How to Choose the Best Regulator - www.simplyscuba.com

[Music] hi welcome to Symphony scuba in this video we're going to talk about the difference between regulators and what you need to consider when you actually make your next purchase you might will consider whether you need a diaphragm or piston when you need a balanced or unbalanced system within the din or a clamp how many ports you might need on your first stage and whether you need an environmental seal for cold water use so we're going to run through all these different types of things so looking at first stages got piston design and diaphragm design pistons are simpler designs a slightly higher performing their diaphragm design and that makes them slightly easier to maintain it on I'll see a little bit more cost effective in terms of servicing diaphragms are typically more likely to be balanced systems and also more likely to be environmentally sealed so they're great for cold water use of the diaphragm piston azari's are obviously available in violence is sealed and balanced as well but they tend to be a little bit more expensive in terms of cost against a diaphragm performance differences between a piston and the diaphragm is now absolutely minimal especially on more modern first stages the designs and also the engineering that's gone into makes them very very similar so that's a piston design and our friends designing listening to consider is whether you want an unbalanced or balanced system the balancing can be done it both first and second stages or you can have a are just a balanced or unbalanced first stage so it can be completely separated just depending on your budget this side we've got a nine balanced piston and it's all we've got a balanced piston and it's really just about where the components are actually placed inside the first stage an unbalanced design is a lot simpler for instance this piston has just one moving part so it's very simple very very reliable and then you add the additional pattern components and sides just to take into account the ambient pressure which makes it perform better obviously that adds extra cost onto the first stage so or so you have to factor that into your budget difference between them in terms of performance unbalanced first stage starts to lose slightly at a certain amount of performance the DP you go and also as your cylinder pressure drops it can't take into account any ambient pressure it's the first stage here balanced system can take that into account can counter the effect of loss in your cylinder and also the increased pressure in the ambient water it's really the first breath on surface is the same as the last breath all the way through to dive all the way up the matter of what your centers pressure what did that if you get too salty for the performance besides the balance system is much better from a cost side the piston the unbalanced design is obviously a lot more cost-effective so another thing to consider is whether you want a dinner or a clamp or yolk type of fitting I was at the fitting is where it fits into the cylinder most one senators can accept both just by removing a center insert to make it into a din valve the difference is on this one we've got din which is 300 bar fitting now basically just screws into the valve of the cylinder on this side we've got an a clamp which only goes up to 232 bar and screws over that's in them if I should have a thin is that it can actually do both if you buy a din valve you might not consider getting a travel adapter basically this literally just screws over top of the thread makes it into an a clamp so when you're traveling around and you can't get a din valve on the cylinder was a very convenient thing to have to let you screw it on no tools needed just does up hand side and comes off in seconds so if you do go for a dim valve great attachment to have both are much more widely available around the world Dean's are much more popular for technical or more experienced divers that might need the extra gas in the 300 bar cylinder or just prefer the fitting is a secure fitting but a clamp is still available in in certain part of the world as a majority of sinners so it's really dependent on what you want but din is much more available and with the added benefit of the adapter it is a very convenient sin as it ought to have [Music] something else to consider is whether you want environmentally sealed first stage environmental silk is basically a dry cap that fits on the top of a diaphragm or fits around a piston design and it basically prevents water interacting with the internal parts and if you're diving in cold water is particularly useful and really helps prevent any ice forming and then causing free flows it's also great for contaminated areas so if you're diving in a high boss and by that we might have a lot of diesel in the water from the fishing boats it's a great thing to have because that contamination doesn't actually reach inside and cause any deck negation to o-rings there's a very very good feature great for cold water and great for contaminated areas when deciding on your first stage it is important to consider how many ports you're going to have each first stage has low pressure and high pressure ports but the number of them can differ depending on the first stage this simple piston design has four low pressure and only one high pressure whereas more expensive balanced diaphragm has four low pressure and two high pressure the importance really is depending on how you want to dive whether you're going to be using cold water equipment so an extra dry suit or whether you're going to have a wireless transmitter on your for your computer so for you for instance we've had our wireless transmitter you can only have the wireless transmitter plugged in you can have a backup for an analog gauge whereas this one could accommodate that extra facility so it's important to consider what you're going to be doing what equipment you're gonna be diving with and compensating that on the first stage as well [Music] especially choice in terms of second stages as well again they come in unbalanced and balanced designs again with first stage they all see start to lose performance in an unbalanced system the deeper you go and as a synod the pressures air pressure drops so obviously they're more cost-effective you don't get the performance balanced system again the same as the first stage you don't get any degradation in performance and you can actually control certain elements of the performance as well on a more expensive second stage you will get a number of controls there's top one on here is called a venturi switch you can basically adjust it to divert the airflow inside the second stage in a pre dive or minus position is basically diverting air back into the housing towards the front of the four second stage where the diaphragm is as if F is force forwards it pushes that diaphragm back out and help basically helps prevent free-flowing due to water pressing on front if you jump in with the regulator in it might start free-flowing or you might get a nice build up if it's particularly cold so it's a very useful feature a great safety feature set into its pre dive mode when you jump in off it's on the octopus you can really help prevent it free flowing and then obviously in its dive mode or positive mode it's allowing air to flow straight to the mouthpiece giving you maximum performance the control on the outside basically controls the inhalation resistance so if you need to you can actually make it a little bit hard to breathe just by winding it in and that just adds tension onto the spring which then obviously affects the valve if you need to make it a little bit easier you can just wind it out and you're getting maximum performance [Music] the last thing you need to think about is your redundant air source of the common practice is to use an octopus such as this comes in obviously a high-visibility front cover with a longer hose for donation obviously when it's on you literally donate to evict him and then they obviously Bri from that the other choice is an alternate air source such as this which basically replaces the inflator on your BCD and gives you full regulator control I also still got the standard inflate and deflate buttons we also have a purge button on the end obviously for a regulator use the idea of this is that you donate your main supply and then you pick this up and use that as your main regulator so it's more convenient for you and I'll see gets rid of an extra piece of equipment and replaces one that you've already got so there's a little bit more convenient from that point of view so that's all the things you need to consider when choosing an ex regulator and see a regulated range just go to www.hsn.com [Music]

Channel: Simply Scuba

Views: 155,100

Rating: 4.7109375 out of 5

Keywords: best regulator, best diving regulator, best diving regulators, How to Choose the Best Regulator - www.simplyscuba.com, how to choose a scuba diving regulator, simply scuba, simplyscuba, the best diving regulator, apeks, scubapro, aqua lung, cressi, atomic, hollis, oceanic

Id: HT6XYcyoktw

Length: 9min 52sec (592 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 31 2012