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Scuba Regulator

Perhaps the most important piece of equipment a diver uses is the scuba regulator. Certainly, a regulator is useless if the is no air cylinder attached to it, but it is a very complex instrument that regulates the flow of air for the diver. Things can get bad real quick if one of these malfunctions. Luckily they are designed with fail-safes for just such an emergency.

Early regulators were constant-flow, meaning that they constantly pumped air from the tank to the diver. These worked well enough, but were very inefficient and caused constant bubbles to come out marring visibility. Modern regulators release air only as the diver inhales and are therefore less of a nuisance in that regard. It is possible for a scuba regulator to become flooded if it comes out of the divers mouth. In this circumstance, the regulator has a purge valve so that all water can be blown out in a single forceful blow. This is called clearing the regulator.

In case a scuba regulator stops to function, becomes clogged, or frozen, there is a second simpler regulator called an ‘octopus’ which hopefully will still function properly in an emergency. The octopus is a standard feature of newer regulators and if the use of one becomes necessary, it is times to end the dive. Of course there have been instances where a diver’s regulator and octopus were rendered useless, which is why the buddy system is so important in scuba diving. There have been cases in which both divers had to ascend on just one regulator.

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