It is winter

[Nemrod]

Time to prepare and service regulators, do some reloading and build bikes and other things I can do in my basement shop. Here is my functional fleets of twin hosers:



In there is a RAM, PRAM, PNavy, Square Label Royal, Mistral, two Argonaut Series 1s and a Kraken SE. I have a few other twin hose but they are projects and I have given a few away here and there.

Nem

[ScubaLawyer]

Very nice collection. I'm still trying to come up with a simple (read: really inexpensive) way to display mine on a wall in my bar area. Mark.

[swimjim]

My double hosers sleep in plastic containers for the winter only coming out for an ice dive or two... My bicycle is on the trainer in the shop and I still ride it when I am not on a job site. Otherwise it's getting an airplane up in the winter sky on a nice day or running freight on the railroad down stairs. Can't wait until the early warm stretches in March when the MV Swimjim comes back to life!!!!

[Nemrod]

Very nice collection. I'm still trying to come up with a simple (read: really inexpensive) way to display mine on a wall in my bar area. Mark.

Display, lol, these are for diving. They sleep in a big Tupperwear container, all snuggled together with dreams of blue reefs, tiger sharks and sea turtles dancing in their cans. I am just servicing them, checking IPs and making sure they are ready to rock and roll come spring.

The Kraken SE is new, I am trying to get it to settle in and behave nicely for me.

Nem

[ScubaLawyer]

Very nice collection. I'm still trying to come up with a simple (read: really inexpensive) way to display mine on a wall in my bar area. Mark.

Display, lol, these are for diving. They sleep in a big Tupperwear container, all snuggled together with dreams of blue reefs, tiger sharks and sea turtles dancing in their cans. I am just servicing them, checking IPs and making sure they are ready to rock and roll come spring.

The Kraken SE is new, I am trying to get it to settle in and behave nicely for me.

Nem

Nem,

By "display" I mean hang them dive-ready on the wall of my bar, above the sunken conversation-pit formerly lined with orange-green long shag carpet (house built in 1976), so I can show them off to anyone who will stand still long enough to listen to my ramblings, yet have them ready to be plucked off the wall as I see fit for any impromptu night or day dives that crop up at a moment's notice AT ANY TIME OF THE YEAR here in sunny Southern California when King Neptune decides to calm the seas and clear the water of the Pacific Ocean and I look out my living room window at the ocean and decide to go for a dive.

Congrats on the new Kraken SE. From the land of run-on sentences, I am suitably jealous. Mark

[rhwestfall]

I need to get my "courage" up to use my DH regs in the ocean..... My Kraken (Series 1 - and I consider it special as it is that first run) sees a bunch of local diving here in the Greal Lakes and the Niagara River as well as my "pimped" PRAM (fairly rough cosmetically, but it is DIN so it isn't really travel friendly). The other two are very cherry, one sitting on my book case at work (HPR/Cyclone), and the other one (HPR/Cyclone) ready for a local splash when I loan the Kraken to someone to try while diving with me. I've seen bad things happen with salt water regs, and would be heart broken to mess them up. Yeah, okay, I'm a wus....

I had bought the family (3 of us) MK-20/G250 reg sets cheaply for ocean trips, but I sure miss my DH when we are on those trips... We are headed to Curacao in March/April, and diving a DH would be fun. I guess I need to get another Kraken for salt water, or one I could stomach to "risk" (PRAM)....

[Nemrod]

Mr. Bob, you need to get that Kraken in the ocean . If you really are obsessive then Just rinse it after every day. By this I mean to remove the hoses and then the six case screws so that you can loose the six little O-rings that keep you from loosing the screws and then lift the diaphram out and rinse the interior. If you can put it on a tank and let it flow a little air so much the better.

As Luis reminds me every time, close the DSV when rinsing in a wash tank . Make sure the protective cap has an O-ring in it and is secure before dunking. Anyways, I know that you know all this and are just being a wuss about it . But some other folks new to DH diving might not.

The Series 1 nickel plating does seem to take on a delightful patina in saltwater. I usually do not clean my DD-6 regulator except after every trip, no during trip cleanings. Plus this last trip I managed to forget to put the protective cap on and got water in the first stage in the rinse tank. Oh well. I try to take enough tools for maintenance so I did take it apart and cleaned it up best I could one evening. But, we had not put the suit cases down when we came home before I had the Kraken apart and in distilled water. The ultrasonic cleaner and dilute solution cleaned it up good as new. Anyways, it has seen a lot of saltwater and so has my PRAM with no ill effects.

Most people do not take care of them which is why we find the horrible examples that were recently overhauled by an "old Navy guy" and are mint condition and ready to dive from eBait.

