1st Stage Reliability

[SiltMonster]

I?m curious about 1st stage reliability in this community. What seems to be the most accepted 1st stage in terms of overall reliability? I personally like my Apeks DS4 and DST 1st stages as they seem to be highly reliable. I?ve been servicing them myself for years and have had zero issues. I?m hoping we can focus on reliability and/or failures in this discussion rather than performance specs.

Best!

[Kelly Jessop]

I?m curious about 1st stage reliability in this community. What seems to be the most accepted 1st stage in terms of overall reliability? I personally like my Apeks DS4 and DST 1st stages as they seem to be highly reliable. I?ve been servicing them myself for years and have had zero issues. I?m hoping we can focus on reliability and/or failures in this discussion rather than performance specs.

Best!

If they have been reliable for you and no failures, then you have answered your question. To me I don't want a British racing car that has to be tweeked frequently for optimal performance, I want a old reliable Ford that will start everytime. I tend to find models that haven't changed over time have proven themselves,such Scubapro Mk10/20 or Sherwood Magnus/Oasis.

[rddvet]

SP MK10 or 25. Never had any major issues with them. Apeks are excellent regs too but I have quite a few friends that have had issues with them. My 25 year old S.P. mk10s are hard as hell to beat.

[bamafan]

Search for Apeks high pressure seats blowing.

[Draker]

Search for Apeks high pressure seats blowing.

#fakenews


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[Kelly Jessop]

SP MK10 or 25. Never had any major issues with them. Apeks are excellent regs too but I have quite a few friends that have had issues with them. My 25 year old S.P. mk10s are hard as hell to beat.

You ever hear about the experiment done by JJ, Cole, Berman, and Moon? The placed a Mk10 and Mk 20 on a set of doubles that had been equalized and isolated, with 1 port plug missing. They opened the valves simultaneously, and allowed the 1st stages to drain the tanks. The Mk10 easily beat the Mk20.

[Nitrogenius]

You ever hear about the experiment done by JJ, Cole, Berman, and Moon? The placed a Mk10 and Mk 20 on a set of doubles that had been equalized and isolated, with 1 port plug missing. They opened the valves simultaneously, and allowed the 1st stages to drain the tanks. The Mk10 easily beat the Mk20.

So the 'test' is proving that the Mk10 drains a tank faster in case of MP failure.. Not sure I see the correlation towards Performance here.. To me At the end of the day it only Nantes what is the WOB and Output after the second stage.. a faster/stronger Flow out of the first stage might even be coubterproductive dependinc how well or not the second stage fits the first..
Am I missing something? Could be, not sure here..

[Nitrogenius]

Back to original topic.. Poseidon first stages are extremely realiable.. second stages I find the new Xstream a bit touchy (like a millenial?) nur the first stages ROCk..

[bent]

Kelly, I don't know about the MK25 and the MK10 but they did change the MK20. They changed the piston several times, the housing for the pistons and I think they also changed the material for the turret screw from brass to ss at some point, if I remember correctly. I've been hesitant to buy more used mk20s because I'm not sure whether all the parts are interchangable. They're fine stages though.

[rddvet]

Never heard about that test. Interesting.
I will say that my rebreather came with Apeks 1sts and they’ve been good so far. My wife and I both hate them though. We both find getting the din connection threads to fit to the tank valve is much more annoying than any other reg we’ve used. All of our S.P. regs spin right on. The Apeks you need to go slowly and sometimes spin the threads backwards first then go in the right direction to get the threads to seat. The din face o-ring also likes to not seat from time to time. The Apeks are great breathers, but will never replace my S.P.’s