Thank you Eric, I did not know that. Also there is at least one shop in cave country that carries the combo at that price too.Originally Posted by BigTex1836
Welcome to the Cave Diver's Forum.
Thank you Eric, I did not know that. Also there is at least one shop in cave country that carries the combo at that price too.
More great info ladies and gents... you're helping and will continue to help new guys searching through and stumbling upon this thread. I feel like I'm the only one asking questions though, which wasn't my original intent, but I'll keep going. I just don't want this to be confused with "this guy's just too lazy to search for his own answers". I simply want to stir up conversation and learn.
Back to regs, I wholeheartedly agree that my backup reg will be just as good, if not the same as my primary. I thoroughly understand the importance of a back up working properly and not just being a gimpy bailout item. I'm the guy that throws the donut tire away the day the car comes home and replaces it with a full size spare, even that that donut "will get you home". I learned my lesson early in life that I would rather swap to another full size tire and be nearly guaranteed to make it to my destination. I don't let blowouts deter my road trips, just like I won't let a crappy backup reg ruin my dive, or cost me my life.
With that said, is there any reason to not have the same regulator model for a primary and secondary?
Most people use exactly the same reg for primary as secondary. That is especially true of sidemount.
Where do you put a full size spare tire? I would love to do that on my minivan, but short of mounting it on the roof, there isn't any room. (because the rest it is full of dive gear).
In sidemount you'll alternate your regs and breathe both the right and left regulators pretty much equally.
As Forrest noted, it makes sense to use identical regulators for both tanks
Most regs will work fine in sidemount, however I would encourage you to also look at the total cost of ownership (including the cost for servicing the regs).
Some manufacturers charge up to $60 just for the parts to service one set of regs, others may charge less than half that price.
So assuming you service on an annual basis, you may end up paying $60 more per year for servicing the regs of brand A vs. brand B.
In sidemount it is not "primary" and "secondary". It's left and right. You will use them equally.
As Oliver stated, maintenance can get expensive especially on sealed regs and even more so on Atomic sealed regs however they have a 2 year service interval (recommended)
Derek
Gotcha. Is it then customary to only have the long hose on your right and breathe from it primarily, or no? Let's bring in Hogarthian into the thread too shall we? Who breathes through their long hose and shares that same reg as well? Do you breathe one tank down to a certain point before breathing the other? I've been watching valve drill videos as were advised by another member... I understand the necessity for them, but how do you manage your gas in a non emergency situation? Try to breathe the same amount from both tanks, drain one before the other to a certain point or what?
Edd will explain gas management during your sidemount class, but yes, you breath from both. I'll go out on a limb and say there's no such thing as "customary" in sidemount. Zero, one, or 2 long hoses are all valid.
In sidemount there is no real standard. However, I dare to say most divers use a similar method with a long hose on the right tank and a short hose on the left bungeed around your neck much like Hogarthian routing. In sidemount your tanks aren't connected, so you alternate which tank you breathe off of to keep them even.
Most sidemount divers donate their long hose first and always. Some divers use two long hoses and donate either. Some use two short hoses and donate the entire tank.
Edd teaches long hose right, short hose left and always donate long hose. I'm afraid to use this word again, but it seems that's what *most* guys teach. The razor and stealth guys teach this way as well.
Awesome. Thanks for the quick reply. I found a great video on YouTube going through different drills in a pool. I think it's great atleast. What do y'all think about this one?
https://youtu.be/1IjAmZSLf78
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