I doubt that 4thelement will ship to Canada due to their dealership agreement.
Choosing new regs (Deep6, Zeagle, Apeks or Mares)
- Thread starter KevlarCoated
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Deep6 has a great following and I would love to be on their bandwagon. The issue is that there stuff sells out so fast that it is hard to purchase when one wants/needs it. I think some folks have gotten frustrated and just moved on to another brand, and then there is the possibility that those who favor Deep6 have not chimed in yet.
From everything I have read, Deep6 makes an excellent regulator set but they have long periods where they are out of stock. The owners of the company, who frequent SB, state that part of the issue is that they are more popular than they thought they would be and cannot keep up with demand. The long lead time seems to frustrate would be purchasers who don't want to wait indefinitely to satisfy their wants/needs. The question I have is, will this supply/demand issue cause increased sales and therefore a sustainable operation for Deep6 or will it cause loss of clients that will lead to their demise? From the looks of it they have a top notch product and I like their approach to user friendly maintenance but what will be of the company and availability of parts in 4 to 6 years? Will they be around? Will it be as difficult to get parts from them as it is to currently purchase regulators from them? They are a direct to user based business which is great except it seems it is proving hard for them to sustain this.
I know it seems like I am knocking Deep6 and its business model...that is totally not my intent. I wish the products they offer were available when I had/have the expendable cash so I can be on their bandwagon. I have a lot of respect for the owners for challenging the standard business model of the diving industry and I hope they will be around for a long time...but I am currently eyeballing other brands due to the chronic out of stock issue Deep6 seems plagued with.
-Z
I have both Apeks and Deep6 regs and both are great and also easy to self service. The advantage with Deep6 is that parts are easy to get while getting genuine Apeks kits is somewhat harder due to the Apeks dealership agreement. Is one better than the other I cannot say as they both perform well in the cold waters I dive and both are solidly constructed.
happy-diver
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Here's another one folks great manual inch thick cheap and you'll have it forever
to reference when people come out with funny ideas about how smart you aren't
can't remember if this beauty has more pictures or if it has less
mine's out currently informing some masses and sharing the love
Vance Harlow's
AIRSPEED PRESS 255 PAGES $50
SCUBA REGULATOR MAINTENANCE AND REPAIR
255 PAGES????? fifty dollars????? is that all?????
and remember all that advice from all those wise men throughout history
if you must read books keep em basic baby save you learn more than me
buy a book and complete yourself, as that dude said
thousand dollar regs, fifty dollar books
well will you
to reference when people come out with funny ideas about how smart you aren't
can't remember if this beauty has more pictures or if it has less
mine's out currently informing some masses and sharing the love
Vance Harlow's
AIRSPEED PRESS 255 PAGES $50
SCUBA REGULATOR MAINTENANCE AND REPAIR
255 PAGES????? fifty dollars????? is that all?????
and remember all that advice from all those wise men throughout history
if you must read books keep em basic baby save you learn more than me
buy a book and complete yourself, as that dude said
thousand dollar regs, fifty dollar books
well will you
If you only have the budget for one book buy Vance's but if you can also get Regulator Savvy, they are both great books but Vance's is probably a greater help for people just starting to service their own.
Don't know much about XTX50 because I am still using the TX50/DS4 which I bought in 1998 for both tec and rec dives.
Goingforsound
Contributor
Anybody found the e-book version of it? You know, for nomads like me...
Caveeagle
Contributor
It’s not just your LDS who will be biased towards specific brands. In today’s world, there all sorts of scuba “professionals”, semi pros and people within affiliations to certain brands. I can respect the guys from Deep6 in that they call out their affiliation openly and answer questions and comments as such. And I don’t recall any examples of them brand-bashing competitors.
What I take exception with, is people (typically instructors) who present their opinions or recommendations as unbiased without disclosing their status as brand rep, keyman or even a financial partner to said entity.
