cold water regs

[ah3v07]

hi i am a frustrated diver looking to try find somewhere a list of regs that are suitable for cold water diving (<10 degrees C), this is turning out to be a bit of a problem. could anyone offer any advice please??

[JamesW]

Hi PM Ben Panter he's does a lot of ice/cold water diving.
Thanks

[Turtle Dude]

hi i am a frustrated diver looking to try find somewhere a list of regs that are suitable for cold water diving (<10 degrees C), this is turning out to be a bit of a problem. could anyone offer any advice please??
Specifically for Ice Diving or just all-year-round standard UK cold water?

[ah3v07]

all year round uk, lowest temperatures about 3-4 degrees.

[Turtle Dude]

all year round uk, lowest temperatures about 3-4 degrees.
There are quite a few sealed cold water rated regulators out there: Scubapro (Mk17), Apeks (DS1/4 & others) and Aqualung (Legend and Glacia) all come to mind, given my own and those around me who dive with such rated ones. Am sure there are others, which people will point out.

[ah3v07]

any experience/opinions on the mares abyss mr22?

[Rod Bateman]

I personally never got on with Mares regs and use Apeks or Cressi. Some people love them though.

[Richard Whitcombe]

Ever Mares reg ive ever come across for club or work has had issues with freeflows and second stages coming out of adjustment so i wouldnt touch them with a barge pole. Other opinions may vary....

[Ben Panter]

Hi,

Pretty much any regulator with a CE mark is fine for the sort of diving you're talking about. The trick is all how you treat it - minimal prebreathing on the surface on a cold day and a clean first stage filter are the critical ingredients. Regular servicing and even a slight detuning if you're planning on working in extreme cold and under ice.

Any of the standard offerings from Apeks, Scubapro and the like will suit the conditions you mention.

cheers,

Ben

[Chris Cherrington]

all year round uk, lowest temperatures about 3-4 degrees.

Pretty much anything you buy will deal with this. That's not really "cold" to be honest. As mentioned the ScubaPro diaphragm range are good for this kind of thing (I use Mk11 and have no problems).

The Mk25 is noted for free flows in deep cold water and is a "cold water" reg. I am told (Can't afford one myself) by those that know it needs de-tuning, which to me seems a bit pointless buying it in the first place.

Most of the mumbo-jumbo and labelling is to offset liability by the manufacturers.

Chris

[katdiver]

I was once told the CE mark doesn't necessarily mean good design, only that the design can be replicated to a high degree, one good design, all good, one bad design, all bad.

I've got the V22 setup with my old Ruby. The quality of those earlier Mares are excellent. I saw it in the workshop the other day when it was in for servicing, it looked like new and it's seen alot of service. The Abyss octopus on it is probably the best breathe of any I've owned. The new plastic bodied Mares suffer when you leave them out in the sun. One operator here found they were always freeflowing on the second dive, cooked during the surface interval after the tank change. Not a problem with the metals though. Mares top end regs also went through a stage with 1st stage seat problems. Harder materials gave better flow, but cracked easy. That's been sorted too.

[johnskerry]

There are lots of good cold water regs, personally if its deep and cold its Poseidon’s for me.

[PeteM]

I was once told the CE mark doesn't necessarily mean good design, only that the design can be replicated to a high degree, one good design, all good, one bad design, all bad.

So you are saying the independent testing to prove something works correctly that is required for CE marking is invalid?

[Nigel Hewitt]

So you are saying the independent testing to prove something works correctly that is required for CE marking is invalid?
In a lot of cases you can self certify if you meet the appropriate standard.

Unless you read the CE spec for that device you really don't know what it is saying. A lot of electronic equipment has a CE sticker and that just means that it doesn't emit too much interference. You probably don't care about that at all but that might be the only relevant test so that is all it is tested for for CE.

Don't get me started on ISO9000...

[PeteM]

In a lot of cases you can self certify if you meet the appropriate standard.

Unless you read the CE spec for that device you really don't know what it is saying. A lot of electronic equipment has a CE sticker and that just means that it doesn't emit too much interference. You probably don't care about that at all but that might be the only relevant test so that is all it is tested for for CE.

But you and I both know the CE requirements for regulators are considerably harder than that, can not remember the figures but there is some maximum WOB at a given depth

[Woz]

I've got EN250 and here's the cold water bit:

6.5.2 Cold water performance
SCUBA intended for use in water temperatures below
10 8C shall be tested as ready-for-use SCUBA in fresh
water at a water temperature of (4 23) 8C for 5 min at
0
6 bar pressure. The demand valve shall be rigged as
though the diver's head were in both the upright and
the horizontal face down (swimming) position
respectively.
The air exhaled by the breathing simulator shall be
heated and humidified. The air temperature shall be
(28 ± 2) 8C and the relative humidity greater than 90 %
when measured at the interface with the demand valve.
The cylinder(s) when charged to its (their) rated
working pressure and discharged to no less than 50 bar
shall contain sufficient air to complete the test.
The SCUBA shall be immersed in the cold water for a
period of 10 min prior to starting the test.

and what it has to do:

The demand regulator shall meet the following
requirements when tested at 6 bar absolute pressure:
a) the work of breathing shall not exceed 3,0 J/l;
b) the peak respiratory pressure during inhalation
and exhalation shall be within the range of ±25 mbar;
c) the positive work of breathing during inhalation
shall not exceed 0,3 J/l;
d) pressure spikes with no measureable positive
work of breathing shall not exceed 10 mbar;
e) pressure peaks with measurable positive work of
breathing shall not exceed 5 mbar.
Testing shall be done in accordance with 6.5.

[Turtle Dude]

A relatively interesting article on cold water regs: http://www.divernet.com/cgi-bin/articles.pl?id=4168&sc=1005&ac=d

Although old, it does have some good information and general comment.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Well I have a Subapro MK17 (actually have two now just bought another for my twinset) and have dived that up here at temperatures around 5C with no problems at all.


Don't get me started on ISO9000...
ok go on then tell us about ISO9000 :D