Double Hose in Lake George

[Gilldiver]

Last weekend I got to run some of my double hoses through the paces in Lake George, NY. The event was my clubs, The Gillmen, yearly fall trip up there. The Gillmen club has been around since 1956 so the club itself is a vintage artifact of sport diving.

The Regs brough out a lot of comments from some of the “old timers” and one brought a milk crate of his regs for me to see. His box had a Blue label Bronxton Ave, a DA Navy Approved, a Mistral, an early Royal Aquamaster. These were just the ones he put in the crate, I know he has a few Healthways as I saw them 12 or 13 years ago. Another, mentioned that he would dig out two regs he had in the basement for me. He said that one has some type of snorkel attached on a valve so you could switch between snorkel and tanks without taking the reg out of your mouth. It has my curiosity raised, anyone know what he could be talking about?

Anyway, here I am with my Voit Polaris 50. I still had an annoying vibration or honking on a deep breath, changing out the hoses and diaphragm and any combination did not get rid of it. Even using a set of old hoses and an old diaphragm did not do a thing. The tanks are twin 72’s pumped to 2600 and perhaps that pressure is what is doing it. Next weekend, I should get that set down below 1,000 psi and will give it another try.



Here is what I was running around with. Each had at least 30 minutes between 20 and 48 feet.



Why 48 feet? The thermocline was at 50 and dropping from 68F to 51F was just something I didn’t want to do all that much. The visibility was between 30 and 40 feet and all had a good time.

Pete Johnson

[1969ivan1]

NEAT! The chrome on all those regs looks pretty darn nice! Did you rechromethem or are they just well preserved? The POLARIS looks the best of all.

[Gilldiver]

The Voit was re-chromed. All of the rest are as I got them only cleaned up. God, I hate 30 year old masking tape, it takes a lot of acetone or MEK to get it all off.

Pete

[Bryan]

What is going on with your yellow hoses on the duckbill side? Did they tear and you had to add some tape or adhesive? Looks a lot darker on that side.

[JES]

What is going on with your yellow hoses on the duckbill side? Did they tear and you had to add some tape or adhesive? Looks a lot darker on that side.

From the picture, they look like they might be original and just stained.

Nice Polaris!

[luis]

The Regs brough out a lot of comments from some of the “old timers” and one brought a milk crate of his regs for me to see. His box had a Blue label Bronxton Ave, a DA Navy Approved, a Mistral, an early Royal Aquamaster. These were just the ones he put in the crate, I know he has a few Healthways as I saw them 12 or 13 years ago. Another, mentioned that he would dig out two regs he had in the basement for me. He said that one has some type of snorkel attached on a valve so you could switch between snorkel and tanks without taking the reg out of your mouth. It has my curiosity raised, anyone know what he could be talking about?

Pete Johnson

Is this similar to what you are talking about?








This thread talks more about it:

http://www.vintagedoublehose.com/forum/ ... ce+snorkel


I rebuilt that unit a couple of years ago for a dive shop in Boston. I was amazed at the condition of the rubber parts. It would have been close to impossible to replace them, but there was no need. The bypass valve worked well, but it would be a hard breather in either position. The air passages were fairly obstructed. If I recall correctly, it also didn’t have any check valves to avoid flooding.

[capn_tucker]

Hmm, that's strange about the Polaris. I have three of them, and they don't behave like that. One is still NIB with original gray diaphragm, original wagon wheels and neoprene check valves. The other two have all silicone parts, improved wagon wheels etc.
Those two are my primary regs and I always take them on the boat. Tank pressures have been from 2300-2800 and everything is fine. Once in a while when first hooking one of them up, the very first test breath will have a bit of "honk", but then it goes away.
The NIB Polaris has never been in the water, only on a tank, but it works fine too. I would ask if yours has been serviced, but one of mine never has, one probably some time before I got it, and one recently rebuilt by Bryan. So...??

[Gilldiver]

Bryan, those yellow hoses were from the other site a few years ago. The staining occurred only near the old duckbill's. The hose under the clamp is still bright yellow, so it must be some type of off gassing. Off course I now have only your silicone duckbills.

Luis, I have no idea if that is what he was talking about, it was an off hand comment that did not sink in till after he had left. If he does send the regs to me I will let you know what he has.

Captain, the vibration occurs regardless of the hose or diaphragm material/type. But looking down the horn at the nozzle, the nozzle is almost in line with the back of the horn. Can you check one of yours and see how the nozzle outlet lines up with the can?

I may do some experiments this weekend with a different can to see if it is related to the can/nozzle alignment.

[capn_tucker]

Captain, the vibration occurs regardless of the hose or diaphragm material/type. But looking down the horn at the nozzle, the nozzle is almost in line with the back of the horn. Can you check one of yours and see how the nozzle outlet lines up with the can?

I may do some experiments this weekend with a different can to see if it is related to the can/nozzle alignment.

I checked all three Polaris regs. Two of them have the nozzle pointing dead center down the horn. On the third one the nozzle is slightly offset (but still close to center)

Addendum: The two with nozzles at dead center do not "honk" no matter what. The one with slightly offset nozzle will "honk" if a really deep breath is taken, but does not do it with normal breathing.
Whether that means anything I don't know..

[1969ivan1]

Yep silicone hoses and duckbills keep that from happening now. If only we knew.....

[JES]

At one of the Sand Dog's, we had a diver with a regulator that honked really loud. It was so bad that you almost couldn't hear yourself think...

[Bryan]

Sometimes they make that noise, sometimes they dont......I have heard a lot of ideas but I can't say for certain why it happens....I have experimented with a lot of different stuff trying to figure it out but to no avail....Once you get underwater it "usually" stops or when your cylinder pressure gets a little lower. Voit or USD all the single stages seem to do this at one time or the other.

[Gilldiver]

Ok, tonight I did a lot of mixing and swapping of parts between my Voit and a DW Airstream. I swapped out the back can, nozzle, bodies, hoses, wagon wheels, just about everything I could think of. I also made a number of spacers out of cardboard to change the alignment of the nozzle down the horn. Nothing changed the honking.

Then, as there was nothing else to do, I put both regs back together and tried swapping a number of diaphragms and using one particular original diaphragm solved the problem.

But here is the kicker, only that one particular original single stage diaphragm does it. Other original single stage diaphragms that I have do not work.

Tomorrow, I will try swapping the new silicone diaphragms I have on my Mistral and may give some of the two stage silicone ones a try as well. But I think that it has to do with a very particular resonance between my Voit body and particular diaphragms.

Your mileage may vary.