Dacor regulator

[scubatoys]

Thank you all for your help. What do you all think about the Mares V16 Proton?

Just to put a few points straight... Dacor was basically going out of business a few years back... bad designs, poor managment, etc.. Mares did not buy them.... Head Sports did. That is the parent company that owns Head Tennis rackets, Penn tennis balls, plus others including Mares... So the 2 companies are very intertwined. As far as them "not making parts after a few years"... the only parts they are no longer going to provide and ones for regs that were made before Head sports bought them. Just went to my ford Dealer and he didn't have any parts for a model A either!

Now, the V16 first stage is great. The Mares MR12 is not... the V32 is... The MR12, and the new dacor first stages, all use a flat rubber seat - your standard 1 stage seat... and they are very prone to failure resulting in a free flow. We started out with MR12 Proton Regs for our training gear, and had to rebuild them at least once every 3 months.

The V16 on the other hand, uses a spherical seat that does not have the design problems and failure problems of a flat rubber seat. The idea came from the Mares Ruby... but instead of a rubby, the poppet is stainless steel (a bit cheaper than jewels) and the seat is nylon instead of rubber. Because of the spherical / nylon / stainless combo... the reg does not even need yearly service.

So yea, I'd give you a thumbs down on the Dacor reg... but not because of availability of parts. They will have parts for all the new stuff for a long time - thumbs down because of the seat design, and thumbs up on the V16 spherical design.

 

[PurduEE]

The Dacor Viper is a great octo. The ability to breath right side up or upside down is great in a OOA situation since you dont need to worry about handing it off just right. I agree with the other statements here for it's ability to do the job as a primary. It's not what I would want.

 

[Sculpin]

Just to put a few points straight... Dacor was basically going out of business a few years back... bad designs, poor managment, etc.. Mares did not buy them.... Head Sports did. That is the parent company that owns Head Tennis rackets, Penn tennis balls, plus others including Mares... So the 2 companies are very intertwined. As far as them "not making parts after a few years"... the only parts they are no longer going to provide and ones for regs that were made before Head sports bought them. Just went to my ford Dealer and he didn't have any parts for a model A either!

Now, the V16 first stage is great. The Mares MR12 is not... the V32 is... The MR12, and the new dacor first stages, all use a flat rubber seat - your standard 1 stage seat... and they are very prone to failure resulting in a free flow. We started out with MR12 Proton Regs for our training gear, and had to rebuild them at least once every 3 months.

The V16 on the other hand, uses a spherical seat that does not have the design problems and failure problems of a flat rubber seat. The idea came from the Mares Ruby... but instead of a rubby, the poppet is stainless steel (a bit cheaper than jewels) and the seat is nylon instead of rubber. Because of the spherical / nylon / stainless combo... the reg does not even need yearly service.

So yea, I'd give you a thumbs down on the Dacor reg... but not because of availability of parts. They will have parts for all the new stuff for a long time - thumbs down because of the seat design, and thumbs up on the V16 spherical design.

Here Here Scuba toys, very well put.
Sculpin.

 

[JES]

Head acquired Dacor in 1998. A regulator built prior to or even during this time should not be considered obsolete.

I have been waiting 3 weeks while my LDS tries to find parts for an Extreme Plus.
The LDS is an authorized Dacor Dealer/Service Center and they have been great about communicating with me. However, still no parts.

Although Dacor may have great support for their current regs one has to wonder what the level of support is for any thing older then the Viper????