Vintage Double Hose

During the late 1980's, I was in my early teens. I developed an insatiable love for all things diving. Being a gear junky soon followed. I was not satisfied using the equipment at home, I needed my own gear. My father soon rewarded me with a conshelf regulator. I remember him telling me, "This regulator can doing all the diving that you will ever want to do." I dove the hell out of that regulator but was soon misguided to believe that the plastic second stages that were in nearly every image in skin diver magazine were the only way to go. In the years that followed, I had more regulators than I could count. Although many were excellent, none were better than the conshelf.

Several years ago, I remember reading that after a forty year production run, the mighty conshelf was discontinued. I was not overly worried because I had several in my inventory, and I knew that parts would never be a problem. I thought that the days of a shiny new conshelf were over, until….

I recently purchased what appears to be a new production conshelf 14. It has the latest exhaust tee and adjustment port. The serial number does not appear to reflect a year of manufacture. Does anyone here know, Is the mighty conshelf back? Here is a picture of my acquisition:

Aqualung made the Conshelf in a model called the "14", as in not "XIV", which featured a modern exhaust tee and port for the second stage case. They made them at least until the early 2000's, as the shop I worked at ordered some for the Navy. I am not sure if they still actively manufacture them, but they are listed in the military and public safety catalogs for Aqualung.

Here is a link to the 2014 Military catalog, which still offers it:

http://www.aqualung.com/militaryandprof ... _Guide.pdf


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I was pleasantly surprised to see that the USD J-Valve is still in that catalog!

Most Navy units still use them, and the solid bar manifold as well.


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antique diver wrote:I was pleasantly surprised to see that the USD J-Valve is still in that catalog!

I hope that the Navy is not paying what the XS Scuba j-valve costs...

The Navy is paying big money. They still dive the j-valves and I talked to a dive shop owner at Little Creek in VA that just ordered some j-valves for the Navy and they were paying around 200 bucks apiece for them. I would hate to see what Uncle Sam pays for the solid j-valve doubles manifold.

I also fell for the plastic reg hype and replaced my Conshelf 14 for the SE 2 plastic reg when it came out. I also had other Conshelfs like the 22, etc. After a while my SE 2 developed a crack where the hose entered the second stage. Now I have basically quit diving anything but metal regs.

I was issued a set of USD Arctic regs as a cold water regulator by my dive team. It had a fancy heat sink built into it. In 38 degree water I had it freeze up when filling a lift bag. I have a bunch of Connies and they have always been reliable and have never froze up in similar situations. I have environmentally sealed first stages and they just will not let you down.I have tried to freeze them by pressing the purge for a long period and they continue to work. As far as I am concerned the Conshelf 14 will always be here to stay!

crimediver wrote:The Navy is paying big money. They still dive the j-valves and I talked to a dive shop owner at Little Creek in VA that just ordered some j-valves for the Navy and they were paying around 200 bucks apiece for them. I would hate to see what Uncle Sam pays for the solid j-valve doubles manifold.

There is so much red tape and extra hours of work involved in meeting requirements to sell and bid on contracts with the Feds that it drives the cost of selling them stuff up. I have service contracts with Dept of Interior that just drive me crazy at renewal time. They drive costs up with their requirements. Funny thing is, a long time back one of the contracting guys told more me more than once that I wasn't charging enough, so I relented and raised my rates.

While recreational then commercial diving sales stopped on the Connie 14 about 5 or 6 years ago, NIB units still pop up on E-bay. There will be Connies for a long, long time as they are indestructible and have parts availability the envy of all others.

Love those Connies, MR-12IIs and Mk5/R109s as they are all great vintage single hose regulators.

USdiver wrote:While recreational then commercial diving sales stopped on the Connie 14 about 5 or 6 years ago, NIB units still pop up on E-bay. There will be Connies for a long, long time as they are indestructible and have parts availability the envy of all others.

Love those Connies, MR-12IIs and Mk5/R109s as they are all great vintage single hose regulators.

I see now that a few of the commercial diving suppliers still sell new conshelfs (some at great prices). I may have to pick up one for my son next.

scubapeter wrote:

USdiver wrote:While recreational then commercial diving sales stopped on the Connie 14 about 5 or 6 years ago, NIB units still pop up on E-bay. There will be Connies for a long, long time as they are indestructible and have parts availability the envy of all others.

Love those Connies, MR-12IIs and Mk5/R109s as they are all great vintage single hose regulators.

I see now that a few of the commercial diving suppliers still sell new conshelfs (some at great prices). I may have to pick up one for my son next.

Amron wants more than $600 for a 1st/2nd stage set - which is a little out of my price range. If you see something more affordable, let us know.

Does anyone know who's making the parts for Kirby Morgan? The KB hats are still using the super flow reg, which is another Conshelf 14 knock-off. I'd bet money the parts are identical.

sitkadiver wrote:

scubapeter wrote:

USdiver wrote:
Does anyone know who's making the parts for Kirby Morgan? The KB hats are still using the super flow reg, which is another Conshelf 14 knock-off. I'd bet money the parts are identical.

If I recall correctly, the 2nd stage seat and orifice are larger on the Kirby Hat. I may have it confused with something else.

Northeastscubasupply.com. 100 bucks per stage. Hard to beat that...

I thought the KB super flow had a higher rate spring, a larger diameter orifice, etc. like BT mentioned. You can bias those to free flow on purpose if I remember right. I'm not a hard had guy though. Andy on the forum (Superlite) would know more I bet.


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slonda828 wrote:I thought the KB super flow had a higher rate spring, a larger diameter orifice, etc. like BT mentioned. You can bias those to free flow on purpose if I remember right. I'm not a hard had guy though. Andy on the forum (Superlite) would know more I bet.


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I have a couple of Kirby Morgan Superflow Second stages (plastic body). These have several turns of adjustment on the adjustment knob and can indeed be adjusted to a significant free flow. I