- Hi everybody,
and welcome to Scuba Diver Magazine.
I'm Mark.
And I've been teaching people how to scuba dive
for well over 10 years now.
So you'll probably recognize me
from the Simply Scuba channel
and even my own channel, Safe Diving.
For this video series,
I'm going to be going back to the basics of scuba diving
so that if you're just starting out
or even if you're just feeling a little bit rusty,
you can dive back in,
fresh in the knowledge in the scuba diving basics.
If you enjoy this video and find it useful
then don't forget to like, and share it online
so that your diving friends can see it as well.
And brush up on their skills.
If you have any comments, questions, queries,
or even corrections at any part of the video,
then let us know down in the comments below.
And we, or even our community will help you out.
So, let's get into it.
(upbeat music)
Hi, everybody.
In this video, I'm going to be taking a comprehensive look
at regulator fittings and tank valves,
because it's not a universal thing.
And you have quite few options when it comes to connections.
So when it comes to regulators,
you usually have two options
when it comes to fittings on your brand new regulator.
When you're buying a set of regulators
you'll usually have the choice between A-Clamp or DIM.
And the only real difference
between these regulators is going to be how they attach
to the tank or cylinder valve.
But there are some considerations
when choosing one or the other.
But first of all,
let's take a closer look at tank valves themselves
so that you can better identify which is which,
and which regulator can fit which.
There are actually about five or six different types
of tank valves around today in modern diving.
Although you'll only really see one,
maybe two of them the most.
So this one up here is called an A-Clamp tank valve.
And as you can see,
it has a sealing O-ring facing you,
an outlet for the air, and that's about it.
On these tanks
you can only fit a regulator with A-Clamp fitting.
These are becoming more and more rare
with newer valves replacing them.
For example, this is a modern 232 bar tank valve
and this is probably what will be fitted
to a brand new tank.
When it's in this state,
it can be fitted with an A-Clamp regulator
because it has this O-ring here.
But you can also remove this section
that we affectionately call a donut or an insert
with an 8mm Allen key.
Some require a slightly different sized Allen key
but most have settled on eight millimeters now.
So with this donut removed
you can now attach a DIN regulator to this valve.
So it's kind of the best of both worlds.
The third type is a 300 bar tank valve like this one.
And as you can see here, it has a longer valve.
So it has more screw threads.
This means that it can go to a much higher pressure,
but means that only 300 bar DIN regulators
can be fitted to it.
There'll be no adapter or doughnuts
that will allow you to fit an A-Clamp regulator
because A-Clamp regs can only go up to 232 bar.
Other tank valves are used for diving,
but these are usually quite specialized.
And you're probably won't see these too often.
But it's important that you can tell the difference.
So the first one is a N26 DIN valve.
And these are made for nitrox
in certain areas around the world.
These will have a slightly larger screw thread
than a standard DIN.
So you can only fit an oxygen cleaned regulator.
Or your DIN regulator doesn't fit nicely into it.
Check around the, kind of neck of the valve
and you'll probably have an N26 stamped into it,
which means you have to use a special regulator.
This is an oxygen valve
made for tanks that hold pure oxygen.
And as you can see, they require a very special fitting.
So there's little chance
that you can fit any old regulated dive with it.
And then you have some specialist tank valves
like Y, K and modular valves.
But these will be much the same
as the first and the second valves,
just with two fittings or four, two regulators
or some other kind of fittings.
Okay. Now onto the regulators themselves.
A-Clamp is the older of the two fittings
and can have a few different names.
Some divers call it yoke or even international
but A-Clamp regulators will have a loop section on it
like this.
So this section loops over the tank valve
and then this screw kind of locks it down into position.
The sealing surface here on your regulator
will kind of seal against an O-ring on the tank valve.
And that's, what's gonna create that seal
and seal that air pressure from leaking out.
These regulators will have a working pressure
of 230, 232 bar.
And we'll often see that kind of stamped on it
or laser etched somewhere like this.
So let's take a closer look at how you properly attach
and remove an A-Clamp regulator from the cylinder.
Okay. So for A-Clamp.
So the first thing is,
is you want to take a look at your cylinder valve
and make sure that you can see an O-ring on it.
Now, you can't see one on this
because it's currently in DIN configuration.
So what you need to do is fit a donut or an insert.
