Dacor Viper Metals...To buy or not to but?

[DeCaf521]

scubatooth, what is the differnce between viper americas and viper metals? r viper golds ne better then the metals? im just wondering because i really wnat to purchase some vipers and want to know what the difference between the three of them is. i heard that the viper octo is a hard breather...is that true? for my guages i woiuld like a supremee coompact pcd from dacor..those areall analoge. thatnk you for your respnse on the other questions ive had, i would like ur imputon this as well...



ne one else who has a prefernce or sopmething of that nature fell free to help me out. thanx

 

[ScubaVP]

DeCaf521 once bubbled...
scubatooth, what is the differnce between viper americas and viper metals? r viper golds ne better then the metals? im just wondering because i really wnat to purchase some vipers and want to know what the difference between the three of them is. i heard that the viper octo is a hard breather...is that true? for my guages i woiuld like a supremee coompact pcd from dacor..those areall analoge. thatnk you for your respnse on the other questions ive had, i would like ur imputon this as well...



ne one else who has a prefernce or sopmething of that nature fell free to help me out. thanx

Why do you want Vipers? Is it because you like the way they look? Have you used them? Is it what your LDS carries?

There are a lot better performing regs out there that are less money. When I first started, I thought I wanted Viper Regs. I even thought Dacor was one of the best brands. I think if you do a little research, and give them a shot, you will find out quickly that they aren't, just as I did.

 

[Scubatooth]

the difference between the viper(America/tec) metals , and gold


Viper (tec/america: same thing ) is made from a light weight compsite with a left side exhust, so that there arent any bubbles in your face.

Metals its the same as the the viper but the body has been modified to incoperate a metal insert to promote better heat transfer to warm up the air a little bit and to prevent second stage freeze up and free flow. the metal compound inthe second stage is a stainless steel alloy which acts a hard surface to prevent scratch and guges in the metal which would lead to failure of the reg or first stage

Viper gold same as metal except forthe color and the addition of a more sealed design and better suited for cold water diving

in the metal and gold alot of people say the swivel is yet anotehr failure piece, but if you have torn down a metal or gold first stage ou see this isnt the case, the way the swivel is attached the only failure point is the place were the hose threads into the first stage.


as for the constant thing that the reg is hard to purge, it isnt all that hard if you press on the center of the dacor emblem it will purge the reg, it require a little more pressure then normal but it was designed that way to keep it from potenially free flowing in a stiff current like some regs do

For your information, your mileage may very

 

[DeCaf521]

scuba vp..... no i haven't tried the vipers yet, none of my lsd's rent out that type of gear. my friends dad and my ow and aow intsructor has the viper metals and they love them. my friends dad would let me use them but he sen them in for the annual servicing and then he needs them for a rrescue diver course. in the research i have done, i like the sound of having that metal coil in the second stage to 1 keep the reg from free flowing easily, and 2 warms the air upo so it doesn't dry the mouth up so much. i also like the fact that the reg is light weight and streamline. my mouth does fatigue often and the light weight reg sounds good.

thanx for your imput...no i would like to know what reg u would recommend

 

[ScubaVP]

My personal regs are Apeks ATX200 and ATX50. I haven't found a better breathing set of regs to this date. My fiance uses a set of Genesis GS2000 regs, which are also pretty nice, too.

I have used:
Dacor Viper Metal and Viper Octo
Dacor Eagle
Sherwood Blizzard
Dacor Classic
Genesis GS2000
Genesis OZ
and of course my Apeks

Of all of those, the Apeks is the most reliable, breathes the best, and delivers rock solid performance. I NEVER question my regs. They NEVER have freeflowed yet.

I am not too sure that a metal coil in a reg is going to warm the air up to prevent dry mouth. My experience with these regs is that they don't need any additional help adding moisture to the air, becuase they breath so wet! Every person at our LDS that has or has used Vipers say the EXACT same thing!

Hope this helps.

 

[DeCaf521]

scuba vp..... no i haven't tried the vipers yet, none of my lsd's rent out that type of gear. my friends dad and my ow and aow intsructor has the viper metals and they love them. my friends dad would let me use them but he sen them in for the annual servicing and then he needs them for a rrescue diver course. in the research i have done, i like the sound of having that metal coil in the second stage to 1 keep the reg from free flowing easily, and 2 warms the air upo so it doesn't dry the mouth up so much. i also like the fact that the reg is light weight and streamline. my mouth does fatigue often and the light weight reg sounds good.

thanx for your imput...no i would like to know what reg u would recommend

 

[jonnythan]

DeCaf521 once bubbled...
scuba vp
...
thanx for your imput...no i would like to know what reg u would recommend

Now I'm not Scuba VP, but unless I'm illiterate he seemed to recommend the Apeks series quite highly

 

[ScubaVP]

jonnythan once bubbled...


Now I'm not Scuba VP, but unless I'm illiterate he seemed to recommend the Apeks series quite highly

Very Nice!!!

 

[scubafanatic]

...hey DeCaf521.....maybe you could have dad ask that friend of his who has a Viper to let you borrow it for a test dive.......or rent one from a local dive shop? Test reviews in scuba mags are find, and I'll admit they played a big role in my reg purchases....but it sounds like you really won't be happy until you get to test one out yourself.......and if it doesn't meet your expectations, you'll know you gave it your best shot and can shop for something else.

I dive Poseidon Odins (and some Mares regs)....the Odins look pretty cool and work great...they're side-exhaust too and are a very well proven design.....if the Viper doesn't work out for you I'd recommend test diving an Odin.


Karl

 

[ElectricZombie]

I would stay away from anything Dacor for a lot of the reasons already mentioned.

My first choice of regs is ScubaPro followed by Apex. I have a bunch of ScubaPro regs and they all breath great...better than anything else I have ever used. Parts are easily obtainable too. For 1st stages I like the Mk25 or Mk16. The G250, S660, S550 are good primary 2nd stages.

Apex is also good, the ones I have used breathed almost as good as my ScubaPros.

A ScubaPro or Apex reg is going to cost about the same as a Dacor but it will perform much better.