Dive shops that allow demos?

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Kryssa

Contributor
Messages
637
Reaction score
63
Location
Santa Clara, CA
# of dives
200 - 499
Just wondering if anyone knows of a dive shop that allows the demoing of equipment in their pool before buying. I am buying a new set of regulators and would love to have the opportunity to try before I buy.

I'm located near San Jose, but wouldn't mind a long drive for the opportunity. This purchase would be once COVID resolves.

Thanks!
 
Diver Dan's in Santa Clara has a pool on site. You can contact them to see if they would allow it.

I have had good experiences with Diver Dans in terms of service.
 
I doubt you'll notice much difference between regs in a pool. They'll all breathe good and the differences come down to price, sealing, features, and support/parts availability.

Unless they have rentals it might be hard to demo anything during covid.
 
Also a new reg dunked in a pool is now a used reg. Probably going to be hard to get a shop to convert the new inventory into used inventory just for you to try it.

As stated, rentals, no problem. But there is also how they are adjusted. How broken in are they? They will feel different. They will breath different. They are different than your old reg if you have one.
 
I guess I was hoping some shop might have a demo set of the regs they sell. I am interested in the Aqualung Mikron but wanted to see if the exhaust was too narrow and would be sending bubbles in front of my eyes.
 
Due to the way shops buy gear, any shop that sells a particular brand of gear is also likely to use the same brand for their classes and rental. Worse case is they may charge you a rental fee.

I can’t see any legitimate shop allowing you to use a new regulator to try out, because they cannot sell it for new in case you don’t buy it.

However, a lot of online shops will give a complete refund if you return something. We know of some people who buy gear before a trip and then return it afterwards because they don’t want to use poor rental gear at the destination.

That’s why when buying new on line you may be actually buying used gear. This is particularly common with dive computers. We have seen this happen several times. On one particular occasion, the computer had several dives on it along with a broken false fingernail in the box for free.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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