unknown regulator help

[broncrider]

A friend of mine had a bunch of gear he wants to sell and he brought over a set of regulators. i think they are quite old even though they look new. I cannot find any information about these can anyone shed some light on the Seapro fail safe system. It look like the one in the picture.

Jay

[monant]

There may be some on E-Bay as vintage scuba equipment. The descriptions may give you some of the information you seek.

[brandon]

The regulator is from the late 70s / early 80s. The failsafe system is kind of funky - if he still has the first stage. It was designed to inflate the BCD when the tank hit 500psi or you stopped breathing. Hrm...

Likely has curiosity / collector / vintage value only =) Company went bellyup in the 80s.

-B

[MSilvia]

I found the following blurbs on various websites... maybe they'll be helpful to you.

"In 1978 Watergill became Seapro"

"Seapro ceased operations over 15 years ago. Parts have been unavailable for over a decade"


"It is two balanced piston regulators in series to form one big regulator. Either piston can fail and the regulator will still work. The Failsafe System regulator would also sense if the diver stopped breathing. Pressure would then build in the first stage, and slowly inflate the BC automatically, bringing the unconsious diver to the surface."

"in this test I was using the FSDS-100 which was Watergill's "fail safe" regulator with 2 partially independent piston 1st stages in one block that was designed to automatically inflate your At-Pac if you stopped breathing or if your tank psi fell below 500. Well, I have never been able to get it to actually work; the factory set up is for the primary side to have an IP of 160 and the reserve side to have an IP of 210, when you stop breathing the high side leaks into the low side and over pressures your down-stream power inflator. I put the regulator on the bench and find that the low side is only showing about 120 and the high side is 145 psi. So I disassemble the unit and wipe it all down, re-lubricate all the o-rings and reassemble. By just doing that I was able to get the low side up to 140 but the high side went to 230! Yikes, considering lp hoses are only rated at 250. No wonder you don’t see many of these regulators around. Base on the high side reading I don’t believe I will ever actually used this other than in the pool."

"I still believe the FSDS 2nd stage is smoothest breathing regulator ever produced, it may not have been the highest performer, but it breaths like silk, it was rated "C" by the US Navy. Some of the performance problems may be attributed to the poor performing 1st stage, which has a pretty significant ip drop when you breathe from it, about 40 psi (same with the FSDS-10). I hooked up the 2nd stage to my Apeks DS4 1st stage in the evening (the Apeks drop is only 5 psi) and cranked the ip up to 160 per WaterGill spec, and I will take it beach diving again set up on that first stage and see how it works. My guess is that the 2nd stage is starving for air due to the poor first. BTW, don’t tell my wife I have all these extra regulators!"

[broncrider]

Thanks for the help. He has the first stage and complete octo. I was just curious about it. I guess i can hang it in the shop and maybe somebody will collect them in the future.

Jay