Healthways

[JES]

... You can inspect things while I swim around the wreck salvaging stuff the PADI Pros dropped. You know, weight belts, camera systems, dive lights, etc... LOL

Jim

Now that sounds cool!

[swimjim]

Finally the Lake let me out there. I gave the new diaphragm the acid test today. I dove the wreck of the Mahoning which is a brig that went down in 1864 on it's way to Milwaukee for repairs. She rests today in 55 feet of water and is a few miles south of Port Washington Wisconsin. lake Michigan layed down nicely today. There really wasn't any current running. It's April though and that means COLD water. The surface temp was 39F and the bottom temp was 37F. I dove my dry suit and my core was fine, but I lost my fingers in about 15 minutes. The last time I dove my Healthways Gold label the temperature conditions were similar. I noticed however it was breathing a tad stiff. I tweaked the lever height up ever so slightly and was able to gain a noticeable boost in performance. Now the lever height on the Healthways, and any double hoser for that matter, is crucial. I have found that if you set it to aggressively, it will breath wonderful on the bench, but freeflow wildly at depth. When I reached the bottom today, my first breath felt like the venturi was going into overdrive and a free flow was about to commence. I grabbed my Xstream second stage, but it proved to be unnecessary. Perhaps it was the cold and my tanks were still around 2250 psi, high for a single stage. After that the reg settle down and breathed like a champ.
As I mentioned, my finger froze by the 15 minute mark and of course as I grew colder I tended to work the reg a little harder. No problem though, everything was fine and I surfaced at about the 25 minute mark. Getting my kit off in the water was interesting and I couldn't feel anything so it took a little longer, but no matter. Once on the boat I wrapped my hands in a nice warm towel and I was enjoying a frosty adult beverage after about 15 minutes!
My Healthways Gold label performed flawlessly despite extreme cold water and in this case, very poor positioning. Way too high on my back for optimum performance. Although the work thing is getting in my way these days(Not complaining, a good thing) I will continue to run the diaphragms through some of the harshest conditions they would ever be likely to see.\
As and added bonus, i dive this reg with EPDM VDH hoses, a curved silicone mouth piece and Bryans new mouth piece valves. I truely believe these enhance the performance of the reg. The OEM Healthways mouth pieces were 1 inch and suitable only for display in my opinion. Coupled with the above set up, the reg breaths like a champ and is a dry(!) breather.
Here's a few pic's I took today!

https://picasaweb.google.com/1085800925 ... 9678140930

[Bryan]

Get down with your bad self Jim! That is some cold ass water!!! Glad to hear the regulator works great in the cold. Herman is reporting similar experiences in the tropics with the venturi effect on the gold label....Thanks for the great report and pictures.

[JES]

Thank you Jim! We appreciate what you and Herman are doing with Bryan and your Healthways Gold label regulators.