DIN or Yoke for 1st stage

[muddydawg]

Hi all,

Been away from diving for too many years (10+) and trying to gather info to sort out gear and become active again.
I am trying to figure out which connection method is the better / more common for the 1st stage to tank valve connection, DIN or yoke.

I will be diving mainly great lakes and St Lawrence. When I was actively diving, wrecks were a great interest so suspect that activity will again light my fire. I am AOW and nitrox certified.

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[elan]

DINs have a trapped oring which is less likely to extrude and have lower profile with less parts sticking out.
Yoke on rentals is widely spread in NA and as far as I have noticed.
If you have your own tanks or plan to go technical route later go with DIN
If you plan to rent dive recreational and travel a lot go with Yoke

 

[muddiver]

You made contridictory questions.

I think that the DIN is superior and can be used for higher pressure cylinders.

Yoke valves are the most common in North America and having a DIN regulator can limit your rental capabilities. You can use an adapter for a DIN regulator to put it on a yoke style cylinder valve, but I don't think that a yoke to DIN adapter exists.

 

[scubadiver888]

muddydawg,

DIN is definitely better than Yoke for wreck diving. If you hit the valve on something with Yoke, you could lose the connection between the valve and the first stage. A DIN valve is going to be far stronger. If you ever want to use a 3500 PSI or higher tank you will have to go with DIN.

Additionally, if you have a DIN first stage you can get adapters to use it with a Yoke valve. If you have a Yoke first stage you cannot use tanks with a DIN valve.

On the other hand, if you dive with tanks with Yoke valves more often than DIN valves, you will be using the DIN to Yoke adapter most the time. The adapter works but it is not the best fit and you might find it sticks out more causing you to hit your head on the first stage occasionally.

I did 60% of my diving in the Caribbean and 40% Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River. I rented my tanks at both locations. Recently I purchased my own tanks and I dive 90% here and 10% in the Caribbean. I bought tanks which could be used as Yoke or DIN. When I bought new regs I bought DIN and converted all my tanks to DIN. Even if you rent though, you can rent tanks with DIN valves here. There are plenty of dive shop here who rent DIN tanks. Lately, I have even seen some shops in the Caribbean who have the convertible valves. You just need an allen key to convert them to DIN.

 

[fire_diver]

It depends on your diving. If you will be owning your own DIN valved tanks and diving exclusively from them, then DIN is the best way to go. You will be traveling and using rentals tanks, then you will need a yoke adapter for your DIN regs which can be a PITA. Using a lot of rentals you should probably stick to yoke.

 

[eelnoraa]

Even DIN is better, it is not to say Yoke is inadaquate for recreation diving. Saying DIN is better than yoke is like saying a 300hp car is faster than a 200hp car. True it is, and probably significant if you doing competitive driving. But if you are just commuting between work and home, 200hp car is more than enough. The same goes for Yoke, if you are doing recreation diving, it is more than adaquate. Keep in mind, most rental tanks are yoke. If you are vacation diving, yoke will be more convinient.

So I will say Yoke for single tank setup recreation diving. DIN tech/overhead (doubles)

 

[SnorkelLA]

Just get DIN. Because if you ever need to use DIN tanks for whatever reason you'll find that if you've got a Yoke first stage you won't be able to dive, unless you have one of those Thermo valve inserts or something. Also, it's hell of a lot easier to convert DIN to Yoke, but you'll find it impossible to readily convert Yoke to DIN. DIN is all around just much more versatile

 

[muddydawg]

Thanks for the advice. Very informative and helpful.