First cold water regulator

[Lims]

Hello all,

I'm just starting my rescue diver course. I'm getting my first regulator soon.
It seems like there's so many regs out there, please could someone narrow it down to a few models for me. I will be diving all year round in the UK and hope to go to depth eventually. I know it needs to be balanced reg, it will also need to work well in cold water.
As far a budget is concerned, I will pay what I have to to get what I need, but don't want to pay for something I don't need. I want it to last as well, I don't think I'm going to stop diving.
Any suggestions?

thanks, Sam

 

[SlowRain]

Well stand by for all the "I have one of these and it's the best" posts.

I think the best answer is to check around your local shops and see who is dealing what equipment, which shops seem to be solid operations, and definitely check with some of your buddies to find out what their preferences are. I know there is a very active UK tech diving website, but I don't remember the name...I am sure a google search will get it for you and they probably are the best source of choices in your part of the world.

There is quite a bit of selection in terms of cold water regulators available and as you are in the UK, I am sure many of the shops deal with cold water equipment. So just to start the ball rolling, I own and use Poseidon's on my tech rig, which are excellent cold water regulators. I have an Extreme as my primary and Jetstream as my second as it has a pre-dive switch to keep it from freeflow while it is hanging around my neck. The Jetstream has been in production over 25 years with little design change which is a bit of a testiment to the effectivness of the original design (even though it does look like a shower head!).

A common complaint is expense of servicing and lack of servicing in the states, but I haven't found that to be an issue for me (they are made in Sweden, so it might actually be easier for you!). Having said that Poseidon's don't really shine until you are in deeper water (say over 100'). I chose Poseidon's simply because of reputation, and personal experience with them over the last 20 years of diving.

Strictly personal opinion on my part as far as preference and I have used Apeks, Aqualung, ScubaPro, and others and found them also great regulators...so check out the locals, but be sure and select something you can get serviced fairly easily.

Good Luck!

 

[Couv]

Hello Lims,

Shortly, you will be swamped with advise about buying a regulator, mostly by people who own a brand and are very fond of it. One thing to keep in mind about regulators is that most are great at what they do. So how do you separate the wheat from the chaff? That won't be easy, but it will be fun and entertaining. Soon you will find out there are quite a few gurus on this board in each section. It's helpful to pick out a few of them and read lots of their post and you will be off to a very good start. In the regulator section I can highly recommend the post of (in no particular order) Awap, DA Aquamaster, Captain, Pescador775 and Luis H …there are lots of others but that will keep you busy for a while.

Usually I recommend a simple NON-balanced first stage and a balanced second stage for average recreational diving. However I think you may be in the market something higher end, so have a look at DA's excellent advice in this thread.
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/regulators/181745-advice-regulators.html

couv