Cressi and Mares inflators

[Diver0001]

Perhaps this thread is more at home in the BCD section but I would like to make a broad statement about this.

This thread is triggered by a thread in classified where someone is trying to sell several Mares inflators: For Sale - 4x Mares Power Inflators

I've been working at a shop that is a dealer for Mares and Cressi. At this point I will NOT try selling either vest after having years of experience with both. In both cases because of the inflator.

Mares makes some outstanding diving gear (mainly regulators) but the inflator mechanism they put on their vests is ... well ... beyond bad. They also make a very good inflator but they only put it on their wings for some reason. If you order a Mares vest then you should insist on the standard inflator being replaced with their wing version.

Cressi.... well.... their inflator is so bad that I personally think their vests are not "fit for purpose" for scuba diving. Cressi vests are, in my opinion, straight up dangerous. Do not buy one of these. Seriously.

This in my opinion having been involved in training divers since 2002.

R..

 

[Diver0001]

someone suggested that I should be more specific about my objections. My criticisms of these two inflators are indeed very different.

The Mares inflator (see picture) has a mouth piece (the grey part) that very easily comes loose or even falls off of the rest of the inflator. In addition, the venting button on the top of the inflator wears quickly. That means that pushing the button allows air to flow OUT of the vest well enough but orally inflating the vest becomes impossible. Trying to blow air into the vest leads to (1) air escaping from the loose mouth piece and (2) air escaping from the button that doesn't work.

When they are new they work fine. After (I'm going to say) 100 dives, you literally cannot orally inflate a Mares vest because of this problem.

 

[Diver0001]

The Cressi problem is very different. Their inflators wear very quickly and due to wear they start filling the vest VERY VERY SLOWLY.

With a sufficiently used inflator it can take 30 seconds to fill a Cressi vest. This is not an exception. This is the rule with these vests. In my personal opinion a vest that takes 30 seconds to create sufficient positive buoyancy to remain on the surface and not sink again is not fit for purpose for scuba diving.

R..

 

[BoltSnap]

My experience with both is that they are crap!! I would NOT buy Mares or Cressi BC's (or regulators) anymore under any circumstances!! We are standardizing on SP BC's and they are great. We will eventually use BP/W BC's in our training fleet when we can afford it but for now, SP BC's and no more Cressi or Mares anything at all.

 

[fmerkel]

Don't know why some many BC manufacturers seem to need to come up with a proprietary inflator, especially when they are 'junk'. Had this problem on old Zeagles. They changed the design because they were so bad. The new ones were just as bad.
FWIW I have a 20+ year old Mares, the inflator can be overhauled easily and still works.

Most of the proprietary ones are too difficult to overhaul, can't get parts, or aren't worth the hassle so they just get replaced......with another junk one most likely if you take it to a shop.

I've seen more dives scrapped due to to bad inflators than problem regs.

 

[StefinSB]

My experience with both is that they are crap!! I would NOT buy Mares or Cressi BC's (or regulators) anymore under any circumstances!! We are standardizing on SP BC's and they are great. We will eventually use BP/W BC's in our training fleet when we can afford it but for now, SP BC's and no more Cressi or Mares anything at all.

Nothing wrong with my Mares Power Plana fins.

 

[Carl_F]

My wife's Cressi air travel BC has done well for over three hundred dives. No problems with the inflator. Just a data point.

 

[KeithG]

The Cressi problem is very different. Their inflators wear very quickly and due to wear they start filling the vest VERY VERY SLOWLY.

With a sufficiently used inflator it can take 30 seconds to fill a Cressi vest. This is not an exception. This is the rule with these vests. In my personal opinion a vest that takes 30 seconds to create sufficient positive buoyancy to remain on the surface and not sink again is not fit for purpose for scuba diving.

R..

Can you provide more details on "wear"? I have several hundred salt water dives on my cressi travel bc. No problems yet but if you have specifics then maybe I would do a second look for signs of pending issues.

I am curious, what type.of wear allows the vest to inflate slowly?

 

[emoreira]

Can you provide more details on "wear"? I have several hundred salt water dives on my cressi travel bc. No problems yet but if you have specifics then maybe I would do a second look for signs of pending issues.

I am curious, what type.of wear allows the vest to inflate slowly?

Inflators allow LP air to go to the bladder because the valve does not close properly. This could happend owing to dust, wear or salt deposits over the valve seat.
Inflator valves that use schraeder type valves are prone to leak. Mares and Cressi do. Some others also.
DGX power inflator, the standard K type inflator, is easy to overhaul and with a very robust design.

 

[Diver0001]

Can you provide more details on "wear"? I have several hundred salt water dives on my cressi travel bc. No problems yet but if you have specifics then maybe I would do a second look for signs of pending issues.

I am curious, what type.of wear allows the vest to inflate slowly?

You know.... I'm actually not sure. I have a little experience with servicing certain types of inflators and normally the problems are caused by worn O-rings that cause them to leak a little. That's not what I see in this case.

With the Cressi inflator I'm talking about all I can do is look at it like a black box. My assumption is that *something* inside the mechanism must start to wear, because pressing the inflate button on some of these inflators quite simply does not let enough air into the vest to be safe. What I observe is that it can take inordinately long amounts of time to fully inflate the vest. This is not related to the regulator that was attached. The same inflator will react the same way with different regulators. This was one of the first things I tried to solve the problem.

I should point out that the vests I'm talking about are rental vests that have seen a lot of dives and that I'm not talking about one particular inflator, I'm talking about ALL of the vests the shop has that use the same type of inflator. I've also heard anecdotal stories from people who have bought Cressi gear fairly recently that this problem is NOT necessarily limited to old gear but that it can happen with fairly new gear too.

Based in part on your feedback I went to Google about this. Just looking at pictures on Google it is clear that Cressi has a number of different inflator mechanisms (which, to me, raises a red flag anyway). The one I'm talking about is the one you see in this picture (and older versions of the same). These are the vests in the rental stock at the shop I've been working for. Once again, without proof positive to the contrary, I'm going to maintain my view that this inflator is not fit for purpose for scuba diving.

Finally, I want to be clear that I'm talking about the inflator only. I don't have any particular objection to Cressi vests aside from what I see as a bad inflator.