Let me give you my side on Sherwood.
When I first started diving there wasnt much out there. The main companies were USD and Heathways. Lots more but those were the two we always heard about and had access to.
So I started cutting my teeth with USD. Then into the Navy where it was ALL USD gear and Heathways was grounds for a discharge if you got caught using it.
I get out of the service and stayed loyal to USD for another 6 years when I started experimenting with others. This was easy as I had a government budget to pay for the experimenting.
After a few years of testing under some very unusual conditions and lots of ice we had made some decisions. First was Poseidon but initial cost, service cost and comfort for what we do moved them a slight bit down the list.
Next in line was Sherwood. Like the Poseidons the only time we could get the regs to fail on a dive was when we made them fail. Initial cost, very low service cost, all the adjustments you could want and an under arm hose has kept them in front.
That was a lot of years ago and today my entire team is in Sherwoods. It really doesnt matter which model as they all do good in the ice but we use the Maximus.
I like the people that say they dont breathe very easy. Well, if they dont breathe easy then what would they consider easy? You can dial it up to go positive pressure in a full face and free flow if you so desire and it CANT get much easier than that.
The dry bleed system keeps the first stage very clean and keeps repairs waaaaay down.
If I had to pick a reg that I would HAVE to use for the rest of my life it would be a Maximus. My team mates feel the same way.
We have frozen up about every other make of reg out there when it was tuned to the factory recommended specs. Even the ones that claim to be the best ice free regs were frozen up. I think a reg should perform well without having to add a kit to prepare it for ice or other diving conditions.
Scuba Pro makes very good regs but I WILL NOT use them under the ice. We worked with other divers that were a SP users as well as testing some of our own. They were the first to fail and during the testing ALL of them froze and all were adjusted on the low end for ice. Not one Sherwood froze, hummmm which way would you go?
Sherwood makes a truck. The others make Sports Cars. I would much rather use a truck for carrying the work load than try it in a sports car.
Gary D.