Can we talk about how cold water affects your regulator breathing?

I was doing a hull inspection near the Port of Seattle last Tuesday and noticed my air was tasting weird, took me 20 minutes to realize the cold water was freezing my regulator diaphragm. Switched to a dry type and the difference was night and day. Anyone else ever mess with different regulator setups for cold water jobs?

2 comments

2 Comments

harper_gibson222d ago

Picked up on that same issue a few years back doing bridge inspections in the Columbia River. Cold water does weird stuff to your air, especially when your first stage starts icing up. Switched to a balanced diaphragm regulator with a sealed chamber, and it stopped giving me that skunky tasting air. Downside is they're heavier, but for cold dives that extra weight balances out compared to having your rig freeze up on you mid-inspection. Definitely worth swapping over if you're doing consistent cold work.

the_olivia22d ago

Balanced diaphragm is the way to go for cold water work. I had the same skunky air issue when I was doing winter wreck dives off the New Jersey coast. Water temps barely hit 40 degrees and my old piston reg would start breathing wet after twenty minutes. Swapped to an Apeks and never looked back. You're right about the weight but I'd rather haul an extra pound than deal with a free flow at 70 feet.