Vintage Double Hose

Reproduction Healthways SCUBA Silicone Diaphragm
First Impression

I received a sample of the new Silicone diaphragm for the Healthways Scuba single stage, double hose regulators. This diaphragm is in development by Vintage Double Hose.com. I currently own 2 of the 3 models that Healthways made in the 1950s and 1960s. The three models were the SCUBA, SCUBA Deluxe, and the SCUBA (gold label). I have the Deluxe and gold label. This review is my first impression of the diaphragm and is written to describe the characteristics of the diaphragm and will not evaluate its performance objectively. That will come at a later date.
Appearance
The VDH diaphragm is made differently than the originals. The original had stiff discs on both sides of the diaphragm material secured by a rivet. The VDH model has only a stiff material on the inside.



Possibly Healthways made their diaphragm in this manner as a way to attach the disc on the inside of it so that the compound lever system has a surface upon which to operate. The outside plate has little, if any, function.
The height of the VDH diaphragm appears to be a bit lower than the original, however, all of my original diaphragms are "crispy" and may not be the best to make a comparison.

This height difference necessitated the lowering of the lever height. The first photo is the original position and the other is the new position that was needed with the VDH diaphragm.



FIT


The fit of the VDH diaphragm is excellent. With the gold label SCUBA, the yoke side can has a recess for the diaphragm. When the diaphragm was placed in the can, it fit so well that it required a small bit of effort to remove as it created a seal immediately.



The SCUBA DELUXE yoke side can does not have this lip and as a result, the diaphragm is just sandwiched between the two can halves, with the ring clamp compressing them together to get the seal. The VDH diaphragm has a grove molded into it which aided in alignment of the halves and ring.


I have dived my gold label with a homemade diaphragm. Because it has a venturi nozzle, I find it breathes on a par with a USD Mistral. The Deluxe does not have a venturi.



A very subjective impression of breathability (I will quantify soon Luis) seems to find the new diaphragm is much better than the original "crispies" and my homemade version. The gold label seems to be very smooth with little work of breathing. The Deluxe is not as good and without a venturi, the flow is not smooth either.
I believe at this point the VDH silicone Healthways SCUBA diaphragm is a winner. More actual diving and bench testing is to be done. Unfortunately with these reproductions becoming available, the price of Healthways Scuba regulators will climb. (Finally, throw away the hoses and mouthpieces. The hoses are stiff and the mouthpiece valves are too small for good air flow.)

Hey Thanks a ton for posting this, what led to the site in the first place was my blue hose Healthways scuba.

Your post has me really excited! All I need to do now is find someone who has a set blue hoses.
Good luck on this one. Use black or grays, but silicone won't fit the Hope-Page.[/b]

So, can ask you a few questions?

1. With a high pressure seat, diaphragm and valves for the Hope Page I could potentially get htis diving again?

Not a whole lot of parts besides what you have listed. VDH has all of the above or will have soon.[/b]

2. When you were working on your Healthways, did you just say the heck with it and use USD parts like hoses and a mouth piece in order to improve diving and keep cost down.
Mostly. The hoses and mouthpieces of Healthways except for the Hope-Page are useless IMHO

I would greatly appreciate any info you have on your Healthways.

I'm still working on my photo bucket stuff, so I'll try to get pics soon.

Dave

I received my Healthways diaphragms today. Upon intial inspection they looked very good. I had to deal with my dive clubs Christmas party today. There were no survivors. LOL. I will do further testing asap!!!

Jim

I have installed the new diaphragm into my Gold label and with a little tweaking to the lever height as Allan mentioned, the reg rocks! I totally agree with Allan's observations regarding Healthways hose sets. The Hopepage IMO was ahead of it's time and is a good system. Their other OEM one inch mouth pieces are fine for a static display, but little else. I've set mine up with EPDM(?) hoses and a repro curved mouth piece that has the new wagon wheels and new mouth piece valves installed. That's a real winning combenation. I think I can get this rig pool tested next week and it will go under the ice mid February. If it can make it there, it can make it anywhere!
I also own a Deluxe and the original Scuba. Allan has already checked the fit in the Deluxe. As were probably going to be buried in snow come Tuesday night I'll fit it to the original Scuba and see what thats like.

Jim

Were you guys able to adjust the lever height enough by screwing the adjust screw up and down or did you have to bend it.... The later option is something I don't want to do. Sorry if this is an annoyingly newbie question, but I am a newbie to this reg.

And any word on when these diaphragms will make into the catalog?

Cheers,

Dave

Easy adjust with the screw. Pool session planned. I also hope to put it on a bench to see the numbers.

