Anthony A.
Contributor
The Onyx 2 costs $600 cad from dans dive shop. Add in an octo, hoses and spg and you shouldnt be more than $1000 cad. For overseas service, apex is your best bet.
Choosing new regs (Deep6, Zeagle, Apeks or Mares)
- Thread starter KevlarCoated
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fraserpenny
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I love apeks! I however have the MTX in all black.. it’s sharp looking. Dove them on New Year’s Day in tobermory in 36 degrees water for 2 dives in a row.. no free flow in or out of the water... recommend service is every 2 years and you get free parts for life if you are the original owner
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How did you get all black? I thought they were military only. I could have just answered my own question I guess. Cheers.
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To the OP of the three you list Apeks would be the easiest to get serviced in NZ. I'll shout out to Apeks, reliable and super simple to service yourself.
admikar
Contributor
Can you elaborate?
happy-diver
Skindiver Just feelin it
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and consider budgeting for a copy of this one
SCUBA TOOLS Regulator Savvy (Spiral Bound)
thirty six dollars????? is that all?????
and then everyone will be on the same pages
second hand, every reg I've breathing through
SCUBA TOOLS Regulator Savvy (Spiral Bound)
thirty six dollars????? is that all?????
and then everyone will be on the same pages
second hand, every reg I've breathing through
The Mares 25XR 1st stage is designed/intended by Mares to be used in tandem in a tech/twinset configuration.
Personally I think this is a stupid design as it makes for a very limiting design with regards to equipment configuration unless one ONLY dives a double tank or H/Y valve setup.
Your desire to swap this between tech and single tank recreational setup makes this a poor choice for what you want to do.
Also, The DFC and vortex features look good on paper but in reality, in my opinion, are just design gimmicks that Mares has stuck with over the years, they use those features to differentiate themselves from the rest of the market but any advantage is really only realized under testing/laboratory conditions, in the real world, a diver will not realize any difference but it makes a good discussion point from a salesman point of view. Full disclaimer, i dive with a pair of old Mares MR22s that have the DVC and the Abyss 2nd stages have the vortex tube feature as well....I can't tell a difference between my regs and the aqualung titans one of my clubs stock or my wife's calypso reg set.
One nice thing about Mares is that they are simple/straight forward to service if one is looking to service them oneself, at least the MR22 is, the only issue is it can be a struggle to find parts for self-service.
The Deep6 regs come with a service kit so 2 years or so down the road you will have the parts already on hand for overhaul....that will give you a total of 4-6 years of service life before you will need to find parts again. If you are living in a place where getting parts from Deep6 will be a problem then you can call them to discuss what in their parts kit would be interchangeable with common parts found in other regulator parts kit....for instance, the high pressure poppet for the Mares MR22 and MR52 is relatively interchangeable with the high pressure poppet speced for some Aqualung regulators, and is readily available from Trident for shops to purchase.
Mares makes some good stuff...but being that they are an Italian company, they seem to take a well engineered product and then jack it up by prioritizing some aspect of form factor instead of function. I was just discussing this with an Italian colleague (I live in Belgium), and he agrees that the Italian mentality is in favor of something "new" every year. For skis, the companies will take last years product and put new caps on them to change the color scheme and call it new. For regulators the companies make some minor change to the exterior and hype it as new and better. I have seen it in the ski, diving, and cycling industries with Italian designed/made components...and I am sure it happens in the auto industry as well.
-Z
Personally I think this is a stupid design as it makes for a very limiting design with regards to equipment configuration unless one ONLY dives a double tank or H/Y valve setup.
Your desire to swap this between tech and single tank recreational setup makes this a poor choice for what you want to do.
Also, The DFC and vortex features look good on paper but in reality, in my opinion, are just design gimmicks that Mares has stuck with over the years, they use those features to differentiate themselves from the rest of the market but any advantage is really only realized under testing/laboratory conditions, in the real world, a diver will not realize any difference but it makes a good discussion point from a salesman point of view. Full disclaimer, i dive with a pair of old Mares MR22s that have the DVC and the Abyss 2nd stages have the vortex tube feature as well....I can't tell a difference between my regs and the aqualung titans one of my clubs stock or my wife's calypso reg set.
One nice thing about Mares is that they are simple/straight forward to service if one is looking to service them oneself, at least the MR22 is, the only issue is it can be a struggle to find parts for self-service.
The Deep6 regs come with a service kit so 2 years or so down the road you will have the parts already on hand for overhaul....that will give you a total of 4-6 years of service life before you will need to find parts again. If you are living in a place where getting parts from Deep6 will be a problem then you can call them to discuss what in their parts kit would be interchangeable with common parts found in other regulator parts kit....for instance, the high pressure poppet for the Mares MR22 and MR52 is relatively interchangeable with the high pressure poppet speced for some Aqualung regulators, and is readily available from Trident for shops to purchase.
Mares makes some good stuff...but being that they are an Italian company, they seem to take a well engineered product and then jack it up by prioritizing some aspect of form factor instead of function. I was just discussing this with an Italian colleague (I live in Belgium), and he agrees that the Italian mentality is in favor of something "new" every year. For skis, the companies will take last years product and put new caps on them to change the color scheme and call it new. For regulators the companies make some minor change to the exterior and hype it as new and better. I have seen it in the ski, diving, and cycling industries with Italian designed/made components...and I am sure it happens in the auto industry as well.
-Z
fraserpenny
Registered
I live in Canada and purchased the black version out of the US from Dive Right in Scuba. I am a veteran and signed up for their military discount program. I inquired if they would sell them to a vet and they had no problem doing so.
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Caveeagle
Contributor
Or what you currently sell / rep for...
..just sayin’
It’s a great book, but might make head explode for typical diver. It’s way more information than you need to learn your way around a typical service procedure. This is masters degree level curriculum.
Start with learning basic trouble shooting and preventative maintenance. From there, the TDI course offered by HOG/D6 is a good next step
OP
KevlarCoated
Registered
Thanks everyone. It seems like the XTX50 is the way to go and that my LDS is way over priced. Just for clarification though all the prices were for doubles kits. Buying from 4thelement it would be 2x Apeks XTX 50 DST regulator DIN 300 with 5th Port Option includes hoses +40GBP shipping comes to about $1150CAD (plus what ever customs adds on if they catch it.) It looks like the doubles kit from DRiS is 1175USD DS4/XTX50 Doubles Package
@Zef Thanks for the detailed description about the Mares, I was assuming that the difference would be only marginal and probably not noticeable other wise everyone else would have tried to copy it.
What is it about the XTX50 that makes it the best option? I was expecting a lot more love for Deep6.
I am aware that the LDS will always recommend what they sell, that's why I came here for advice. It's hard to get around the people recommending what they have but on the plus side the more people that recommend that own it the more well tested it is, people tend to be much more passionate in their hate of a product after a bad experience than their love of it after a good experience
@Zef Thanks for the detailed description about the Mares, I was assuming that the difference would be only marginal and probably not noticeable other wise everyone else would have tried to copy it.
What is it about the XTX50 that makes it the best option? I was expecting a lot more love for Deep6.
I am aware that the LDS will always recommend what they sell, that's why I came here for advice. It's hard to get around the people recommending what they have but on the plus side the more people that recommend that own it the more well tested it is, people tend to be much more passionate in their hate of a product after a bad experience than their love of it after a good experience
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