People can say what they want about the AL regs with the ACD, MC has dragged her Legend through sand, dropped it in saltwater, rinsed it without pressure and all the fun stuff. And when I take it apart, it is cherry mint inside. The ACD works.

Nem

[antique diver]

Very nice collection. I'm still trying to come up with a simple (read: really inexpensive) way to display mine on a wall in my bar area. Mark.

Properly dispose of the hazardous liquids in some of the bottles in your bar area and you will have more room for your vintage diving collection.
PSI Texas has a liquid disposal division if you don't know what to do with it.

[ScubaLawyer]

I need to get my "courage" up to use my DH regs in the ocean..... I guess I need to get another Kraken for salt water, or one I could stomach to "risk" (PRAM)....

Bob,

I wholly understand your wanting to keep your regs as pristine as possible. Here are my perspectives and observations re diving DH regs in the ocean. Since ocean diving is 99.9% of the diving I do I dive all my DH regs in salt water (VR-1, Polaris, VCR-2, Mistrals, Phoenix HPR Navy, Phoenix HPR round label USD, Cyclone HPR DA AquaMasters, Series 1 Kraken, etc). That said (and with the exception of my Kraken which i'll discuss below), after a day, weekend or week-long dive trip I immediately and religiously (1) wash the reg(s) I used with a freshwater hose while pressurized on a tank, (2) dry the outside of the cans, (3) remove the reg from the tank and take the hoses off the cans, run fresh water through the hoses, and hang them up to dry, (4) open the cans, (5) remove the main diaphram, and towel dry any moisture in either can (I even run several dry Q-tips in the hard-to-get-to places on the inside of the band clamp ring and the groove where the main diaphram sits...), and (6) let the whole reg, dust cap removed, sit on a shelf and air dry for at least 24 hours. They stay pristine.

Now, for me, the Kraken is a slightly different story. I do steps 1, 2 and 3, above, but only take the cans apart for a yearly inspection. So far the Kraken design has provided 100% environmental protection to the first and second stages. Not so much as a hint of moisture inside. With all my regs I try and not put them on wet valves, get salt spray on the filter, etc...

On my first Phoenix I got in 2010 (approx) it was installed on my round label DA Aquamaster that I bought new in 1973. I dove that reg for years in salt water without taking the cans apart (even for a yearly inspection). Although it still breathed fine, when I finally broke it down the other day I found corrosion under the band clamp ring and on the parts inside the first stage itself. The HPR 2nd stage and the insides of both cans were fine. A little cleanup and all will be good.

Anyway, I guess the whole point of my rambling missive is to say that these regs were built for salt water use and a little preventative post-dive care goes a long way. I wouldn't worry about diving any of them in the ocean, especially the Kraken. On the other hand I'm sure Bryan wouldn't mind us each having separate dedicated beach-dive Krakens, boat dive Krakens, overseas-travel Krakens, lake-Krakens, river-Krakens, quarry-Krakens, and sit-on-the-shelf-topic-of-discussion Krakens for every room in the house. . Go dive that Series 1 in the ocean. You will have a blast! My 2psi. Mark

[couv]

...By "display" I mean hang them dive-ready on the wall of my bar.... Mark

Mark, that is an excellent idea-I'll to steal it. We are experiencing a spot of "Global Warming" here in Houston, so I might have to occupy myself by making more closet space.

[ScubaLawyer]

Very nice collection. I'm still trying to come up with a simple (read: really inexpensive) way to display mine on a wall in my bar area. Mark.

Properly dispose of the hazardous liquids in some of the bottles in your bar area and you will have more room for your vintage diving collection.
PSI Texas has a liquid disposal division if you don't know what to do with it.

Bill,

I'll just package up and send all my bar bottles to the Texas Center for Recycling Alcohol for Public Nocturnal Occasions. Mark

[ScubaLawyer]

...By "display" I mean hang them dive-ready on the wall of my bar.... Mark

Mark, that is an excellent idea-I'll to steal it. We are experiencing a spot of "Global Warming" here in Houston, so I might have to occupy myself by making more closet space.

Couv, what's all that white stuff? It's 83 degrees here by the ocean in So. Cal.

[antique diver]

Mark, you have a way with acronyms! Guess that means I won't get to help. My company would have done it at no charge.

[mrepi2000]

Very nice collection. I'm still trying to come up with a simple (read: really inexpensive) way to display mine on a wall in my bar area. Mark.

Hi. This is how I made a display stand for my one lonely double hose, I used scrap wood so it didn't cost anything.

[ScubaLawyer]

Very nice collection. I'm still trying to come up with a simple (read: really inexpensive) way to display mine on a wall in my bar area. Mark.

Hi. This is how I made a display stand for my one lonely double hose, I used scrap wood so it didn't cost anything.

That's beautiful and inventive! I like it. Mark