > Subject: reg freezes > > > > > > OK, new subject. We are starting the exploration of a 160-180 ft deep > > reservoir that may or may not have remnants of a town at depth. > > The question that came to mind when my thermometer was reading 36F was > > if there was a big difference in the tendency for a reg to freeze in > > salt versus fresh. I think there is an obvious answer to this, but > > honestly, I was hoping someone could tell me without my having to figure > > this out on my own. > > Thanks. > > Wendell G > > -- > > 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'. -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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