Why are my regulators freeflowing? #askmark #scuba @ScubaDiverMagazine
Rogier Janssen
@RogierJanssen
#askmark Hi Mark. I've been enjoying your videos and learning quite a lot from them, so thank you and keep up the good work! I've got a question myself now which I hope you can help me with. Last weekend I went diving for the first time in almost three months and my octo started free flowing as soon as it hit the water. It's an Aqualung Leg3nd with only 20 dives on it and it hasn't done that before. I quickly turned it over and it stopped, but as soon as I turned it back over to put it in the octo pocket of my bcd, it started free flowing again. I checked the venturi switch, but that was set correctly. I flipped the switch back and forth a couple of times, but to no avail. Whenever it was under water with the mouth piece facing up, it would start free flowing. I could breathe from it normally. Since it was a dive in a confined pool I decided to just use my octo and store my primary away, so I could test it again under water. At about five meters depth I tried again, and it still free flowed as soon as the mouth piece faced up. Only once or twice did it somehow not free flow, so I imagine something is set too lightly? I never opened it and it's not been serviced. Do you have any idea what might be the problem? Thanks!
#scuba #scubadiving #scubadiver
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Hi Mark. Thanks for all the tips and tricks! Question about PSI in scuba cylinders. Most shops fill AL-80s past 3000 psi as well as HP tanks over 3442. Is that ok, or should I empty the tanks down to their respective psi post fill? #askmark
Small over-fills should be fine, I’d enjoy the extra time in the water. SCUBA cylinders have a test pressure one and a half times that of the working pressure as a safety buffer.
Thanks to Charles’ Law, cylinders will warm up when you fill them up. But when they cool back down the pressure inside will drop. Because of this, fillers will either fill a cylinder to working pressure, wait for it to cool, then top it back up. Or ‘hot fill’ where they over fill the cylinder so that when it cools down it cools down to the working pressure.
Sometimes they don’t get it exactly right. And more often you end up with a short fill.
#ASKMARK Enjoying the vids & podcasts. Great content about all things scuba. Do you have any industry & dive buddy feedback on the Apple Watch ‘Ultra’ performance as a dive computer in partnership with the Oceanic+ software? I’ve purchased the watch, and registered with Oceanic+ but I haven’t logged any dives just yet. Feedback – positive & negative would be greatly appreciated 🤿👍
👍😎🇵🇭🤿!
Another great vid!! #askmark What do you think of “alien lights” as a primary light? Basically three separate torches mounted together on a goodman handle.
I remember seeing these when they first announced. It does make sense: triple redundancy, three power settings and built-in backup torches. The only downside is changing three batteries and maintaining three O-Rings. It’s nice to see smaller independents producing novel ideas like this.
#askmark.
Hi Mark. Great video about the free flowing regulator.
My question is about breathing adjustment dials. I have a set of Apex MTX-RC regulators. Is there a preferred position to set the breathing adjustment dial when I store the regs.
Keep up the great videos
Regards
Craig
Dialed out as much as possible as if they would breathe the lightest.
While in storage you want the least amount of force pushing the seat into the sealing surface to prevent bedding.
Thanks again Mark. Meanwhile I had the regs checked by a dive center and you were absolutely right of course, the octo just needed a small tweak. It was at 1.1 bar and they set it to 1.6 if I’m not mistaken. I have since done five dives with them again and have not had any issues anymore.
#askmark Hey Mark – great video as always! I wanted to ask your advice on scuba progression for a “beginner plus” diver – I have my advanced open water and nitrox certificates, feel pretty comfortable with buoyancy, and I’m slowly expanding the locations I’ve dived in. Most advice I’ve seen for 25 to 100 dives is “just dive more” which isn’t that helpful. What do you think divers wanting to progress from advanced open water should focus on? I know Rescue Diver is the next obvious certification step, but I care more about developing in water skills. Thanks!
When was it last serviced ?
They were never serviced yet, as I bought them new last year. Before this free flowing issue occurred I had only done 20 dives with the regs and the last one was in November, after which I properly cleaned everything and stored them in the bag in a dry cabinet for about 2 1/2 months, with the knobs turned to the most open setting to prevent any bedding in.