What makes one regulator better than another?

[Hoag]

To answer your question of what makes a good regulator compared to a bad one, some things are easy to answer some may be a bit tougher IMHO.

When I was just beginning, and was renting my gear, I found that quite often, the rental regs would breathe fine at depth, but when the cylinder was low on air at the end of the dive, and I was at a shallow depth, such as at my safety stop, they were very hard to breathe. When I decided to buy my own reg, I described this to my LDS (not the same shop where I learned to dive at) and said I want a reg that would breathe as easy at the end of a dive as it does when I first hit the water. The LDS recommended a moderately priced reg that met my needs wonderfully.

One thing that I think makes a huge difference is comfort. I currently use an AquaLung Legend. It has a VERY comfortable mouthpiece. There are several after market mouth pieces that you can conform to your mouth. Comfort can make a huge difference in how you like your reg and whether you perceive it as a good reg or not.

 

[Wibble]

This raises the point about Local Dive Shops (LDS) and all their "employees" such as DiveMasters, instructors, etc.

Hardly surprisingly, these places will push the regulators they stock, the ones with the better margins, and ones they prefer. Those may not correspond with what people whom are, lets say, more neutral on this topic.

The fact of the matter remains, in my experience, the more expensive regulators offer nothing more than the base models except bling and higher prices.

And a warning; some regulators are awful.

Mouthpieces can be changed. Personally I prefer the Apeks mouthpiece; a friend who's borrowed my regs always changes them for ScubaPro mouthpieces. Horses for courses.

 

[lexvil]

Parts! Not parts themselves but long term compatibility and interchangeability, not all do this well, like the thread on oceanic purge covers other makers have similar issues and make changes to often that aren’t compatible with older Regs. Internally you see this less often, the above example of APEKS first stages, Zeagle is also great at this, any regulator they make take the same service kits. The leader in second stage compatibility is SP, same poppet and seat used for years, in a family line at least, the newer x20 (ie. 620, 420) have subtle changes in the case design so now the “s” series have a one piece air barrel more like the “G” series yet internally the poppet and seat remain the same. SP was/is great at parts interchangeability.

all modern regulators are good, some are more good than others.

 

[kelemvor]

Newbie to SCUBA. Looking to purchase my own gear.

Looking at all the regulators on the market, there is a very wide price differential between them.

What do you get when you spend the extra money?

My wife doesn't really like the rental regulator we are using for our classes. She says it's hard work to breathe in and out of. Will an expensive regulator provide for easier breathing?

Your scuba course materials should at least briefly cover the topic. There's a few "basic" points to know. Such as in this day and age you want a balanced first and second stage. Here's some info on what that means if it wasn't covered in your class: Balanced vs Unbalanced Regs: Does It Make a Difference?

Then the other significant thing to decide on is "Piston" vs "Diaphragm". This is a little more nuanced than balancing, and only becomes critical if you're diving in very cold or very filthy water. If you're diving in clear warm tropical waters like most people then you can safely disregard it. Here's some info on what this means if it wasn't covered in your class: Piston vs Diaphragm Regulator First Stages for Scuba Diving

After that, it is like any product in a competitive market. Quality of materials and how the company does at servicing the products. Everyone has their opinion and that opinion usually is in favor of the brand that a person sells (if you're talking to a divemaster or scuba instructor or salesman) . If the person you're talking to isn't a pro then they likely only have experience with one or two brands which they'll either love or hate.

My opinion is that you should get something from a local dive shop if there is one in your home town. You've got to get the things serviced every year or two, and having a local shop to deal with can make the process a lot simpler. Most shops will only service one or two brands of regulator, so if you buy something online that the local shop doesn't sell then you'll probably have to mail it off when it's time to get the thing serviced each year.

Personally, I own several Scubapro brand regulators. Scubapro makes some fairly high quality regulators and they're about middle of the road on price. They really fail on service, however. They advertise a free parts for life program, but don't stand behind it. If I had to make the decision over again, I think I'd go with Poseidon or Atomic Aquatics. Both of those were a little more costly than most Scubapro regulators, but each brings something I like to the table.

