I personally like capillary depth gauges for shallow dives or during deco dives. They are the most precise at depth shallower than 30 ft. I was impressed a few years back, that in my deco procedure book it referred to capillary depth gauges. No one else in class new what the book was talking about. I own several of the SOS/ Scubapro units and several others that are built into pressure gauges or oil filled depth gauge.
I don’t understand why you would not replace the tubing. The tubing that I got from Herman is a perfect replacement.
IMHO, reusing the old tubing is kind of like reusing old O-rings or other old rubber parts. If you are not going to dive it sure, but if you are going to dive it makes no sense to try to salvage old tubing or other rubber parts (when there is perfect replacements).
Actually, even if you are just going to restore it for show and tell, replacing the tubing makes sense because it brings it back to the original look, functionality, and original condition.
The original material of the tubing was clear synthetic rubber and it deteriorates and get cloudy. There is no way to restore the old rubber.
We already had a discussion once about trying to restore rubber parts… please, let’s not go there again.
Some tubing’s may actually have been more of a semi rigid plastic material. Those actually have a tendency to get brittle and crack.
Note: the tubing in this particular Scubapro/ SOS capillarity gauge is synthetic clear rubber. I have replaced several.
