Do regulators need breaking in?

It appear the all regulators creep a bit over time. The three I have settled down after a few dozen refills, so the creep takes many hours. For example my 2,400 regulator on my bottled Marauder creeps 200 psi after about 40 hours. But shot to shot says dead on.

Yes, there is a break in period. I just rebuilt an FX reg earlier this week. The tuning process can be tedious as the bellevue washers settle in. Those are the initial major movements. Then the fine movements will come over time as Alan described. 
Tom

breaking in a regulator is it fill and fire or is there anything else that should b done all new to me and lovn it

@hynzie - just keep shooting. It should get better over time. There's no real definitive number of shots or fills since each reg breaks in at its own pace. It shouldn't take too long though, especially with a new rifle that's being enjoyed (shot) often. 




Here's a pic of 2 regulators. (Never mind the allen wrench, I took this photo for a different reason.) The one on the top had just been rebuilt before taking the pic. The one on the bottom is a spare that works well. The bellvue's on the top one are all in line (not broken in). The bottom one, they are all shuffled around (broken in). 
So, when the air passes through the reg, these washers slip, slide, and move around slowly until they find a happy place to settle in. 



Tom

"Pauly5"I plan to get as technical as "gonna shoot it heaps".

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LOL! Good for you! Keep that perspective as long as you can.

My regulator settled after about 100-200 shots. I have a Robert Lane reg as well and many of his designs do not use a bellvue washer stack and use a very stiff compression spring as well. I experience no creep with the rifle sitting unused.

Sorry for the noob question, correct me if I'm wrong. From what I'm reading, when the regulator has settle down it will stop creeping? Correct

I'm asking this because my royale's regulator look just like the bottom one in Tominco's picture. I'm a noob to air rifle and it's components, so thought it didn't look right. I took the regulator apart and lined the washer up, just like the top one. 

With lots of air and pellets the rifle is now shooting the same speed as before, 890fps. But if the rifle is left unused for awhile the first two shot are low in fps. With a dwell time of 30 minutes the first shot will be around 875fps, 1 hour dwell time it'll be around 860s. 

I think of regulator creep as air leaking around the sealing surface, ultimately ending up with plenum pressure equaling tank pressure. The shifting washers will only affect regulator setpoint.

All of this really isn't a big deal. Personally, I haven't seen the chamber pressure get anywhere near the bottle pressure. Of the three regulators I own, all eventually creep up about 100 to 200 pounds, but it takes several days to occur. This "overage" goes away after the first shot or two, which to me is insignificant. 

Yes, but some people experience more of a problem than others. Seems to be a bigger deal for RDHang. 

I made the same post here or on another site and received different opinions. So, I sent Huma an email asking the same question. I posted their reply. In short, they said "yes" they do have a break in period.

"RDHang"
I'm asking this because my royale's regulator look just like the bottom one in Tominco's picture. I'm a noob to air rifle and it's components, so thought it didn't look right. I took the regulator apart and lined the washer up, just like the top one. 

With lots of air and pellets the rifle is now shooting the same speed as before, 890fps. But if the rifle is left unused for awhile the first two shot are low in fps. With a dwell time of 30 minutes the first shot will be around 875fps, 1 hour dwell time it'll be around 860s. 

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My Royale does exactly the same... 2 or 3 shots to get up to speed. No idea why.

With regulators, time needs to be given for them to be settled into a normal working range. The particular area that needs to be worn in is the delrin surface which the skinny end of the piston shaft rests onto in order to seal in air into the regulated chamber. Because of the high air pressure, the shaft is pushed hard against the delrin surface, and at some point a happy medium is reached, when it can no longer be pushed further. (This is dependent on how high or low the BAR pressure the regulator is set to, of course) You can see this as the shaft will develop a fine round imprint on the delrin surface.