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diver gadget

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Brampton, Ontario, Canada
Anybody know anything about old regs and there value?? I just picked up from a guy who was just looking to get rid of an old tank reg and harness. The reg is a Dacor reg probably from the late 60's. In almost perfect condition as according to him it only has 5 dives on it. It looks perfect. The hoses are still great, it still works as I hooked it up to a tank. I figure on hanging it up on the wall but just wondering if anybody knows what something like that would sell for on ebay or the like??
 
For single hose regs, they don't start climbing in value 'till you get into the '50s & early '60s. I picked up a Nemrod Snark II from around 1958, still in the box and in new condition, paid $125 for it. You may be able to squeeze $50 out of a Dacor in mint condition, but it'll depend on how bad someone wants it. A lot of guys will collect just 1 or 2 brands. If yours happens to be a model they need, you're in luck.
Chances are your reg may be from the mid to late '60s though. Take a look at the mfg date on the tank, it may or may not correspond to the date of the reg. If the gear spent most of its life in a closet, chances are better than 50/50 that they're from close to the same date.
Chances are that your reg may be able to be put back into service. The o-rings can be replaced, but specialty items like HP seats & diaphragms can be a bugger to find.
It'll still breathe like you're sucking through a straw though.
:mean:
Go ahead & get the tank hydroed, it'll probably pass with flying colors. If it has a J valve, you'll want to have your reg tech remove the innards, turning it into a K. You want to do this because the average shop monkey has never seen one & may try to fill it with the reserve handle in the UP position, giving you 300 - 500 psi in the tank while showing 2250 on their guage.
 
The tank was made in 66. Thats when the old owner figured the reg was made. I more or less bought it to hang on the wall but was interested to see what it might be worth. Thanks for the reply.
 
There is a certain status element to actually diving with the old gear around here. It says, "I'm not just some saleman's dream; I'm part of history." If you take it to the pool & subsequently the ocean, please tell us how it went!
 
I have a Voit regulator, the one with the metal purge "button". It has a serial number of something like 00250. I have it on a display shelf, but I have dived it several times just for fun. It looks like it is brand new.

It was not bad underwater at all, and I was surprised at the performance. As someone said, it was sorta-like breathing through a straw at depth, but pretty much okay above 30'.

I also own a Watergill "Failsafe" and an old Scubapro rig from the early-mid 70's. The Watergill 1st stage and the Scubapro 2nd was my primary diving setup until a few years ago. The Scubapro is still used as my safe 2nd, and sometimes I think it breathes better than my Delta. The Watergill was a wonderful, easy breathing regulator, but parts became impossible to find. It was damn ugly, but I didn't care......

Along the same lines, my Watergill AT-PAC, circa 1976, works as good as new. It has a design flaw that made me quit diving it when it got old and when new parts, like the internal inflator hose, were hard to find, but it is still quite diveable.
 
The first regulator I ever bought was a US Divers Aquarius (unbalanced first stage looked a bit like the current Titan) back in about 1977.
In that nervous first year of untrained diving with no BC and a "J" valve the Aquarius was my lifeline. Maybe it wouldn't stack up against a modern high performance reg but my recollection was that it breathed very well.
Can't remember what happened to it (wish I still had it!)but I know I went through a lot of regs over the next 15 years looking for one that breathed as easy!
 

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