Gear Review: Mares Planet 88X Regulator (Watch Video)
In a video produced exclusively for Scubaverse.com, Jeff Goodman reviews the Mares Planet 88X regulator.
What makes the PLANET 88X TBP performance so outstanding?
The Planet 88X TBP means breathing without restrictions. You won’t feel any cracking effort or mechanical resistance; you’ll simply breathe as if the air were just there. That’s our definition of NATURAL BREATHING 2.0! Another outstanding feature is the consistency of its performance. We’re not talking about a best-case scenario; the Planet delivers the same impressive results dive after dive, in all conditions.
How do you achieve that feeling of NATURAL BREATHING 2.0?
The secret lies in a reinvented valve system:
Mares AIRMATIC – a fully pneumatic valve, with no springs and no old-school mechanics. Instead of breathing against the increasing resistance of a compressed spring, you breathe with the flow. AIRMATIC uses pneumatic force, constant and smooth throughout every inhalation.
How about reliability?
Reliability, and therefore also safety, are enhanced for three key reasons:
• Upstream Technology: In the event of a malfunction in the first stage that causes the intermediate pressure to rise, a traditional downstream valve will open uncontrollably and begin to freeflow.The result is an unusable second stage and a potentially critical situation. With AIRMATIC’s upstream design, following an increase in intermediate pressure, the valve closes more. Excess gas is safely released through the overpressure valve on the first stage, so you can keep breathing from the second stage.
• Fewer parts prone to wear: AIRMATIC reduces the number of components in the second stage by more than half! Fewer parts mean fewer potential failure points—and virtually no components are subject to wear. The result? Reliable performance, dive after dive.
• Override Button: In the rare event of a freeflow, you can manually stop it using the integrated Override Button on the second stage.
Find out more at the Mares website here.
