Healthways scubair B

[spirou]

Hello,

I'm looking information about Healthways SCUBAIR B.

I see this regulator  in the Catalog 1971, i post the picture.

Begin 80' la spirotechnique catalogued  for few years the explorer a balanced piston also in line..

Respectfully

Fred

Screenshot_2024-02-23-15-53-06-659~3 by Patrick Michel, sur Flickr


Screenshot_2024-02-13-20-59-44-508~2 by Patrick Michel, sur Flickr

[nikeajax]

Bonjour mon ami! Healthways was weird about the things in their catalogs, as sometimes they had things that were never produced.

A while back I did a mock-up of what it would have looked like:



So, what actually went into production was this:



It shares the same internals as first piston USD Calypso, BTW, both were made by Sherwood.

The "B" was short-lived and became the Scubair-II:



It was essentially the same, but had multiple LP-ports, whereas the "B", on the right, in the image only had/has one.

I hope this helps,

JB

EDIT: I should note that they can be very hard to find, so if you find one, GRAB IT!

[SeaRat]

I have a whole collection of Healthways regulators, and I think Healthways made the Scubair II a "balanced piston" first stage. You'll note that the Scubair II has a much different design than the other Scubair regulators. Here's a more recent catelog:

Scubair II "J"002 by John Ratliff, on Flickr

Scubair II "J"001 by John Ratliff, on Flickr

448CE75D-ED70-4127-AC0E-94BD5E57657C by John Ratliff, on Flickr
Here's the Healthways Scubair II "J," but it also is not balanced. I think the covers have been swapped on this one though. That happened a lot with Healthways single hose regulators, as they were interchangable from year to year.

162FC964-C122-40CA-9620-EF54FDB09612 by John Ratliff, on Flickr
And here is their Scubair "300" sonic regulator, but again not a balanced first stage.

John

[artc]

So, what actually went into production was this:



It shares the same internals as first piston USD Calypso, BTW, both were made by Sherwood.

The "B" was short-lived and became the Scubair-II:


JB, I never knew the USD Calypso series was made by Sherwood. Where can I get more information on this? 

The Calypso III was my first regulator and I still have it. It’s super easy to service and it works as well as it did when I first bought it. Actually, with all the add ones over the years, it now a Calypso IV. It’s as rugged as they get. 

[nikeajax]

Hi Art, I don't think there is any to be had: I believe we as a group figured this out a while back.

Perhaps it was just cheaper/easier to have Sherwood do it, I don't know, but if you look at other regs, like from Sprtsways, Dacor, ScubaPro, etc. they all start looking alike. Like the USD Deepstar-I, it bares a shocking resemblance to the Scuba Star. I kinda think that that was bothering someone at USD, because the Deepstar-II is one of the weirder/uglier regs I've ever seen, a female-piston, and that lasted as long as a house on fire, not very.

Hope that helps some,

JB

EDIT: Jim Steele, from Steele's Discount Scuba may have mentioned something too

[artc]

Thanks JB.

[nikeajax]

Here's mine with the correct exhaust-tee:



JB

[SeaRat]

It appears that the Scubair B came right at the transition between Healthways and Scubapro, and that the Scubapro 7101 was very similar to the Scubair B. I'll give you more information a bit later, but that could be the reason that the Scubair B is so rare.

John

[SeaRat]

The Scubair B and the Scubapro 7100 came out in the early 1960s. Here's a paragraph from Frank Werthwein ("Vintage Frank" here) in his book, 50 Jahre Scubapro, Der Atemreglerhersteller.

7100

Die 7100 kombiniert eine balancierte erste Stefe mit einer down-stream zweiten Stufe. Scubapro bietet diese Atemreglerkombintion im offiziellen Katalog des Jahres 1963 sowie in einer Anzeige des Skin Diver Magazine von 03/1963 an. Leider ist über dieses Gerät sonst nichts bekannt. Angesichts der Tatsache, dass ein vernung Scubain "B" (allerdins ohne Reservesschaltung) angeboten wird, gab es unter Umständen technische Probleme bei diesem - für 1963 revolutionären - Design einer balancierten Stufe. Wahrscheinlich ist das der gleiche Regler wie der zwei Monte vorher angebotene "Polaris" - nur dass der Namenszug "Polaris" nicht auf der frontseitigen Gummiplatte auftaucht. Ob dieser Regler jemals ausgeliefert wurde, is fraglich.

Translation in Google Translate (not probably completely correct):

The 7100 combines a balanced first stage with a down-stream second stage. Scubapro offers this regulator combination in the official 1963 catalog and in an advertisement in Skin Diver Magazine from 03/1963. Unfortunately, nothing else is known about this device. In view of the fact that a vernung Scubain "B" is offered (but without a reserve circuit), there may have been technical problems with this - for 1963 revolutionary - design of a balanced stage. This is probably the same controller as the "Polaris" that was offered two months earlier - only that the name "Polaris" does not appear on the rubber plate on the front. It is questionable whether this controller was ever delivered.

There are more pages in this book about this transition, but I cannot yet scan them as I am up against my 1,000 photo limit in Flikr, and need to start paying them to scan any more. Also, I don't want to violate Vintage Frank's copyright.

John

PS, I think the description of "controller" above is actually the first stage. And there is mention of the second stage being a "Polaris," but without the "Polaris" name plate. Apparently, this regulator was never delivered.