September 1997

Vol. 12, No. 9     What's this?

Navy Tests Two Sherwood Regs for Cold & Deep

from the September, 1997 issue of Undercurrent  

The U. S. Navy's Experimental Diving Unit (NEDU) tested two Sherwood regulators, the Maximus and the Blizzard (1995 models), for reliability in deep, cold water. The Blizzard got the okay for Navy use in water down to 28°F, maximum depth 100 feet, for no longer than 40 minutes. The Maximus did not make it onto the list; its test results showed that it was twice as likely to freeze up as the Blizzard on both bounce-dive and fixed-depth test profiles.

Before you throw out your Maximus when the water turns cold, take note: the report also mentions that the Maximus is frequently used by Antarctic scientific divers, in cold water and depths of 70 to 118 feet, with only a 2-3 percent failure incidence.

The report also notes that both regs were susceptible to occasional but vigorous chatter. But at these temperatures, it was unclear to me whether it was the divers or the regulators that were chattering.

J. Q.