Lesson learned! Bought a 30 pony bottle.

[arcFlash]

Never flowed any of my Apex. I worry about my OMS 02 reg on the pony when on ice dives but so far so good. It's not a performance reg.

I don't consider a free flow normal. I find it unacceptable. If I got one, I'd switch to Poseidon Xstream and twin 50's on a manifold for normal dives.

(for those that don't know, they fail closed, not open)

[DetectorGuy]

I use the Aqua Lung Glacia first stage and second stages for my primary breathing gas. An old Aqua Lung Conshelf piston reg for the 20 CF pony. The Glacia is Aqua Lungs premier "cold water reg" (even more so than the Legend Supreme) but it is not immuned to free flows. I have had a few prior to having it tuned to breathe harder, and a few after that. These Glacias have "heat exchanger fins" on the first stage and in two places on the LP hoses. These help transfer the heat from the "warm" 34 degree water around it to the air stream in the first stage. Most free flows start at the first stage and not the second. I have seen divers attach a neoprene sock over the first stage with a reusable sodium disk type hand warmer in it to keep the first stage "warm". I accept the fact that free flows happen and deal with them as they do. They are frustrating for sure but easy to deal with. I have not used my pony to get me out of trouble yet, but someday I will. I turn the air on for the 20 cf pony every dive (some people don't and this could force water into the first stage from the water pressure if it is not a sealed reg). At the end of the dive I turn the air off and bleed the air off the reg. After several dives this lowers the pressure in the tank somewhat. When I get down to about 2500 PSI in my pony, I will use up this gas on a dive and get it topped off to 3000 PSI.

[Adam6521]

If your at 1000lbs. or your target. than it free flows?  Than how long you gonna be able to breath off of it???  So they are nice to have, and just eases your mind a bit.