Diving Gear Manufacturing Questions

[Michael Jastrzebski]

I am looking into regulators.

Since you are in San Francisco I would make a trip to Steele's Discount Scuba in Oakland, this dive shop has been in operation since 1939.
Jim will give you his own perspective on the world of regulators, you may find it both interesting and entertaining.

 

[michael-fisch]

Since you are in San Francisco I would make a trip to Steele's Discount Scuba in Oakland, this dive shop has been in operation since 1939.

Maybe, but the earliest that he could have become involved in selling scuba would have been the late 1940s since before that there was no SCUBA in the USA.

Michael

 

[Michael Jastrzebski]

Maybe, but the earliest that he could have become involved in selling scuba would have been the late 1940s since before that there was no SCUBA in the USA.

Yeah, they were selling dive helmets, other gear before SCUBA was invented.

 

[PBcatfish]

Hello ScubaBoard! This is my first thread, so please bear with me if this is in the wrong area.

I am 15, and have been diving since I was 13. I am a machinist for my high school's robotics team and I love to dive and make things.

I am looking into regulators. How important is it that the manufacturer holds an ISO 9001? I was looking at Atomic Aquatics, but they do not say anywhere that they hold the ISO 9001. I know that Apeks holds one with the EN 250 cert for all of their regs. Are there any brands to avoid? Is it good to stick to one brand for everything? I have heard stories of faulty equipment resulting in problems, so I want to avoid that as much as possible. Do recalls happen more to certain manufacturers? I want to buy a regulator that I can trust, and I want one that can last. If anyone could provide input on this that would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance,

Charlie

I was a machinist before I was an engineer so you & I can probably speak the same language when it comes to building things. I now work as a consultant. I have been in a lot of ISO rated plants & plenty of others that did not carry that designation. I’m also familiar with Kaizam, Six Sigma, 5S, Lean & all the other color-by-number management systems that claim to make companies better.

The ISO ratings are great if you are going to buy a company, because the ISO system means that every process has detailed instructions, so even if you loose the entire current staff, you should still be able to reconstitute the manufacturing process. I have not found a correlation between ISO ratings & product quality. An ISO rating would not encourage nor deter me in deciding to purchase a particular product.

I buy my regulators based on general quality, brand reputation, features, expected maintenance costs & price. I prefer regulators with dry first stages, because that feature tends to extend the longevity of the first stage & improve reliability in poor environments. I prefer adjustable second stages on stage bottle regulators because I can leave them set stiff while I am not using them & not worry about free-flowing my air supply away. If you plan to dive deep, you will want a regulator that breathes with little restriction. For general purpose diving to 60 feet, whatever regulator you trained with is probably fine.

If your budget is flush, you can get all the bells & whistles you want. If your budget is a little more lean, you can still get a good reliable regulator that will last you for many years with proper maintenance. The regulators that I bought new in the 1980’s are still in regular use today. I also have newer regulators for use with today’s higher pressure steel tanks. The older regulators were not designed for that kind of abuse. Older regulators in good condition still work fine on aluminum tanks & low pressure steel tanks. I have DIN fittings on my high pressure rigs & yokes on my 3,000psi rigs. It keeps me from mixing & matching by mistake. But that's just me.

 

[Lionfish51]

Hello ScubaBoard! This is my first thread, so please bear with me if this is in the wrong area.

I am 15, and have been diving since I was 13. I am a machinist for my high school's robotics team and I love to dive and make things.

I am looking into regulators. How important is it that the manufacturer holds an ISO 9001? I was looking at Atomic Aquatics, but they do not say anywhere that they hold the ISO 9001. I know that Apeks holds one with the EN 250 cert for all of their regs. Are there any brands to avoid? Is it good to stick to one brand for everything? I have heard stories of faulty equipment resulting in problems, so I want to avoid that as much as possible. Do recalls happen more to certain manufacturers? I want to buy a regulator that I can trust, and I want one that can last. If anyone could provide input on this that would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance,

Charlie

I dive Atomics and love the equipment and to tell you how good it is that it only requires service every three years!

 

[ScubaWithTurk]

I am a former machinist, tool maker and CNC programmer. As others have said, ISO has no bearing on quality. One of the jobs I had was working R&D making molds for hip replacement joints. We were not ISO certified and it did not matter.

As far as regs go, in the States, stay away from Apex as they are cost prohibitive. Deep 6 (support your small business) make great regs and I have zero complaints about mine. I also dive an Atomic ST-1 and love it. I am likely going to venture into the Poseidon market since I work for dive company that is a distributor for Poseidon products.

I just took the service course for them and their regs are practically bullet-proof.

Good luck and keep us updated on what you decide to purchase.

 

[Michael Jastrzebski]

As far as regs go, in the States, stay away from Apex as they are cost prohibitive.

No, they are not, I just got one. Very reasonably priced (yes, in the USA). By the way it is Apeks, not Apex.

 

[Marie13]

No, they are not, I just got one. Very reasonably priced (yes, in the USA). By the way it is Apeks, not Apex.

XTX50 new is cheaper than what I paid for my AL Legend LX Supreme single tank set. The XTX50 runs about $600.

And not everyone wants to work on their own regs.

 

[runsongas]

it is hard to justify though when 4th element sells the xtx50/dst for under 300 gbp without VAT or around 375 USD

and when you can get the deep 6 regs for under 400 too.

edit: just saw 4th element is offering the xtx50/dst with a free xtx40 octo currently. that is right at list dealer cost in the US.

 

[OctoHelm]

Thank you all so much for your replies! I will look over this to try and glean as much as possible from this thread. I really appreciate all the time the community has put into this.

Thanks again,

Charlie