 When the Royal Master came out in 1964,
it was
advertised with this opening line: A
balanced First Stage in the famous AquaMaster gives this "King of
Professional Regulators" an even smoother performance under all
possible demands. After rebuilding hundreds of Royals and DA
AquaMasters, I've been able to note the differences between the two and
other than cosmetics, the only differences are in the nozzle and nozzle
parts. Because the Royal is "balanced", it has a larger spring block
with a spring on either side, and this requires a longer nozzle to hold
these extra parts. A
"balanced" regulator permits easy
breathing and dependability to remain constant over all ranges of
cylinder pressure.
 The Royal was also advertised as having a larger orifice for better flow at depth.
It took me a while to find this "larger orifice", but I finally
discovered that the nozzle "volcano" orifice is .110 inch, while the
late model DA AquaMaster is .092 inch. It's interesting to note that
the older dull chrome AquaMaster nozzles are even smaller at .080 inch.
The nozzles are interchangeable between the Royal and DA AquaMaster
because everything else on these regulators is identical. More than
once I've purchased a "Royal" AquaMaster only to find out that it was a
plain AquaMaster with a Royal label. But there is an easy way to tell
the difference without disassembling the nozzle. Because the Royal
nozzle is taller by about 3/16 of an inch, there is more play in the
yoke on the Royal and it will move up and down about an 1/8 of an inch
whereas the AquaMaster yoke only has about 1/32 inch up and down travel.
 You can upgrade
the Royal high pressure seat by using one from
a newer Conshelf/Titan single hose regulator. The new seat is
Teflon®, as opposed to the Royal's rubber seat, and it will last
longer and withstand higher tank pressures. When using this new seat,
you will also have to replace the original push pin (part no. 1046-18)
with a
longer one of the correct length. The nozzle springs should also be
replaced, since the original springs tend to get weak with age and can
cause a
free flow with 3000 psi tank pressures.
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