Deco and Stage Regs.

[Rick Murchison]

Couldn't agree more, but the easiest breathers aren't necessarily the "high performance" regs. Hence my recommendation of the Titan (I like the LX for deco bottles)(I have no experience with the Glacia but it scores high too). See Rodales latest reg results, where this little inexpensive reg scores right at the very top of the easy breathers (whipping every Apeks, for example).
Subjective evaluations are skewed by all sorts of human expectations and preconceptions, swayed by opinion, advertising and reputation, and not a little bit of "that's what the experts use." But the breathing machine doesn't lie.
Bang for the buck - Titan.
Rick

 

[MikeFerrara]

All my regs are Zeagle. Some are the new ones manufactured by Zeagle and some are the old ones manufactured by Apeks. I use the FH-6 DS4 and tech50. They are all trouble free and good breathers. They are also easy to work on (though they seldom need it.

 

[WYDT]

Agree with the rest here that you don't want crappy regs on your stage/deco bottles... also you'll want to have good mouthpieces on them as well. Sounds strange but after your gums are sore or jaw is tired from some ill fitting mouthpiece you'll wish you'd changed them.

I use apeks for all my stuff. I think it makes sense to pick a brand and stick with it for everything which ever one you pick. It makes interchaning parts much easier if you need to as everything is compatible.

I have Apeks TX40's, TX50's and TX100's with DST, DS4 and TX100 first stages. I use the TX100's on backgas since they have the best hose routing and the DST's on stages since the swivel lets the hose route neatly as well. DS4's I have for my wife's doubles (backgas) and one for an O2 reg. They all breathe relatively the same.

DSAO!

 

[lucid]

I still am having a hard time figuring out which regs to buy =]

Do any of you have any experience with tx50/ds4 combo at depths ~200? How do they breath? I can get them a lot cheaper than the atx200. Is it worth the money to goto the atx200?

I presently have TX50/DS4's and have been pleased with them at depths ~140. But I am taking IANTD Full Tech and will be diving close to 200ft for the check out dives.

Again I apreciate your feedback!

 

[swimndive]

lucid once bubbled...
I still am having a hard time figuring out which regs to buy =]

Do any of you have any experience with tx50/ds4 combo at depths ~200? How do they breath? I can get them a lot cheaper than the atx200. Is it worth the money to goto the atx200?

I presently have TX50/DS4's and have been pleased with them at depths ~140. But I am taking IANTD Full Tech and will be diving close to 200ft for the check out dives.

Again I apreciate your feedback!

As long as you are using >30% He any reg will do. You should try to keep your stages as light (balanced) as possible, so I would just recommend the lightest cheapest reg/gauge combo with the best hose routing you can find. US4 1st's with plastic gauges will keep a 300' mix bottle neutral. The small flat brass gauges are expensive and don't stick like some of the plastic ones do at depths > 300'. Your call on that one.

 

[WYDT]

lucid once bubbled...
I still am having a hard time figuring out which regs to buy =]

Do any of you have any experience with tx50/ds4 combo at depths ~200? How do they breath? I can get them a lot cheaper than the atx200. Is it worth the money to goto the atx200?

I presently have TX50/DS4's and have been pleased with them at depths ~140. But I am taking IANTD Full Tech and will be diving close to 200ft for the check out dives.

Again I apreciate your feedback!

There is NO internal difference between the TX50 and ATX50.

wkpp, gue, etc use these regs regularly for hours at a time at depths exceeding 300ft.

Helium works much better in any reg. if you're diving to 200 I sincerly hope you'll be using Helium!

Does that answer your question?