Have some vintage equipment and looking for input

[Pete Woznack]

Hi everyone, im new here, been recreational diving in upstate new York for about 6 years, recently started a new business doing dock repairs and underwater work on a few local lakes by me. Just getting into it I decided to pick up some used equipment vs buying new so I bought a lot of gear off a recently retired local commercial diver. In the lot he has a few vintage items I know nothing about and was hoping for some input from anyone who may know anything about it. I will likely never use this equipment but he insisted its worth a lot so figured I'd ask. There's 2 parkway poseidon dry unisuits, one never worn, there's a steel full face mask with about 50' of hoses, and there's 2 dual hose mouth piece/regulator setups. He was persistent that he could sell those items for more than I bought everything for ( with was a ton of gear ) so kinda curious if anyone could tell me about them and if there's a market for vintage gear like this

 

[tech_diver]

I would love to hear someone talk about that large air connection on the double hose reg in the second pic. Never've seen that before...

 

[eelpout]

You have an old US Divers KBM mask, and a couple of Poseidon Unisuit neoprene drysuits. I owned two of those suits over a period of 7 years. I also got to use KBM Masks too. There is a lot of neoprene and rubber parts that could have aged over time and would make the equipment unsafe to dive with. The KBM mask and the double hose regulators could get some $$ value on it IF the rubber parts are still usable. I would not use them in the water before somebody looks over them. By you pictures it looks like one of the double hose regs is a US Divers, the plate on the regulator should tell you te model. Good Luck,

 

[tbone1004]

I would love to hear someone talk about that large air connection on the double hose reg in the second pic. Never've seen that before...

hookah port for surface supplied

 

[Pete Woznack]

You have an old US Divers KBM mask, and a couple of Poseidon Unisuit neoprene drysuits. I owned two of those suits over a period of 7 years. I also got to use KBM Masks too. There is a lot of neoprene and rubber parts that could have aged over time and would make the equipment unsafe to dive with. The KBM mask and the double hose regulators could get some $$ value on it IF the rubber parts are still usable. I would not use them in the water before somebody looks over them. By you pictures it looks like one of the double hose regs is a US Divers, the plate on the regulator should tell you te model. Good Luck,

The bigger 2 hose regulator is an aqua lung aqua master, the smaller one is an AMF Voit Trieste 2. The helmet is in excellent shape, all rubber looks good, rubber hoods like new and even has com speakers in it. I have no use for this equipment so likely will be selling it on ebay. Any idea on a value?

 

[runsongas]

double hoses probably in the ballpark of 200 to 300 and maybe 1200 to 1400 for the KM mask.

but you should keep the KM mask and run a surface supply setup with bailout on it if you are doing commercial work (dock repairs, hull cleaning/inspections, etc).

get a more modern viking drysuit to use with it.

 

[rhwestfall]

I wouldn't discredit the use of those in our work....

 

[Pete Woznack]

I will be setting up a topside air supply for doing the dock work but I highly doubt I will be using the vintage equipment. I got lucky with purchasing a huge lot from this gentleman with 60 years of diving experience for $1500 there's 4 aluminum 80 cu tanks plus a pony bottle, 5 BCDs, 5 regulator octopus setups, 2 dive computer watches, knives, flashlights, spears, about 100lbs of weights and multiple weight belts, 3 recovery air bags, 5 sets of good quality fins, 5 goggles, countless hoods, gloves, boots, 5 wetsuits, 2 dry suits ( all that fit me perfectly) plus all the vintage stuff and there's a bunch of that. Besides the 2 hose regulators and the KBM mask there's vintage flashlights, air lines, twin tank back plates with 2 into 1 adaptors, 75lbs of actual lead with the smelting equipment and a handful of misc regulators. Think I did pretty good for what I paid but was hoping to sell the vintage stuff to purchase newer updated commercial dive mask and topside air setup. Any idea what the unisuits may go for? Ones brand new never used the other has 5 dives on it, both in excellent shape

 

[CT-Rich]

I will be setting up a topside air supply for doing the dock work but I highly doubt I will be using the vintage equipment. I got lucky with purchasing a huge lot from this gentleman with 60 years of diving experience for $1500 there's 4 aluminum 80 cu tanks plus a pony bottle, 5 BCDs, 5 regulator octopus setups, 2 dive computer watches, knives, flashlights, spears, about 100lbs of weights and multiple weight belts, 3 recovery air bags, 5 sets of good quality fins, 5 goggles, countless hoods, gloves, boots, 5 wetsuits, 2 dry suits ( all that fit me perfectly) plus all the vintage stuff and there's a bunch of that. Besides the 2 hose regulators and the KBM mask there's vintage flashlights, air lines, twin tank back plates with 2 into 1 adaptors, 75lbs of actual lead with the smelting equipment and a handful of misc regulators. Think I did pretty good for what I paid but was hoping to sell the vintage stuff to purchase newer updated commercial dive mask and topside air setup. Any idea what the unisuits may go for? Ones brand new never used the other has 5 dives on it, both in excellent shape

The dry suits, if they fit, I would use until they fail. Neoprene does not age well. It stiffens with age and the glues/ tapes deteriorate. If you aren’t interested in diving them, no one else will be either. Aluminum tanks that are 30-40 years old are probably good for scrap value, some shops won’t fill pre-2000 tanks. Getting them tested costs costs money, so figure out if they are worth keeping before sending them out. If the double hoses are going to be sold, see if they work on a tank, but don’t spend money to fix them, sell as is. It is the buyer’s responsibility to make sure they are safe.
The helmet might be worth get a professional opinion before selling. Don’t dive any equipment unless you know how to use it properly and it has been serviced.

On one level, you helped an old man clear out his shed, you may have some nice gems, but my guess is the old BCDs and neoprene are not going to be worth much because they have changed a lot and deteriorate over time.

 

[Pete Woznack]

The dry suits, if they fit, I would use until they fail. Neoprene does not age well. It stiffens with age and the glues/ tapes deteriorate. If you aren’t interested in diving them, no one else will be either. Aluminum tanks that are 30-40 years old are probably good for scrap value, some shops won’t fill pre-2000 tanks. Getting them tested costs costs money, so figure out if they are worth keeping before sending them out. If the double hoses are going to be sold, see if they work on a tank, but don’t spend money to fix them, sell as is. It is the buyer’s responsibility to make sure they are safe.
The helmet might be worth get a professional opinion before selling. Don’t dive any equipment unless you know how to use it properly and it has been serviced.

On one level, you helped an old man clear out his shed, you may have some nice gems, but my guess is the old BCDs and neoprene are not going to be worth much because they have changed a lot and deteriorate over time.