Chinese knockoff regulators

[Iggy97]

Today I took my TDS gull tek z regs to get serviced as the octopus was leaking constantly during my last dive, but when I got to the local shop I was told they couldn't service them and that they were a Chinese knockoff of apeks regulators. Furthermore I have heard about a lawsuit between apeks and a Chinese company but cannot find anything about it! Does anybody have more inside into this matter or into this particular regulators? I bought this regs with cold water diving in mind but now I'm thinking I might be better off just investing on a set from a recognized brand.

Cheers!

 

[Rusty Shackleford]

Apex knock-off? Likely from the factory in Taiwan that makes HOG and Deep6. Parts should be obtainable.

Isn’t Gull a Japanese brand?

 

[Iggy97]

Apex knock-off? Likely from the factory in Taiwan that makes HOG and Deep6. Parts should be obtainable.

Isn’t Gull a Japanese brand?

The brand is TDS (Technical Dive Systems) which should be Spanish if im not mistaken. Parts don't seem to be easy to acquire unfortunately, although I might just mail them back to the shop that I got them from for servicing.

Are they any issues surrounding this regs coming from the factory or should I not be worried? There's not much information on this particular ones! The owner of the shop commented them being worth 25 pounds to produce

 

[lexvil]

A good time to do it yourself, for the most part; parts is parts.

 

[cerich]

no lawsuit and made in Taiwan, parts and service should not be an issue just find a less unfriendly and more honest dive shop

 

[runsongas]

the apeks clone regs made in taiwan/republic of china work just fine. some dive shops may refuse to service regulators they are not dealers of, but the good part of the apeks clones is that going DIY is fairly straightforward.

 

[Pao]

Is it true that the Apeks DST is not patented or its patent has already expired?

 

[Angelo Farina]

Is it true that the Apeks DST is not patented or its patent has already expired?

See here: Does anyone know the story behind Apeks' regulators' clones? : scuba

 

[runsongas]

expired, original patent was in 1987

 

[buddhasummer]

Apex knock-off? Likely from the factory in Taiwan that makes HOG and Deep6. Parts should be obtainable.

Isn’t Gull a Japanese brand?

Yes,GULL is Japanese.