are secondary regulators actually different?

[BetterSense]

Are secondary regulators actually different internally, or do they just have different fittings?

If I want to use a primary regulator as a secondary, could I just unscrew the tank fitting and screw a barb in?

 

[day_trippr]

They're probably different inside.

If you look at a Taprite spec for one of their secondary regulators, you'll see it has a working pressure of 0-50psi and has a safety relief valve set for 60 +/-5 PSI. So, you wouldn't be able to use a secondary as a primary.

Whether you can use a primary as a secondary isn't clear. The "guts" are designed to function with input pressures as high as a couple thousand PSI. Whether it'll work with a pressure that won't burst an interconnecting hose from whatever you're using as a primary should be an interesting experiment...

Cheers!

 

[outside92129]

Taking your primary to use as a secondary should not be a problem, i've done it many times. If for whatever reason there's an issue, it won't be catastrophic- worst case it doesn't work so well. But if you have the gear, go ahead and try it.

Going the reverse may be a problem, depends on the reg. Some regs have a maximum input pressure (50-300psi), hooking one of those up directly to a tank will blow something out. Other companies often use the same regs for both primary and secondary (also depends on the model).