So this will have two different ends.
So it'll have an O-ring on either ends
and you want this one,
you can see how it's kind of flattened around this end
and then the rest is screw threads.
So this end is gonna go into the valve itself
on the cylinder.
And you want to make sure that that's nice and square.
If you meet any kind of resistance at all,
it might be that it's at a slight angle
and you're crossing the threads.
So this should go in with no effort whatsoever.
If you want to make life a bit easier
just use an 8mm Allen key.
And that just goes in finger tight.
You don't have to wrench it in
because the pressure does most of the work for you.
If you do that too much and you over-tighten it
then chances are, you might never get that out.
So yeah, everything is kind of finger tight.
You don't have to sort of wrench anything down.
So now we can see our O-ring
and it's nice and clean.
If it looks a little bit ropy
then you can always change that out.
Just get a dental pick or something,
just to get that out and replace it.
You want to make sure that it's nice and clean
and there's no kind of threads that you can see.
If an O-ring is going a bit thready.
It's just getting a bit old
and then air can start leaking out.
So now on to our A-Clamp regulator.
Now this is actually a DIN regulator
but with an A-Clamp adapter fitted on it.
This is all I had to hand.
Now, the first thing you wanna do,
is take out your dust cap.
So dust caps are these little guys
that kind of sit in that opening
and yeah, as the name suggests,
it prevents dust and contaminants from getting in.
And you're gonna unscrew this wheel section
and that retracts this kind of bolt here.
So I like to do it pretty much all the way
just to make life a lot easier
when you're going to fit it to your actual valve.
Get that out of the way.
You don't need that.
And then this is our sealing surface.
This is what's gonna seal what against that black O-ring.
And then when you're actually fitting it,
you wanna make sure that it goes on nice and square.
Plenty of space in the back.
Make sure that that sealing surfaces
is sealing inside of that tank valve.
And then when you're confident that it's nice and flat,
just again, very gently do up that screw thread
until the A-Clamp, clamps over that valve.
And again, just finger tight.
You don't have to wrench it down.
If you have to use your entire hand to really tighten it up.
That's too much.
Just a couple of fingers,
because again the pressures is doing most of the work.
Now remember,
I probably should have said this first, to be honest.
But regulators usually go over your right hand shoulder
and then everything else goes over to the left.
So make sure that it's going on the right direction.
Otherwise your regs are gonna come out your left side.
So regulators are usually over your right hand shoulder.
And then once that's in position,
with your tank valve handle
you wanna open this really slowly.
Because if you just wrench that open,
then it can damage your regulars.
And it's not really what they're made for.
That sudden whoosh of gas.
So the best way to do it is just to open it
a teeny tiny little bit.
And then once you hear that kind of quick (whooshes) of gas,
then you can open it all the way open.
And that allows for plenty of air flow.
When you're then taking it off,
close it all the way,
depressurize the regulator.
That's what most people forget to do.
Even after you've closed that tank valve,
there's still pressure inside the regulator
and inside all the hoses.
So just press the purge button on your second stage.
And that's all that sort of equalize that pressure out.
So then grab hold of your first stage
so it doesn't go anywhere.
And then just gently undo that screw.
And again, I like to do it all the way
so it's got plenty of space.
And then lifted away.
And at this point I find a lot of people on dive boats.
They like to open that cylinder valve out
to try and sort of push any water away.
I'm not a fan of that mainly because it's really loud
and it just freaks me out
whenever I hear a loud rush of gas on a dive deck.
And two, the one thing that you're trying to prevent,
water getting into your first stage.
You're actually blowing water in that direction.
So it's just a bad idea.
If anything, just a microfiber towel,
just over that opening,
just to prevent anything from going in.
Make sure that all around your dust cap
is nice and dry.
Put that back in position as quickly as possible
and then screw that down
so that no contaminant can get into the working parts
of your first stage.
And that's it.
That's basically how you attach and then remove
an A-Clamp regulator.
DIN is your alternative and comes in two varieties.
300 bar or 232.
Although 232 is very rare for DIN.
DIN stands for Deutsches Institut für Normung.
And will look like a screw fitting, kind of like this.
Unlike the A-Clamp,
DIN has a sealing O-ring on your regulator,
not on the tank valve.
And the screw attachment traps that O-ring
on the inside of that tank valve.
