Sell or store regulators

[jclin10]

Greetings

My wife and I bought regulators 10 years ago and won’t be using them for another 5-6 years, due to our kids. We recently moved our gear from our parents’ garage and now need to pay for storage. Will regulator technology have changed much from 10 years ago to 5 years from now? If so, we might just sell our gear and buy new gear in 5-6 years. If not, we can just store it. We are strictly occasional vacation/travel divers. And of course, in 5-6 years, we would be 15 years older than when we first bought the equipment, so ease of use and weight will mean more when we get back into diving than when we first started.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Jayfarmlaw]

What model regs? Keep in mind, most regs are variations of designs that have been around for decades. Unless you move up to titanium, weights are not going to be enough difference to justify a new reg for travel purposes....and even then not that much. Your hoses are now 10 years old so when they come back out of storage, a good service and hose replacement should have you back in the water. If you like them, I would just store them.

I have a couple of DACOR Extreme 2 regs from the 80's I got in a package deal. They breathe as good as almost any reg out there, but are the size of a cantaloupe and can't be serviced any more. As long as your regs are a good brand, they should be fine in 5 years.

Is it possible to just store the kids until they are about 20 or so and use the regs in the meantime? It's cheaper, less stress, and much more fun that way!

Hate to hear about the time delay on your next dive.

Jay

 

[rhwestfall]

Well, I'm diving regs from the 1950's, 1960's, 1970's, 1980's, 1990's, 2000's, and 2010's......

If a major brand, and not discontinued, shouldn't be a problem, and likely not much "improvement"...

 

[Tom Winters]

Easier to just sell ‘em and figure out what/if you need whenever.

 

[txgoose]

I cant imagine getting rid of my scuba gear. And the regs will keep. But as a one time user of storage lockers, I could have probably replaced everything in those lockers new for what I paid in rent. Sentimental value, store it. Stuff you think you like, sell it. IMO, based on rental rates, YMMV.

 

[ams511]

My advice is to sell it. This goes for all your equipment. My reasoning is as follows:

What you paid for the gear is a sunk cost and does not matter. So forget about it.

If you keep your old gear you will need to pay for 5-6 years of storage cost plus $200 or so to get the gear rebuilt when you start diving again. This is assuming that you don't need things like new hoses, etc. Storage units are not the best place to store dive gear.

If you sell, you have the money for the old gear, the money saved on the 5-6 years of storage cost plus the $200 rebuilding cost. That is several thousand dollars to put towards new gear. If you plan your purchases right, Black Friday, closeouts, etc. You can buy new gear pretty inexpensively.

Also how do you know your kids will be interested in diving when they are older? They may not care about it at all. You may also have other priorities once they are older. Dive gear generally does not appreciate in value, if you sell it then you are going to get less that you can now.

In my opinion the only significant improvement in dive gear will be in the computer area. In other areas the improvement will be evolutionary not revolutionary.

 

[divad]

On the other hand, how much room do your regulators take up? Why can't you just keep them under the bed? My doubles regulator's easily fit in a laptop computer bag on carry-on commuter flights..

You do have a bed.....right?

 

[chrisch]

I cant imagine getting rid of my scuba gear. And the regs will keep. But as a one time user of storage lockers, I could have probably replaced everything in those lockers new for what I paid in rent. Sentimental value, store it. Stuff you think you like, sell it. IMO, based on rental rates, YMMV.

I would agree. It's very very easy to spend more storing stuff than it's replacement value even if you throw it away rather than sell it. Furniture for example. Personally I would keep small stuff like regs assuming that you are paying some storage anyway. Trivial items like scuba gear certainly should not be a deciding factor.

Regulator technology hasn't changed enough nor will it to worry about the age of the regs. Make 100% sure they are totally clean and dry though or when you take them out the bag they will be green and worthless junk. Also think if you will still get parts if they are not popular brands (or if ScubaPro go bust!!)

I have stuff in boxes from years back that I guess will get thrown away when I eventually get round to sorting through it - we all keep far too much and if you actually have to pay real cash money to store it then you probably end up well out of pocket.