Bryan sent me one of them as well but unfortunately I do not have a Healthways- yet, the main reason being there were no diaphragms available so I never bothered to get one.....I am picking up one this afternoon and have pool time scheduled for next Feb 13. I will follow up with reports as I get my new Healthways back in service. So far it looks great.

We need a to do a lot of in-water testing first. Bench testing is great and definitely must be a part of the evaluation process. Jim and Mike were kind enough to loan me original NOS Healthways diaphragms to work with and from my perspective and testing with a manometer on the workbench the reproduction parts are easily as good as the originals I have to compare them to.

I went from owning no Healthways to owning 2,a Deluxe and a Gold Label. So far my experience with them mirrors Allan's. The fit was perfect on both regs. I did have one issue with my Deluxe. The new diaphragm is somewhat thicker in the rim area than the originals I have and I was not able to get the band clamp screw on my Deluxe to engage. By hand I could not compress the band far enough to get the screw to start. The band clamp may be a little bent but in any case I was not able to get the screw to engage. I replaced the screw with a slightly longer one (1.25" SS 4-40) and the band clamp pulled up nicely. The diaphragm sealed with no leaks or other issues.

The 2 regs are very different performance wise. The Deluxe does not have a venturi assist and is no where near as good a breathing as the Gold Label. So far I have gotten the cracking pressure of the Gold Label down to around 1 inch with a 2500 psi tank. Once the stage is open the venturi will actually push the inhalation resistance into the positive(?) range slightly force feeding you if you inhale with a little force. The exhalation pressure is very dependent on the mushroom valve that is installed, ranging from close to 2 IWC to around .5 IWC depending on the valve I used. This is an area that we can make a good bit of improvement on with a little experimentation.
The HP seat on the regs is a bit odd but so far the 4 examples I have of the seem to work well, none leak....well I did have one leak that confused me for a short time. The pony tank I was using had dropped to under 500 psi which reduced the force on the HP seat, I moved it to a higher pressure tank and it sealed. While on the subject of HP seats, anyone interested in rebuilding one of the HW DH regs should also keep an eye out for the Scubair single hose first stages. The internals of the Scubair are the same as those in the HD regs. They are a good source of HP seats.


As is the Gold Label are good performing regs, the Deluxe is soso. I think there are a good many improvements we can make to the regs both in inhalation and exhalation. Assuming of course that we want to improve the old regs as opposed to just accepting them as is and diving them, I intend to do both. I have several modifications in mind to improve them and/or make parts more easily available.

Herman can you do a little measuring for me and give me the thickness on the original Deluxe diaphragm that you have please. Even if the rim on the new diaphragm was slightly thinner so you could assemble them more easily I don't think it would matter on sealing of the gold label ones. I've only seen one type of diaphragm in Healthways so I'll assume they only made one for all regulators. Thanks for the great write up!

I know you asked Herman for his numbers, but this is what I have on 4 diaphragms:
(Note: I measured each at 6 different spots on each and averaged)

Scuba .112
Scuba Deluxe .139
Gold Label .116 (2 Gold Label diaphrams)

The Scuba was the oldest and "crispiest".

All info is good info at this point. I'm reading the thickness of the reproduction diaphragm at .133.....Is that what you guys are getting?

Back in from the shop. I am getting 0.133 on the new diaphragms. The old ones are harder to measure as they vary from being compressed but they are in the 0.119 to 0.121 range. I also noticed that the valley in the lip of the diaphragm is opposite on the old vs new versions. I don't see this as a problem, it should work either way on the Deluxes or Gold Labels. While bench testing them, I did find an odd reaction of the new diaphragm. I am not using check valves in the mouthpiece to keep the measured pressures from being influenced by anything but the diaphragms themselves and the adjustment changes I was making. During exhale the diaphragm would flex outward and hang in an extended position, this can be duplicated by hand. On inhale, it would snap back with a noticeable noise. I doubt this will happen with the mouthpiece fitted with check valves but I though it was worth noting. Water pressure would likely keep this from happening as well.


2 old and 1 new diaphragms


Edge comparison of old (left) and new diaphragms, this is the supply side surface.


Edge comparison of old (left) and new diaphragms, this is the outer surface.

Forgot to mention that the yoke from the Scubair will also replace the odd one on the Gold Label. It is a direct replacement so if you don't care for the the odd one these make a simple replacement.

The Gold Label has the coolest yoke ever! That's one thing I would keep. I wanted to pool test on Sunday but got snowed out. maybe Friday night then under the ice on Sunday.

Jim