AP Inspiration VS. JJ CCR

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Thanks for the answers. To put the case in concrete terms:
I'm familiar with maintaining Apeks and Mares regulators. Is APD comparable with these or is it advisable to exchange the regulators?
I know I'll go to hell, because I'm not that orthodox, but I'm not interested in GUE :duck:
A used APD costs (in my country) about 2k€ less than a used JJ of the same age.
Which one would you recommend?

I have owned a JJ for six years. I live in the U.K. today I am on holiday about 3 miles from APD. I chose the JJ over the APD because of the then monochrome handset and the plastic box. There are a few details of the ADP, such as a big oring that gets removed for a scrubber refill, which are improved on the JJ.

The APD has a bunch of extra technology: temp stick, co2 sensor and BOV which JJ will not sell you. I have a Divesoft BOV which is ironic as I prefer stuff to be stock. One objection I have to the APD is that everyone (ok, half the owners) seems to mod them and the mods look like a JJ.

The JJ philosophy is being simple and robust. APD is prepared to be more complicated.

My JJ has had two failures, one was the ADV shutoff failing, I replaced it with an identical one from APD. I had a head failure too. One of the Shearwater boards died. It was about £250 to fix. I also had a HUD crushed on a boat. Another £250. It fell off a bench on a boat on another occasion, bending the stainless steel handle. 30 Euros.

I would buy another tomorrow. I could live with an Inspiration though, I think I might break it more though.
 
My JJ has had two failures, one was the ADV shutoff failing,
Fail or leak? Those "cylinder slider over three orings" designs are universal, and the orings regularly leak. I have failed a bubble check more than once, but it usually stops with a quick slide to off and back on.
I rebuild my ADV shutoff every year. I'm thinking of going to a slightly firmer Duro to see if that helps.

JJ won't tell you, but the ADV orings are 1.78mm x 10.82mm Buna-N duro 70, I think. That's a 2-013. I can send you spares, but they're available anywhere.
Screenshot_20210917-151903_Write on PDF.jpg
 
Fail or leak? Those "cylinder slider over three orings" designs are universal, and the orings regularly leak. I have failed a bubble check more than once, but it usually stops with a quick slide to off and back on.
I rebuild my ADV shutoff every year. I'm thinking of going to a slightly firmer Duro to see if that helps.

JJ won't tell you, but the ADV orings are 1.78mm x 10.82mm Buna-N duro 70, I think. That's a 2-013. I can send you spares, but they're available anywhere.
View attachment 682410
I had left it pressurised overnight, there was a loud bang and the gas came out. Opening and closing it made no odds afterwards, it let gas out. This happened midweek preparing for the weekend so I had time to replace it with one from APD. I think JJ replaced it FOC in the end, I have a spare now.
 
I had left it pressurised overnight, there was a loud bang and the gas came out. Opening and closing it made no odds afterwards, it let gas out. This happened midweek preparing for the weekend so I had time to replace it with one from APD. I think JJ replaced it FOC in the end, I have a spare now.
This did illustrate a slight advantage of APD, they can ship very quickly. Narked are very good too but don’t have absolutely everything. Direct to JJ is more hassle due to GDP vs EUR, Brexit etc.
 
Interesting! Sounds like an oring extrusion. The lands are pretty shallow. More impetus for me to try 80 Duro, if I can have it made.
 
I had left it pressurised overnight, there was a loud bang and the gas came out. Opening and closing it made no odds afterwards, it let gas out. This happened midweek preparing for the weekend so I had time to replace it with one from APD. I think JJ replaced it FOC in the end, I have a spare now.
Slight IP creep?
 
Slight IP creep?
In that case the ADV would have fired I think. Then I’d have come down in the morning to a the HP being way down - the cylinders were closed. It was a few years ago and although I get the first stages serviced now and again I have never had an issue force a service.

The point was really about the reliability of a JJ and the pros and cons of different suppliers. The part is the same part on both. A spare is £30, so I have a spare like I have all sorts of spares of the bits that might cost a dive if yo7 drop the wrong bit.
 
I have dived both, but own an apd, the 2009 version, but updated with the 2020 handset. It worked for at least 28 dives over 100m with a max depth of 135m (that was my deepest dive till now).
I have done the (old) EOL in the Landenouse cave (86m, 1241m in the cave), have done the big 8 in the Ressel, tried to find the Bivouac hall (but had a scooter problem, other dive we were too slow, then my buddy for such dives lost interest in diving), have done wrecksdives (also on wrecks over 100m depth), etc.

On JJ I have less experience, I did a user course. But my buddy on the deep dives had a JJ with the scrubber as you buy it.
He had leaks on the adv, a cellproblem, a hud problem, and the cannister was not round anymore after transport in a plane. That was hard to fix that again.

I had on the apd cell problems, a broken cable (the first cables of the 2020 were crap, they now have better ones), leaks in flowstop, and on the old handset broken buttons.

The bmcl and the fmcl of apd I have, there is no big difference, but the bmcl are more smooth as your front is free.

I also own a sidekickclone. Further I have dived Poseidon, Megalodon, Hollis Prism2, Kiss Classic, XCCR, and maybe I forget some.

Maybe there are better units as the apd, but for me it works well and I can do the dives I want. So I don't see any need in buying another unit. 2 are enough.
 
APD's are ugly
JJ is sexy
JJ is the obvious choice
Most AP Inspirations I see have had the plastic yellow box replaced with something else - G-box, Kent Tooling, etc., etc. Once done, it's much harder to tell the difference between them -- at a glance.

If you've the opportunity for a recent DiveCAN (i.e. digital) JJ, go for it. Excellent box with very few people saying anything bad about them.

If price is the issue, then AP units are cheaper second-hand than JJs.


A friend bought a cheap AP Inspiration. Cost him thousands to fix; a head service was £1k/€1.2k/$1.5k. On top of that it needed a new lung (old one fell apart) and endless fiddling to get it to work reliably.

Sometimes the cheapest aren't the cheapest in the end.
 
A headservice is for sure not that much. If he had such costs, the lid was cracked.
Also when lungs fall apart. Then he did not check the unit with a positive and negative test. I have the lungs from 2009 and they are still not leaking. So this is not normal for an apd ccr.
 

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