Is it possible to build a regulator without a reg seat?

[PlawB]

One of the crummy things about old regulators is finding reg seat replacements. Thankfully, there are a lot of people on ebay and even on here who 3d print or press new reg seats, to keep our old regulators going.

Would it be possible at all to build a regulator that just uses common o rings and doesn't need a reg seat?

[Toestr]

All regulators need a seat. Some regs use an oring as a seat. I like those for future proofing.

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[Roger7pball]

Yep, MaxFlo

[Trbo323]

Without a seat? Yes they exist, you are looking for a "floating poppet" regulator. They use a Schrader valve instead of a seat. In theory the Schraders can be replaced as long as anyone out there makes them.



In reality the companies that make floating poppet regs never tell the players the specs of the Schrader so people only go to them to get replacements. So while the Schraders are typically an off the shelf part, people don't know which one to get should the company ever go under

Bob long torpedos and palmers regs are 2 examples of floating poppet

To build a regulator with o rings only, technically I don't see any reason why you couldn't although my suspicion is that it would be inconsistent as you would most likely be using a spool valve as the separating seal.

You could basically use a poppet in the place of the Schrader valve in the floating poppet design. The vanguard Creed in example uses an o ring as the sealing surface of the poppet valve itself. The problem though is it's easy to miss align the o ring and then it doesn't seal

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[superman]

examples of regs that dont have orings or seats for seals are the dye hyper 1 and the early macdev regs. i think both used delrin pieces for reg seats that eventually wore out.

[Spider!]

The AGD 3k Flatlines are all o-ring designs. Well, I think they still have the over-pressure seal in the piston(?). That piston design would work as an hpr.

[Spider!]

Shane-O, the o-ring reg seat is what makes the 3ks still serviceable. The 4k Seat is a trouble spot. They both have the reg pin attached to the piston. I guess TK couldn't get the o-ring to behave at 4k. I have a 3k regulating 12 grams, which works great.

[Shane-O]

Yeah the higher the tank pressure, the higher the seat has to be so it does not deform on the tank pressure side.

[Spider!]

I wonder if an HPR of this design would need some higher flow modifications. My 12g use is on a pump. I recall knowing the pressure of my Automag HPA tank by how it was bouncing. Once it got to around 1.5k, the bounce was starting to die down (900 out). I think the RT reg pin was just slowing down since there was no shootdown, but that still means that the reg didn't have to keep up with more than about 12-13 bps at that pressure.

[k_obeastly]

Probably terrible for consistency and I would guess dangerous but a bottom line reg could be made that uses the pin valve of your air tank to stop flow and regulate pressure.

[Trbo323]

Probably terrible for consistency and I would guess dangerous but a bottom line reg could be made that uses the pin valve of your air tank to stop flow and regulate pressure.

That's basically what a floating poppet is. But instead of going from tank pressure to operating pressure you are going from tank output to operating pressure.

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[Spider!]

Here's the 3k Bible by CaptainNeeda

https://www.mcarterbrown.com/forum/paintball-news-aa/ask-the-experts/1065-agd-flatline-rebuild-guide-56k-beware

[latches109]

Reg seats are great at providing consistent pressure with good flow.

[flyweightnate]

The AKA SST used an o-ring captured in a tapered poppet. In theory, the poppet face "collision" keeps the squish of the o-ring from being a factor in setpoint. They didn't sell them for long, though, so I'm betting the metal-on-metal design has wear issues.

The 2L and Evolv Pi might use a spool instead of a seat. I don't remember for sure.

I think the best solution would be a hard (70 D instead of 90A) Teflon ring, so it acts like a solid seat but is off the shelf.

[Spider!]

Metal seats - wear, or just a bit of dirt. Those things are picky af.

[latches109]

even harder seats at low pressures can be picky

the designs on most paintball regs are not generally the issue, more the execution of those designs. if that makes sense.

[Spider!]

I thought I had some internal drawings of these regs at one point...just as a matter of design comparison.

They have some interesting specs for medical multi-stage regs

https://www.beswick.com/catalog/product-detail/PRD4HP/?grandparentName=Regulators&grandparentSlug=regulators