Genesis GS2000 vs Sherwood Magnum for my kids

[stevenschwartz]

Hi All,

My wife and I have been diving with the same Sherwood Magnums for 20 years. My kids (14 and 18) now dive pretty seriously, and I'm considering regulators for them. My local scuba shop is pushing the Genesis GS2000. A nice point is it is user adjustable (no freeflowing on the diveboat). A negative is it is user adjustable (my son spends august on a liveaboard in the BVI, and I have a strong feeling equipment respect is marginal.

So anyway, they cost about the same though I am sure the shop makes more on the genesis. Which would you buy for a couple of teenagers who are fairly serious recreational (warm water) divers?

Thanks,

Steve

 

[Dockmaster]

I'd go with the Sherwoods due to the simple, bulletproof design. Around here, Sherwood regs have a reputation for being relaible workhorses that take abuse and keep coming back for more. There are no adjustment knobs to tinker with or break, parts and service are easily had, and they are inexpensive as far as regs go. I've seen lots of Sherwoods in rental fleets, so that tells me something about durability.

I help out at a shop that sells Genesis and I wouldn't trade my ten year old Blizzard for a brand-new GS2000! In my experience, I've seen more freeflows and other little problems with the Genesis regs than I've ever had with my Blizzard. I know lots of people who like their Genesis equipment and haven't had problems. I can't put my finger on it, but there's something about the Genesis equipment that doesn't do it for me. Sherwood's warm water reg is the Oasis; I'd go with that over the Genesis.

 

[Swampdonkey]

They are both great regs and as for money made for the lds is it actually less on the gs2000.

As for picking one over the other, I would go with the gs2000 over any regulator. I am not nice to my equipment and I have put it through hell as well as diving constantly in cold water and this reg has yet to fail me. I have taken it on vacations and that adjustment was a priceless on the trip.

In the end, go with your budget because you have picked two nice regs but I would rather have a gs2000 over the sherwood reg. Hell I would take my gs2000 over the SR1, which i had the privilage to dive twice. Don't listen to people that give this sherwood is a rental wonder because many shops also use the genisis brands as rentals as well and continue to be work just fine. Both regulators will do great for what you say your kids will be doing, even the live aboard.

 

[RAWalker]

The Sherwoods are simply reliable workhorses that are commonly used as rentals.

 

[stevenschwartz]

Thanks guys - seems I can't go wrong either way.

 

[halocline]

The genesis regulator is basically a sherwood-design flow-by piston 1st stage with an oddball feature called DAD, basically a small schrader valve that equalizes pressure in the ambient chamber. It's a real PITA to service unless you have the specific genesis tool for testing it. The 2nd stage is basically an oceanic style downstream. It's nothing special.

I would stay with the sherwood that you already have unless there's a problem. If you want to buy a new reg, I probably would avoid the genesis, and new sherwoods unless there's some compelling reason to replace your old ones. If you're looking for higher performance regs consider something like a scubapro MK17, aqualung titan LX, maybe apeks, or atomic if you're just dying to spend money. There are lots of choices. If your current sherwoods are working fine then just stick with them. The older sherwoods have a reputation for tolerating some abuse, which is nice if your son is on a boat for the summer. Jeez, lucky kid.

 

[keyshunter]

They are both great regs and as for money made for the lds is it actually less on the gs2000.

As for picking one over the other, I would go with the gs2000 over any regulator. I am not nice to my equipment and I have put it through hell as well as diving constantly in cold water and this reg has yet to fail me. I have taken it on vacations and that adjustment was a priceless on the trip.

In the end, go with your budget because you have picked two nice regs but I would rather have a gs2000 over the sherwood reg. Hell I would take my gs2000 over the SR1, which i had the privilage to dive twice. Don't listen to people that give this sherwood is a rental wonder because many shops also use the genisis brands as rentals as well and continue to be work just fine. Both regulators will do great for what you say your kids will be doing, even the live aboard.

Shops put brands they sell into rental. They are not necessarily the best regs for that purpose. For example, in the early '90's, I worked with a shop that was a Mares dealer and they put MR-12's into rental. Unfortunately, the MR-12's of that era went through high pressure seats like popcorn, and the seats were very difficult to get from Mares. The shop took on an Oceanic dealership, and put a group of low end Oceanics (I believe they were piston) into service. These were virtually trouble free.. When some Mares seats became available, they rebuilt the MR-12's, sold them, and never looked back.

The reason one sees so many Sherwoods in rental, is that they are dirt simple and incredibly reliable. The only Sherwood we still have is a 9 year old Oasis, which has been absolutely trouble free. I have no knowledge of the very latest models, except that IMO they have become unbelievably overpriced.

 

[Swampdonkey]

As stated in a above post the genesis brand and sherwood brand are almost the same. No worries though, it was a matter of time before someone post not to go with any of those regulators and go with many other regs. I wonder how many companies produce these regs again? I think 3 manufacture for the whole industry. This is highlighted by the one poster above who stated that the genesis is similar to two different brands just different casings.

This guy has pick two regulators that work well no matter what and still all I see in this community is a bashing of one thing after another. This person currently uses a sherwood regulator, they haven't changed their first stage design in a while. He pick to solid regs for his kids to use. What makes a scuba pro better or a mares? Not much, they are all based off of some other companies design in some way shape or form, it is just what people say is the best out their. Funny thing, the SR1 has smoked all those above regs in numbers, wouldn't that make it the best out their? Yet i don't like the reg for diving but love it for servicing.

In the end people will knock everything people ask about and recommend what they use as the best.

Steve your kids are lucky, I wish my folks ponied up any money for my dive gear.

 

[DiverDave65]

I have a new Genesis2000 I bought last fall and took to Bonaire this spring for the first time.

I'm no reg techie, can't tell you anything about the design or maintenance of this reg but I found it to be probably the easiest breathing reg I've had in over 20 years plus of diving. Can't compare it to a Sherwood either, since I've never used or had one of those.

I tend to be a bit of an air hog, but noticed on this trip that I always had the same or more air than any buddy diver I was with, mostly due, I think, to ease of breathing. Took it down to 130 FSW once just to test it and there was no noticeable difference.

My two cents.