Dacor regulator

[adshepard]

Don't listen to people that have no experience with a reg itself. They go by what they've heard and are often biased because they're happy with the reg they own for what ever reason. The Mares buying out Dacor thing is old now and the Viper came out before that buy-out. Service and parts are available and no more expensive than most other regs, at least around my area.

The reg works great in warm water. The side exhaust is very nice too. Small, stiff purge is a pain though.

Now personally I would not purchase another one but that's because most of my diving is in cold water down to 30f or so and the reg does freeze-up at very cold temperatures. Down to 40f it is fine.

My preferred reg for cold water diving is my Sherwood Blizzard. You can dive a Sherwood 'til it turns green.

Don't waste money on some expensive reg when a medium priced one is more than sufficient.

DSDO

Alan

 

[Boogie711]

OK - yeah, maybe a Sherwood would not freeze over, but have fun taking it past 70 feet. A Sherwood is DEFINITELY not your best choice for anything to his desired goal of "40 to 60 metres."

I didn't do the math at first - and if you're hitting 60M, that's almost 200 feet! I hope you're on Helium, and I hope you're diving a high performance regulator. I wouldn't be touching those depths without a high end Apeks, Scubapro... even (just to make Greg Barlow happy) a MR-22. NOT a Dacor, and DEFINITELY not a Sherwood.

 

[gto1]

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I use a mares ruby first stage and a mares orbiter second stage as my primary reg. I purchased a dacor viper as an alternate air source because its low profile made my equipment more streamlined. For the past year that I have owned it I've been happy with it. That is until this past weekend when I had it ice diving. I made my decent to about twenty feet when I stoped to check for proper operation of my alternate air source. I took one breath from the reg and it began to free flow. My buddy passed me his alternate and I shut off my back gas and waited for 20 seconds then turned my air back on. The regulator started to free flow again I put my primary back in my mouth and gave a thumbs up to end dive. Once on the surface I turned my air off and got out of the river. When I was dissasembing my gear I discovered that when the reg free flowed it caused exsessive ice build up inside the reg. In fact the interior of the reg was one solid ice cube. The ice caused such carnege to the reg that it actualy pushed the steel lever behind the diaphram through the front cover of the reg. I would not recomend the dacor viper to any one that will be using it in cold water.

gto1

 

[Sculpin]

Hi,

I'm considering purchasing a Dacor Viper regulator. Has anybody had any experience with this- is it a good reg? Most of my diving now is in the Caribbean at 25m, but I would like to go to deeper depths perhaps 40 to 60m. Can this regulator stand up? Is this a good buy- also, if its not, what else is out there that will work well and allow me to breathe easy? I need to reg that I can truly rely on when I start doing deeper dives.

Thanks.

Hi Baj,

If you live in Barbados and don't travel much go for something you can get serviced in Barbados, without doubt all the regulators mentioned are good but I know that most you can't get serviced in Barbados.
Dacor, Mares and Sherwood can be serviced in Bim not a lot else.
I use Sherwood personaly been beyond the depths you plan on with no probs, may not be the best breather but a good solid all rounder great for what you want.
Check local Dive shops and ask their opinion and go with the local Knowledge,
40-60 metres in Barbados I assume you are bottle diving otherwise no point.
PM me if you need more advice about local conditions.
Sculpin.

 

[Bajan Diver]

Hi Baj,

If you live in Barbados and don't travel much go for something you can get serviced in Barbados, without doubt all the regulators mentioned are good but I know that most you can't get serviced in Barbados.
Dacor, Mares and Sherwood can be serviced in Bim not a lot else.
I use Sherwood personaly been beyond the depths you plan on with no probs, may not be the best breather but a good solid all rounder great for what you want.
Check local Dive shops and ask their opinion and go with the local Knowledge,
40-60 metres in Barbados I assume you are bottle diving otherwise no point.
PM me if you need more advice about local conditions.
Sculpin.

Thanks Sculpin. I'm seriously looking at the Mares V16 Proton. Its services locally and seems to befairly decent. Any comments on this? Also, what's PM (I'm fairly new to this board and haven't learnt to use it thoroughly as yet). Thanks.

 

[Bajan Diver]

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

 

[Sculpin]

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

I'm new also and live in Bim, PM is Private message, click on my profile and send private message if you like.

 

[Boogie711]

http://www.scubaboard.com/t47304.html

 

[DementialFaith]

Most divers who own a v16/mr22 realli like the reg, however a few old school divers seemed to demean the mares for having "too many pointless extra internal features". I personally dive with a v16 octo and I think it's great.

Btw, I really don't see a lot of differences between Mares and Dacor products.

 

[Boogie711]

Of course you don't - NOW. Mares and Dacor are owned by the same company. But the regulators are still quite different. The BC's, etc are all the same, but the regulators are still quite a different beast.