Their is a presumption that most here are just independent divers giving unbiased advice. I can think of several examples where that has not been the case.
admikar
Contributor
It's not about XTX50 (second stage), but it's standard pairing is DST, which is turret,sealed first stage. With addition of 5th port it gives really good routing options whether it is single, doubles or sidemount.
Bobby
Contributor
I have or do own every brand that you are considering. My go to primary regulators were Poseidon for the last few decades, now my primary regulator is Deep 6. Full disclosure, Chris, is a friend of mine. I won't and don't allow friendship to influence my gear choices though. Chris, the owner of Deep 6, has forgotten more about regulators than I will ever know. When he owned HOG I also got a couple of those regulators however I only have used them at backup stage regs. The HOG's are good regs but not great. The Deep 6 are as good and in many ways better than my Poseidon's.
A couple of things that stand out on the Deep 6 regs for me. The lp swivel extending out a little further makes side mount diving just a bit cleaner. On back mount the 5th lp hole on the bottom of the turret makes hose routing a little cleaner. I haven't mounted the Deep 6 regs on my CCR yet and don't know if I will, the CCR runs at a lower IP and I have a fairly complex arrangement that would take some work to reconfigure for the Deep 6 regs. The reason I'm considering doing it is to reduce the amount of rebuild kits I carry.
The most important reason that I prefer the Deep 6 regs is quality. When I first received them I tested and adjusted the IP on all of them, then chose one to completely disassemble one to see the quality and internal workings. Chris took the time and money to improve and use higher quality parts in critical areas that other manufacturers don't. The Deep 6 regs are also the only reg I've completely disassembled and reassembled without having to tweak the IP. I have not needed to rebuild them after more than two years of using them as my primary regulators, however they are straight forward and won't be hard to rebuild. Any shop that works on mainstream regulators will be able to rebuild these for you or you can learn to do it yourself.
I like the older, heavier, regulators. I'm rough on my equipment and the lighter, thinner walled, regulators don't hold up as well. The Deep 6 regulators are beefy and will/have taken my abuse. For those that don't have connections inside the dive industry the fact that you can purchase rebuild kits as a consumer is another plus. I can go out and buy brake parts for my truck and replace them myself, which if I do wrong can not only kill me but others on the road as well. I've always thought it hypocritical that regulator manufacturers won't allow the end user to purchase parts to rebuild the equipment that they own.
A couple of things that stand out on the Deep 6 regs for me. The lp swivel extending out a little further makes side mount diving just a bit cleaner. On back mount the 5th lp hole on the bottom of the turret makes hose routing a little cleaner. I haven't mounted the Deep 6 regs on my CCR yet and don't know if I will, the CCR runs at a lower IP and I have a fairly complex arrangement that would take some work to reconfigure for the Deep 6 regs. The reason I'm considering doing it is to reduce the amount of rebuild kits I carry.
The most important reason that I prefer the Deep 6 regs is quality. When I first received them I tested and adjusted the IP on all of them, then chose one to completely disassemble one to see the quality and internal workings. Chris took the time and money to improve and use higher quality parts in critical areas that other manufacturers don't. The Deep 6 regs are also the only reg I've completely disassembled and reassembled without having to tweak the IP. I have not needed to rebuild them after more than two years of using them as my primary regulators, however they are straight forward and won't be hard to rebuild. Any shop that works on mainstream regulators will be able to rebuild these for you or you can learn to do it yourself.
I like the older, heavier, regulators. I'm rough on my equipment and the lighter, thinner walled, regulators don't hold up as well. The Deep 6 regulators are beefy and will/have taken my abuse. For those that don't have connections inside the dive industry the fact that you can purchase rebuild kits as a consumer is another plus. I can go out and buy brake parts for my truck and replace them myself, which if I do wrong can not only kill me but others on the road as well. I've always thought it hypocritical that regulator manufacturers won't allow the end user to purchase parts to rebuild the equipment that they own.
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