 

[emoreira]

Something that I guess was not mentioned is the fact of the design and features.
Balanced first stages are more complex than non balanced and so more expensive, but for deep diving they are recommended. There are a lot of piston non balanced first stages. I don't know of any diafragm non balanced first stage available now.
Further more, balanced second stages are easier to breathe than non balanced. Also balanced seconds are costly and more complicated. Those even with regulated breathe effort, dive-predive knob and things of the kind.

 

[Bigbella]

I'd also chime in and mention potential service and parts availability, for whatever brand that you choose. An established company would, ideally, be more likely to support their gear, over the long haul, than, say, some Tall Toad brand that a local diver shop was currently flogging -- "at prices soooo low we must be crazy."

I have some Poseidon regulators, still in use, over thousands of dives, from freezing temperatures to the tropics, for well over three decades, for which I can and still do purchase rebuild kits -- right down to pistons and seats for even discontinued models, originally produced when Jimmy Carter was still in office.

Aside from the aforementioned ease of breathing; the balanced versus unbalanced first stage designs; pistons over diaphragms; upstream versus downstream; and sundry other features; it finally comes down to a quite simple decision over how disposable you desire your gear to be . . .

 

[runsongas]

the sweet spot for regs is in the middle range. can get the lower end of the apeks/atomic regs or the mid range for most other brands or the apeks clones from dive rite/deep 6/hog in that area with a sealed first and balanced 2nd.

more expensive regs give diminishing returns past that.

 

[Wibble]

more expensive regs give diminishing returns past that.

If any perceptible benefit aside from price (the benefit being for the seller's margin).

Sorry for all the cynicism, paying through the nose for regulators is a mugs game. They need to 1) work under all circumstances (cold, hot, dirty) and 2) be reliable. That can be gained very cheaply by looking at old designs.

 

[BoltSnap]

This raises the point about Local Dive Shops (LDS) and all their "employees" such as DiveMasters, instructors, etc.

Hardly surprisingly, these places will push the regulators they stock, the ones with the better margins, and ones they prefer. Those may not correspond with what people whom are, lets say, more neutral on this topic.

The fact of the matter remains, in my experience, the more expensive regulators offer nothing more than the base models except bling and higher prices.

And a warning; some regulators are awful.

Mouthpieces can be changed. Personally I prefer the Apeks mouthpiece; a friend who's borrowed my regs always changes them for ScubaPro mouthpieces. Horses for courses.

Lots of misinformation.

BTW, the dealer almost always has the same margins on all models of regulators (or other products) from their vendor. The margin doesn't change based on regulator model. Vendors almost always offer a uniform discount to their dealers across the entire product line. Sometimes the vendor would offer less margin on tanks however. Different vendors differ on how much margin they offer to their dealers.

The fact of the matter remains, in my experience, the more expensive regulators offer nothing more than the base models except bling and higher prices.

Not true at all in the most part.

 

[Lorenzoid]

The rental regulators are probably in need of a re-tune/overhaul. Most inexpensive regulators within reason can be tuned and adjusted to breathe as well as the high dollar ones.

This is likely.

I rented regs from various dive ops in the Caribbean and Florida for some time before I bought my first set, and my impression was that reputable dive ops generally rent good quality big-brand regs. A dive op's rental reg fleet is often of a brand that they sell in their shop, hoping you will like the rental enough to buy a set, though the rental fleet may not be composed of the most expensive model of the manufacturer's line. High-volume dive ops simply may not have the manpower to service their fleet regs often enough to keep up with the heavy usage they get.

It may be a controversial assertion, but I believe most of us ordinary divers will not notice at any depth in the recreational range any difference in "work of breathing," as they call it, among any of the big-name brands' regs, so long as they are properly maintained. All balanced first stages, which I believe most are these days, should breathe fine at any point in the dive. My relatively inexpensive HOG regs breathe fine. On a test machine, sure, some regs will have better WOB than others, but I will maintain my assertion that the differences among properly maintained regs are hardly noticeable to most of us. Major differences in cost can be attributed to other features.