TIPS CURIOSITIES

Regulator

PART 2 “DISPELLING THE MYTHS”

Text WOJCIECH A. FILIP

Does the diving world end if I drop my regulator with the connection unsecured into the water (the connection usually is a “screw” that is screwed into the tank valve)? Is puncturing the dry chamber diaphragm dangerous? In the second part of the article on regulators, you will read, amongst other things, why flooding a regulator is not a problem and how puncturing the dry chamber diaphragm may increase your diving safety...

To begin with, let us officially explain the issue of flooding the regulator with water. Why officially? Because this has been precisely described in the standard applicable for approving regulators for use.

Each regulator with the designation EN 250:2014 may be flooded with water. It may actually be thrown into salt water and left there for 8 hours, which means it would be completely flooded. Then, when taken out and left to dry for 16 hours (without rinsing)... the regulator must work properly.

Does this mean that I may flood my regulator's interior with salt water without any consequences? Unfortunately not. The regulator will work properly, but it will start to corrode if left with salt water inside for longer – and that is something we don’t like.

Conclusion no. 1

A regulator may be flooded with fresh or even salt water and it will continue to work 

Conclusion no. 2

You need to read the entire article to learn what to do to ensure not only that it will work, but also that it will not corrode 

Photo Bartek Trzciński

What is the EN 250:2014 standard?

Regulator manufacturers call it the “new” standard, as it has replaced the old EN 250. It is a collection of information that determines the parameters for materials that should be used for building regulators, stipulating the behavior of such materials under different conditions, e.g., regulator hoses should be capable of bearing the weight of 100 kg, regulators must not deform in any way if kept for several hours at temperatures 100°C apart (from – 30°C to +70°C), or the way that regulator operation is tested at the depths of 30 and 50 m (the old standard covered regulator testing only at the depth of 50 m, the new one added a very important test at the depth of 30 m).

One of the most important parts of the standard for divers is the one that describes how much work we may perform underwater while breathing from the regulator. This part of EN 250:2014 is associated with regulator servicing and setting the breathing resistance*. Remember that the diver can affect the work of breathing actually done by using different settings of the cracking pressure adjustment knob and Venturi effect lever (I have described the details in the previous issue of Perfect Diver).

* That is why the servicing technician should be equipped with a device for

measuring this resistance.

All this is to make diving safe and relaxing  your breathing without making any moves, then... you will perform work related to using a very large muscle called the diaphragm and many other smaller muscles.

This means you need to do a bit of work to breathe. You would feel the effort related to breathing quicker if you dived to 50 m, where the gas you breath would have, to put it very simply, a six times greater density. Does it mean that if we would drop down on an underwater bench at 50 meters and just breathe from the regulator, doing nothing, we could get significantly more tired than while breathing on the surface? Exactly that, and the situation could be made even worse by setting the adjustment knobs in your second stage regulators to “minus”.

It should be noted that divers not only breathe, but also move, pose for pictures, run from sharks or pull out fishing nets. Therefore, the work performed while diving will be much greater than the work resulting just from breathing from the regulator.

Breathing involves many muscles – the deeper you dive, the greater the work of breathing is. To improve your diving experience, use the cracking pressure adjustment knob and Venturi effect lever, setting them to “plus” for each dive to minimize the breathing resistance. Another way for reducing the work of breathing is to add helium to the air or nitrox you breathe. Such a breathing mix is called trimix, because of the three gases used in it. Trimix is used by technical divers at greater depths, but also by advanced recreational divers at the depths of 25–40 m. Such “recreational” trimix is usually called triox.

What does it mean “how much work we may perform while breathing”?

If you seat comfortably on the bottom at 10 m and focus on

Photo Karola Takes Photos Be a conscious diver – learn to use and always use the cracking pressure adjustment knob and Venturi effect lever to minimize your breathing resistance.

Let's get back to flooding the regulator

All the time we're told that you must not put a first stage regulator into the water without securing the connection or that you must not press the purge button when rinsing the regulator, so why say that nothing will happen if you pour water inside?

You already know that this is not so much about an abstract idea, but this is what the standard used for approving each regulator for use says, so the regulator must work no matter how flooded it is.

If you look at this matter from a more technical perspective, it will be easier to understand why water in a regulator is not a big deal.

How much water can you pour into a first stage regulator?

If you have one of the largest first stage regulators, with a rotary head, then if you try really hard, you can perhaps squeeze 25 mL of water inside, that is 1–1,5 times the volume of a spoon

It takes some time for a regulator that is dropped into water to fill with water. This time is measured in hours rather than minutes. It might just happen that you would want to use a regulator that has just been taken out of the water after spending several hours there. In such a situation, after you screw your first stage regulator into the tank valve, but before you open it, you should press and hold the purge button on your second stage regulator while opening the valve. Water is not compressible and it is safer to show it out of your regulator. you use to eat vegetable soup. Meanwhile, one very calm breath taken by a diver is 500 mL, that is 20 times as much. This means that if you would connect a completely flooded regulator to a tank and press the purge button, it would be completely dry after less than 2 seconds 

Can the first stage regulator be flooded by submerging the second stage regulator with the purge button depressed?

