Got Burned by DACOR

[toliver66]

Hello all, I'm new here on scubaboard.com. I got my PADI open water cert. in 1990 and advanced plus and rescue diver certs in 1993. Although I am a competent diver I would in no way consider myself to still be a qualified rescue diver after 19 years. The last time I went diving was in the summer of 2000. I have a 7 year old son who has discovered and taken a keen interest in snorkeling this summer which just happens to be the same age I was when I discovered snorkeling. My sons enthusiastic excitement and passion for his new found sport has reignited my own passion for scuba diving. I am (was) a Dacor fan. In 1991 I bought a brand new: Dacor 360 with 2 Pacer XLE second stages, one for primary, one for octo., Dacor Caribbean bcd, and a Dacor Vista View mask. I did extensive research on various brands of scuba gear. I even went as far as to rent various brands of rental gear from every dive shop within 50 miles of my home. I settled on Dacor because IMO it gave the best performance. Plus I liked the style and colors of Dacor and the fact that they were one of the only manufactures to offer solid metal second stages. And finaly, because Dacor was a reputable company and had been around since the early days of scuba and were still going strong and appeared would be around forever. So I thought I had made a sound investment. I sunk $1,800 into my Dacor scuba kit. I've loved it, breathes just as easy at 90ft as it does at 2ft and I have never had a problem with any of it. I've taken very good care of my gear and its in near mint condition. Now I find out that Dacor, for all points and purposes, has gone belly up and parts are none exsistant and no one will service Dacor gear. So what I have ended up with is a few very expensive shiny door stops and a nice paper weight. I've looked at new gear but it just burns my south side to even consider buying new gear with perfectly good gear sitting right here. Does Dacor gear have any resale value at all or is it just a pile of scrap metal? Who makes the best equipment these days? I won't be buying name brand again, any feed back on a Sea Elite RX330 Scout regulator?

 

[Couv]

Hello Toliver, Welcome to Scuba Board.

Don't give up hope on your Dacor regs just yet. Contact[FONT=Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif] Dsenloe [/FONT]​

View Profile: dsenloe - ScubaBoard

He's a Dacor guru and can probably get you pointed in the right direction.

 

[Wookie]

How is your Oldsmobile treating ya? Been to Woolworth's lately? The beauty of Dacors is you can repair them yourself with parts right off the shelf except for diaphragms, and they can be made all day long with a piece of 1/8" buna gasket material that is cloth impregnated and the correct gasket punch. I used to make them all the time when I worked in the Caribbean and Dacor was THE brand for rentals.

 

[fire_diver]

Dacor is basically junk on todays market. I'm sorry if that offends any dacor users, but it's true. Shops don't use them, and I haven't seen a LDS sell them in a long time. Back in 1991 they were probably still a major player in the scuba market. That was over 20 years ago, times change. If you want solid gear, look at what is being used for shops' rental fleets.

Personally I would recommend Sherwood regs. They are not the best performing regs, but they are built like tanks and there are plenty of shops that can work on them. On the other hand you can go with scubapro. Full range of performance levels and they can be worked on around the world. Sometimes the best option os to spend the money on the right reg the first time.

 

[jar546]

Most rebuild parts are stock and most reputable, experienced shops will be able to service your reg for years to come. Don't let go just yet.

 

[Scott]

We just serviced a 90's era Dacor last week. Parts are still available through Mares.

 

[Paladin]

Nothing is junk until it can no longer be repaired. Trident is selling after market Dacor replacement parts. Any dive shop should be able to get them for you. Download the Trident catalog.

TRIDENT-DIVING-ACCESSORIES

 

[toliver66]

"How is your Oldsmobile treating ya? Been to Woolworth's lately? " Hilarious Wookie... never owned an Oldsmobile but I used to shop Woolworth's like people shop Walmart today. I've been looking into the self service rout and it looks to be well within my abilities. I just need a couple of books, an IP gauge, and some custom tools turned out on my mill/lathe and I should be set. I also found out that Trident is producing after market parts for Dacor regs. I can't seem to locate a service manual for the 360 first stage though. It appears that I need the 2nd volume part 1. Any leads on this info would be greatly appreciated.

I have to agree to disagree with you fire_diver. No offence taken, everyone is entitled to there opinions. I feel the same way about Scuba Pro. Shops didn't use Dacor because shops don't use high end equipment for rental gear. If you know of one that does... please forward the address. LDS's haven't sold Dacor in a while because Dacor has been out of business for over 15 years. Dacor gear didn't turn to junk until the old man died after the Pacer line was discontinued. At the time Dacor was " the right reg the first time". I strongly agree with you on Sherwood gear. My first reg was a Sherwood Magnum with Oasis second and octo. The thing was practically bullet proof and was a great breather on the surface as well as at depth. I'm actually considering getting a used one. The only reason I replaced the Sherwood gear with Dacor is because my younger brother wanted to dive and needed gear but was financially challenged at the time and I needed a dive buddy.​

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Thanks for the info Paladin. I already downloaded the

Trident catalog. I need to get my hands on a service manual for the 360 before I can figure out which parts to order though.

The LDS's around here aren't capable/willing to service Dacor gear Even the local Mares dealer won't service it. ​

 

[Wookie]

"How is your Oldsmobile treating ya? Been to Woolworth's lately? " Hilarious Wookie... never owned an Oldsmobile but I used to shop Woolworth's like people shop Walmart today.​

​

That's cause if you're old enough to have a Pacer, you're old enough to remember Woolworth's and Oldsmobile. Otherwise I'd have used Edsel as an example, but even I'm not old enough for that.

I have the service manual in storage in Texas. If worse comes to worse and you can't find one, I'll make it a point to copy it for you. In reality, the Pacer is one of the easiest first stages you'll ever work on, replace like for like parts and you are good to go. Sounds like you're handy enough to fix what ails ya and keep that Mercury in tip top shape.

The last Woolworth's I went in to was in Idaho Falls, Idaho where the sign out front still said Woolworths with a 5 cent and a 10 cent symbol on the sign. Come to think of it, the last Olds 442 I ever rode in was in Idaho too. Both before I became a Dacor technician.

---------- Post Merged at 04:09 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 04:06 PM ----------

Google is your friend. Knotical is still active on this board and has a scanned copy of part II of the manual, or at least he did in THIS THREAD. Give him a try.

 

[toliver66]

[/LEFT]

That's cause if you're old enough to have a Pacer, you're old enough to remember Woolworth's and Oldsmobile. Otherwise I'd have used Edsel as an example, but even I'm not old enough for that.

Well that makes two of us then. Come to think of it... I was driving an old 1963 4 door Impala at the time. 3 speed power glide! ha ha... those were the days. Man... that thing was a tank! They don't make em like they used to.

I've done a google search and only came up with 4 sites that had old dacor service manuals. Funny thing is the service manual that has the info for the 360 first stage (Dacor Regs Vol 2 1st stages Pt 2 (3).pdf) is missing the first half of the manual which has the 360 first stage info. Pt 1 is no where to be found. A google search turning up

Knotical's post is how I came across Scubaboard. I didn't want to revive an old post but you say he is still around so I'll try giving him a PM.

On another note... When did the scuba diving industry go goth? You used to could buy scuba gear in every color of the rainbow and then some. Now every thing is black and or gray and I've ​

noticed

that most BCDs just come in the one color. Is the scuba industry in morning for the untimely demise of Dacor? What gives?​