Right to repair shop list

[macado]

The situation sucks. In my case the majority of regulators I own are Apeks and the Aqualung/Apeks supply chain has been a bit unsteady. I don't see it getting much better even with the Mares/Head acquisition.

Luckily I was able to source o-rings in bulk and I bought a large supply of generic Apeks HP seats from ScubaGaskets. When I was in Malta last year M&A was happy to sell me any Apeks parts I needed so I bought a bunch of spares there.

I used to be able to buy Apeks parts/service kits from overseas but a lot of companies stopped shipping to the United States. This was even before all the tariff nonsense and it's even worse now.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I have almost all Scubapro and like I said I'm lucky I have a source right now for the newer stuff.
My older stuff I can get aftermarket kits for and they work fine.
My Conshelfs might be another issue when the time comes? IDK.
Hopefully I won't have to retire them.

 

[rsingler]

The solution is straightforward.
Patronize only Deep 6 Gear, who pioneered this concept.
Or if you prefer another brand, buy only from the models at Dive Gear Express, which as a major distributor insists that parts and kits for its models be freely available. Some each of Apeks, Dive-Rite, DGX, Mares and Poseidon.
HOG used to qualify, but is not free with their manuals and updates.
Force the manufacturers to change their practice.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

The solution is straightforward.
Patronize only Deep 6 Gear, who pioneered this concept.
Or if you prefer another brand, buy only from the models at Dive Gear Express, which as a major distributor insists that parts and kits for its models be freely available. Some each of Apeks, Dive-Rite, DGX, Mares and Poseidon.
HOG used to qualify, but is not free with their manuals and updates.
Force the manufacturers to change their practice.

Scubapro will never change.
The best we can do is secure a contraband source for parts. As soon as someone limits access there will be a market for an illicit source.
They are not going to stop it.

 

[macado]

If I had to do it all over again I'd buy DGX branded or DiveRite regulators from Dive Gear Express and never look back. They're a wonderful company to deal with, have good customer service and actually respond to emails and phone calls which is a rarity in the dive industry. If all dive shops and manufacturers followed their business model and were as open to sharing information then the dive industry would be in a much better place. The amount of fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) spread in the dive industry pisses me off to no end.

I'm truly happy to support any company that make their kits/parts available and believes in the "right to repair" model that is so lacking in the dive industry. I have a lot of respect for what Deep 6 does and their willingness to sell parts to end-users.

My issue right now stems from the fact that it would be cost prohibitive for me to change all my regulators over to a different brand. My wife and I have amassed quite a collection and I like being able to buy the same service kit for everything. Although we do have a smattering of Atomic, ScubaPro and HOG (gradually started trashing these as they need service), the vast majority are early 2000s-era Apeks. I know this is very much a "first world" problem but I'm not going to simply but replace ~20 regulators with another brand as long as I can keep all of these running with third-party service kits and sourced o-rings.

I did think about slowly adding some DGX or DiveRite regs into the mix but haven't really made any concrete decisions yet. I stuck with Apeks because of how ubiquitous they used to be in the diving world and tech diving. That part is definitely changing. I'm a bit worried they may go the way of Dacor with the Mares/Head acquisition but as long as third-party parts are available I'll manage..

TL;DR - If I had to do it all over again I'd support any company that offers service kits to end-users and/or offers appropriate training courses or makes their service manuals freely available rather than being forced to purchase after market and gray market parts and do secret hand shake deals with dive shops to get them to begrudgingly sell me parts for stuff I already own.

 

[halocline]

I think in Europe SP has to sell parts to customers, and if the US had a similar ‘right to repair’ law, they would do it here too. It’s insane that I can buy brake parts for my car, gas line, plumbing, and electrical parts for my house but not regulator parts.