It is possible, but would require time and persistence. The longer the hose connecting the first and second stage regulator, the longer it takes to flood it. Remember that this trick will not work if your first stage regulator has a tight cover on. Anyways, you will effectively remove any water from everything by pressing the by-pass button, taking a breath, pressing the inflate button of the inflator or the dry suit. By operating every device connected to the individual hoses for a short while you can make sure that they are free of water. It is also worth to add that in technical diving flooding regulators is almost an everyday situation for divers using several stage cylinders.

What to do with a regulator flooded with salt water?

You should remember that water left inside a regulator even for several hours is not a problem. The problem starts when you flood your regulator often with salt water and leave it to dry. In such situations, the interior of the regulator will very likely start to corrode and the regulator will have to be serviced. For regulators which have been very neglected, kept in a salty environment and dried with salt water inside, it may be necessary to replace the body and other elements damaged due to corrosion.

My first and second stage were flooded with salt water! HELP!

First stage regulator

After flooding a regulator with salt water and taking it out to the surface, you should purge it to remove any salt water and then pour fresh water into it several times, purging it after each fill. The more accurate you are when filling the regulator with fresh water, the more effectively you will clear it of any salt (by the way, you may check how hard it is to flood a regulator ). There's a trick to do it quicker than by submerging the regulator in a bowl of water: remove the plugs from two LP ports and inject water inside using a syringe, or... use a garden hose and flush the regulator several times without hesitation.

Purge after each flooding, using the by-pass button before opening the tank valve.

Second stage regulator

Have you noticed that, after returning from a salt water diving session (e.g. a safari in Egypt), there's a small air leak in your second stage regulator? This is because of the salt deposited on the socket/head connection, that is in the valve of the second stage regulator. To remove it, you should thoroughly rinse the second stage regulator, while pressing the purge button. Thoroughly means that you should submerge it fully in fresh water, while dynamically moving the regulator body. Short purging after rinsing will remove the remaining water from inside.

In both parts of this article, I have spent much time describing the reasons for limiting CO2 accumulation while underwater.

You know that the amount of CO2 in your body can increase for different reasons. It is very important not to allow this gas to accumulate and to try to remove it. First stage regulators with hoses sticking up behind the diver’s head may make impossible to raise your head high and, therefore, they may make it difficult to easily exhale CO2 out of your body. An easy and very effective method for different routing of the hoses is to use special angle adapters that allow to properly configure hoses in any regulator.

This simple trick will save you quite a bit of money!

You already know that in order to reduce gas consumption, enhance buoyancy control or limit nitrogen narcosis, it might be important to set the cracking pressure adjustment knob and Venturi effect lever to “plus”. Meanwhile, many divers buy a regulator with these adjustments and... set both the knob and the lever to “minus”.

It may be compared to driving a car with the secondary brake always on.

Regardless of the reasons for such a decision, it might be worthwhile to give it some thought when buying a regulator.

Photo Bartek Trzciński

Using angle adapters to connect LP hoses and second stage regulators should be considered carefully. They may significantly hinder the possibility to easily share your regulator in an “out of gas” (OOG) emergency. It is much easier to grab a traditionally configured hose and pass the regulator to the diver in need.

Selecting the appropriate length for your hoses is related to this, as it may not only affect the ease of operating your second stage regulators, decrease resistance while swimming with a scooter or protect against a hose loop getting hooked, for example, on an element of a wreck, but it may also enhance the breathing comfort, allowing for holding the regulator lightly in your mouth instead of biting it hard for fear of it being pulled out by a hose which is too short (which is usually the reason for using the previously-mentioned angle adapters for second stage regulators).

Appropriately selected LP and HP hoses lengths ensure that the hoses are always close to the diver’s body and do not form unnecessary loops, at the same time ensuring full comfort of use. This applies to any type of configuration used by both the greenhorns and expert divers.

Photo Karola Takes Photos

A high-end regulator equipped with both adjustment options that would be set to “minus” works exactly the same as its cousin that does not have these options but is much less expensive. If you do not want to learn how to use a piece of equipment, don't spend an awful lot of money on it and just buy regulators that really suit you.

Another aspect of diving regulators, which is sometimes controversial, is the length of the exhaust tee. Introduction of the so-called “short” exhaust tees was related to regulator weight reduction, easier operation of the second stage regulators when they are frequently exchanged (e.g. sidemount) or while swimming with a scooter. Manufacturers call such exhaust tees “integrated”, while divers call them “short”. We made up many different reasons why “shorter” ones are worse that the “longer” ones. The picture below shows how deceptive the perspective can be.