So it can go to much higher pressures than A-Clamp.
Unfortunately, because DIN is the newer of the two fittings,
it still hasn't integrated all over the world just yet.
And older tank valves may not be able to fit DIN regulators.
You can also of course,
get yourself an A-Clamp adapter
like what's fitted in this regulator.
If you're traveling and don't know what kind of valves
you'll will be using.
So let's take a quick look
at how to properly attach and remove a DIN regulator.
And now for your DIN regulator.
So DIN regulators, they have their own O-ring on them.
If I remove the dust cap
you can see that just here.
This one is kind of colorless
but the color doesn't really matter anymore.
They come in a whole range of different colors.
Black is pretty much the standard
but you can get some different colored ones.
And that means,
is that you don't need an O-ring in your tank valve.
So this one, as you can see, it has an O-ring.
It's gone insert fitted.
So what we need to do is remove that insert or that donut.
So just take that out with an 8mm Allen key
and just keep that to one side.
And now we're pretty much ready for DIN.
Just kind of like take a look on the inside of that valve.
Make sure the screw threads are nice and neat.
There's no buildup of anything nasty on the inside.
Take your first stage
as with A-Clamp.
Make sure that the regulator hoses
are going are going in the right direction first.
Take off that dust valve.
Just kind of keep that to one side.
And then what we're doing is we're going O-ring first
and you want to make sure
that that goes in as straight as possible.
Now the same with your A-Clamp.
There should be no resistance in this.
It might squeal a bit there.
They're quite noisy.
But it should never require any more than two fingers
to put it all the way in.
If you meet any kind of resistance
in the first couple of turns,
then back off, take it off and then try again
because chances are it's at a ever so slight angle
and those screw threads are cross threading again.
So you don't wanna do that.
That can damage your first age and damage the valve.
So yeah, any more resistance than two finger tight.
And it might be in the wrong way.
Once it's gone in about three or four turns at least,
if you then meet resistance, that's it.
So this is a 300 bar DIN screwing into a 232 valve.
So that's fine.
And yeah, as with A-Clamp, just kind of finger tight
because the pressure does most of the work for you.
And then it's exactly the same with the cylinder valve.
Just open it a little bit.
Let the whole system pressurize gently
and then you can open it all the way.
When you're done with it,
make sure it's nice and closed.
You don't have to tighten that too much neither.
This is another valve that a lot of people damage
by screwing it too tight.
Again, it's just finger tight
will do the work.
Depressurize everything,
press that purge button or an inflate button on your BCD
to depressurize the regulator.
And then it's just the opposite.
You're unscrewing it.
So get this DIN wheel and just unscrew that.
And eventually it will just come through.
Same as before,
make sure there's no moisture sort of around here.
Clean out that dust cap.
Sort of clean any water out of that first
and then replace that as quickly as you can.
Now, dust caps are not water tight.
So you can't now dunk this in a water bath or something.
The name dust cap is exactly that.
It stops dust from getting in
but it won't keep water out
if it's submerged like this.
So if you are washing your regulators,
try and do it once they're pressurized.
That way water can't get into the working parts.
Or at worst, try and use your thumb over the opening.
So you can get a water tight seal for a quick splash around.
But yeah, don't rely on your dust cap to keep water out
whilst your regulator is submerged.
So there are your two options of regulator
and how to fit them properly.
One big question that I often get asked is,
if you can fit a 300 bar DIN regulator
to a 232 bar tank valve.
And yes, that's perfectly fine.
You'll just have a little bit of exposed screw thread
but it'll seal in both a 232 bar valve and a 300 bar value.
Personally, I prefer DIN because it's just safer.
DIN valves trap that O-ring inside of the valve.
And it is virtually impossible
for that O-ring to slip and extrude,
whereas on an A-Clamp regulator,
because your O-ring is right here
just kind of trapped.
The high pressure inside
combined with a hit of jumping into the water
can cause that O-ring to move slightly
and air to leak out.
So hopefully that answered all of your questions
on regulators and tank fittings.
But if you do have any other questions
please feel free to let me know down in the comments below.
Okay, so now you're a bit savvier
with your scuba diving basics.
Don't forget to subscribe
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And don't forget to put your comments
down below in the comments.
Thank you for watching.
And of course, save diving.
(gentle music)