Victor 2 Stage Regulator for $60 - Good Deal?

thay are good regulators (really good) and i know people swear by them, but if you have a Milwaukee already and a Swagelok metering valve coming i'd hold off.

if your not turning off the CO2 at night then a solenoid is useless. but my question is why aren't you turning it off at night? night is when CO2 isn't needed and plants take in O2 instead.

You can always at a solenoid later for $20-30.

The main reason people go with a two stage reg is to preven end of tank dump. However, if you think you'll ever purchase a pH controller, that prevents end of tank dump as well.

However, if you return the milwaukee, you're looking at:

$60 for the Victor(to prevent end of tank dump)
$20 for a solenoid(later)
Shipping on both $12

or

Milwaukee for $85
Return shipping $5
ph controller(to prevent end of tank dump) $100


So clearly, you can see that the Victor is the way to go....unless you want a pH controller anyway. However, either way it's only a difference of maybe $10-20 total.

The swagelok isn't a factor since you'll be using it either way.


And, using a solenoid to turn of co2 at night will really cut down between cylinder refills.

We've had some pretty long discussions in SFBAAPS about this, and most of the evidence in support of leaving CO2 24/7 is anecdotal at best.

There seems to be no benefit to leaving it on, and it saves CO2/effort(in refills) by turning it off.

Some people swear by keeping it on 24/7, but that is there guy talking.


If you do turn it off, you should just be sure to have it come on in time to reach for co2 levels before lights on. For me, this means 2 hours to be safe.