Just from my perspective, and I'm still new with rebreathers with less than 50 dives on mine.
When used often even with preventive maintenance rebreathers break. Wires oxidise, seals degrade, plastic warps.
So buying used is a risk as there is a very good chance that the rebreather is either close to a breakdown, or it already happened and you are not sure how well the patch job was done.
I could not afford a new one, so it cut my choices to stuff that has as little plastic parts as possible and with as simple electronics or even none at all.
In the end I chose a Meg (pathfinder) because I had a trusted instructor, but for a long time JJ was also a option.
After 10 dives I had a problem with one of the battery connectors, the wire was rotted trough and I had to cancel a dive and spend a afternoon with a soldering iron. I'll have to change out the molex connectors before the year is over too.
If I bought new I would been fine for another 2 years at least before the stuff started going down the hill, and if i did not know how to fiddle with the wires myself a head rebuild would be close to 1.5k euros and I would have to ship it internationally.
So in the end I did save close to 50% of the price by buying used, but it will take me another year or two to get the actual price, who knows what else could go wrong.
And of course no matter how easy self repair is there is always a added risk of me messing something up and ending in the A&I thread.
When used often even with preventive maintenance rebreathers break. Wires oxidise, seals degrade, plastic warps.
So buying used is a risk as there is a very good chance that the rebreather is either close to a breakdown, or it already happened and you are not sure how well the patch job was done.
I could not afford a new one, so it cut my choices to stuff that has as little plastic parts as possible and with as simple electronics or even none at all.
In the end I chose a Meg (pathfinder) because I had a trusted instructor, but for a long time JJ was also a option.
After 10 dives I had a problem with one of the battery connectors, the wire was rotted trough and I had to cancel a dive and spend a afternoon with a soldering iron. I'll have to change out the molex connectors before the year is over too.
If I bought new I would been fine for another 2 years at least before the stuff started going down the hill, and if i did not know how to fiddle with the wires myself a head rebuild would be close to 1.5k euros and I would have to ship it internationally.
So in the end I did save close to 50% of the price by buying used, but it will take me another year or two to get the actual price, who knows what else could go wrong.
And of course no matter how easy self repair is there is always a added risk of me messing something up and ending in the A&I thread.