If you measure the short and long exhaust tee, you may find that... 

Those of you who are not interested in the part for advanced divers are still encouraged to read the useful tips at the end of this article 

Photo Bartek Trzciński

For advanced divers

Similarly as in the previous part of this article, here's some short information that should be useful for advanced divers. If you find anything interesting, I will gladly elaborate on the subject on one of Perfect Diver's media channels.

1. During long OC dives, using second stage regulator housings with a larger volume might be a good idea.

Such regulators have buoyancy close to neutral, which helps a lot in case of long decompression in cold water. 2. Using seals with enhanced oxygen resistance (e.g., Viton) does not fully secure O-rings against the impact of oxygen, especially during long-term exposition. Seals become less flexible and as they wear out, they may unnecessarily complicate hard dives. I suggest to consider replacing them or

service oxygen regulators that are used often two times per year. 3. “Overbalanced*” – this is about gas cut-off in diaphragm-controlled regulators equipped with a dry chamber. All of the regulators available in our market are tested in accordance with the EN standard up to 50 m and the overbalance occurs at much greater depths and is related to regulator design imperfection. Basically, any currently used that is controlled in this way may get blocked when exposed to an ambient pressure within the range of 19–23 atmospheres. Different regulator specifications make the diver feel that “overbalance” is positive (greater amount of gas supplied at very large depths), but it quickly turns out that their gas supply will be cut off soon. The easiest way to prevent it is removing the dry chamber sealing. This is

one of the reasons behind using diaphragm regulators with a wet chamber in many rebreathers. By virtue of their design, this phenomenon does not apply to piston regulators. A piston regulator with diaphragm sealing is an interesting solution to this problem.

*Overbalanced is also a regulator operation mode related to supplying

a greater amount of gas, which is supposed to balance its density – this is achieved by applying a higher IP.

By the way: if any beginner diver kept on reading, I would like to mention that puncturing the dry chamber sealing (often called a diaphragm) is not a problem for regulator operation and, when diving very deep, it is necessary to prevent the regulator from cutting off the gas supply. If you have your own regulator, what you're probably thinking now is “sure, this happens with other regulators, but not my cutting-edge regulator manufactured by (your manufacturer name ).” Unfortunately, it is very likely that your regulator will also stop supplying gas if controlled by the dry chamber.

To explain what is safe and what most definitely is not, please take a look at the picture below. The element marked as 1 is the dry chamber sealing. Puncturing, damaging or even removing it does not affect the operating characteristics of the regulator and increases safety for deep dives.

The element marked as 2 is the diaphragm controlling the regulator. This is what makes a regulator a “diaphragm regulator”, even though it is not visible. 4. When sidemount divers explore sites with a muddy or mixed bottom, it is much easier to clear a second stage regulator blocked with rocks when there is no deflector in it. However, removing the deflector greatly decreases your breathing comfort – so this is a stalemate. It is worth to get familiar with the design of the Tec2 Tecline second stage regulator, where shifting the gas outlet duct within the second stage regulator housing caused a significant resistance decrease and made it possible to remove the deflector entirely. 5. When planning a long expedition in an area where equipment parts/servicing is not easily accessible, you should check if the manufacturer offers seals made of the material called EPDM, which has significantly better properties than regular rubber (NBR) in respect of reversible deformation. In other words, O-rings made of EPDM are much more resistant to deformation under long-term mechanical stress than the regular O-rings. 6. The above descriptions should be considered for regulators used in rebreather supply systems.

Photo Bartek Trzciński

Ending or maybe an attempt at a summary?

Regulators usually give raise to unending discussions amongst divers. We like our equipment and, as fiercely as a lion, we can defend our regulator, regardless of whether our interlocutor's arguments are sound or not 

The world of diving regulators has changed after the EN 250:2014 standard was introduced – only top-class units remained in the market. Thanks to this, even a beginner diver can buy a regulator without any worry of making a bad choice, because they can simply choose the one they like the most and... it will work just as well as the best regulator used by a technical diver, who gazes around gloomily, probably saying “What do you know about regulators?” 

However, the new standard does not release you from having to learn how to eliminate CO2 from the breathing process.

In case of any doubts, ask your instructor or an experienced diver for help.

Do you know that a dishwasher can be very helpful in keeping your diving regulators in perfect condition? It might be interesting to know that in case of a small leak from the second stage regulator, you should look for the cause in the first stage regulator. Has the overbalanced phenomenon caught your attention and you'd like to know at what depth will your regulator stop supplying gas? ...or perhaps you do not believe that you can safely flood a first stage regulator ?

Photo Ash Embi

Come join us at the Tecline Academy. Here, we not only build a device for testing regulators that are to operate at extreme depths, but we also allow all those willing to flood our diving regulators 

See you there! WAF.

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