Help with first gear purchase - regulator! Help me decide?

[kyley]

You might be overthinking this a bit; I suggest you go for the best deal. ALL regulators made and sold from major manufacturers are more than adequate for any recreational diving.

Yes, I do tend to overthink things like this. The best deal out of the ones I've been looking at is probably a good idea.

In terms of service at home, please forget about the free(well, not really free) parts nonsense, forget the warranty, and just get the reg serviced when it needs it; probably about every 4 years for someone who takes a couple of trips a year, and cleans and stores the regulator well. Annual service on any decent reg is way overkill for a typical recreational diver. If you're doing 100+ dives/year, that's different.

Yeah, that's something I was wondering (about not needing service that often)... Losing the warranty doesn't sound good, but if the typical parts aren't all that expensive then I guess I could actually be saving money by not paying to have it serviced every year or two. Thanks for sharing your thoughts,
--Kyle

 

[James R]

If you can find an SP/SG at a great price, I'd do it. I know of two local tech diver / DM's in Austin who looked at Hog's very suspiciously and came away with the conclusion that they are switching.

To clarify this point, as one of the two mentioned here, I am considering a switch to HOG 2nd stages from Dive Rite 2nd stages for my doubles regs depending on how I like them once we get in the water this weekend. Here's the thread w/the testing he mentions.

My ScubaPro regs aren't going anywhere.

 

[chrpai]

I wasn't naming names... Yes, if I had some ScubaPro regs I wouldn't be dumping them either.

 

[Dr. Lecter]

I dive Atomics (started with an ST1, moved on to hogarthian M1s for my doubles, and the woman uses a B2) and strongly reccomend them to others. My reasoning is as follows; your experiences and/or priorities may differ.

Yes, they're expensive, but of course they don't have to be bought new. They are unquestionably top of the line in performance and build quality. They only require service every other year, and my understanding is that the warranty (if you want it in exchange for the high price of a new Atomic) doesn't require strict adherance to even that relaxed schedule.

Most importantly to me, I can and have called Atomic directly whenever there's a problem and that results in me speaking to a real person at Atomic who knows what's up and will help me solve the problem efficiently. If it's something under warranty, it's fixed free and right and shipped back to me fast. If something goes wrong with my used Atomic's, I have no doubts that getting it fixed will involve the same pleasant experience and a reasonable cost for their services--though nothing ever has gone wrong with one of them.

SP is, so far as I can tell from others' experiences recounted here and elsewhere, a huge company that plays games with their gimmicky Free Parts For Life program. Other than their jet fins, I'd never buy a product from them. No experience with AL.

 

[eelnoraa]

Why did you take the swivel out of the Atomic? That's one of the reasons I wanted it! Trying to get as comfortable as I can as my jaws tend to get sore when diving... Thanks,
--Kyle

I won't say 2nd stage swivel is prone to fail. I just don't think the problem with comfort should be resolvee by swivel. The main reason for jaw fratique is the inproper length of hose. My solution is to swith to a hose length that fit my preference. So I paid extra for the swivel hose, now sitting at home doing nothing. At least for me, I don't think it is worth the extras.

 

[Orlando Eric]

Don't get a Din? Why not? I Love the Din.

 

[Paulmal]

All I dive is din. It's better than yoke, if you get DIN you can use an adapter when on vacation and use it on a J/K valve but there is not as adapter to allow you to use a yoke reg on a 300 Bar valve. You can get a 200 bar convert able valve. Din is a better connection and allows you to safely use HP tanks.

 

[halocline]

Don't get a Din? Why not? I Love the Din.

Because the guy that posted will almost certainly be using exclusively yoke tanks, as that is the standard for rental in the caribbean.

---------- Post Merged at 07:19 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 07:11 PM ----------

All I dive is din. It's better than yoke, if you get DIN you can use an adapter when on vacation and use it on a J/K valve but there is not as adapter to allow you to use a yoke reg on a 300 Bar valve. You can get a 200 bar convert able valve. Din is a better connection and allows you to safely use HP tanks.

First, DIN is not 'better' than yoke, it's more complicated than that. It is the standard for technical diving, for good reason, but it makes ZERO sense to buy a DIN reg with the intention of using it with an adapter on yoke tanks all the time. BTW, once you do this, you lose ALL the advantages on DIN in terms of entanglement and HP use; you essentially have a yoke AND a DIN connection and a failure with either ends the dive. Doesn't make a lot of sense, does it?

Yoke tanks have their place. The valves themselves are a lot tougher in terms of getting knocked around without regs on them, as is the case with practically any rental/charter fleet of tanks. People that are DIN fanatics often point out the problems that vacation divers have with charter yoke tanks, especially in 3rd world locals, but they tend to compare those tanks with privately owned DIN tanks. This is not a fair comparison. If the charter tanks in a place like Cozumel, for example, were DIN, we'd see plenty of knackered and corroded threads that would create problems, just like the nicked and dried o-rings we see now.

 

[Paulmal]

I agree better was the wrong word, more versatile would be better suited. Agreed adding a yoke adapter does defeats the advantages of din but buying din now allows you to grow with your gear if you choose and has little down side where as yoke will require you to either buy a conversion kit for your reg or buy a new setup if you decide to do bigger dives.

 

[eelnoraa]

I agree better was the wrong word, more versatile would be better suited. Agreed adding a yoke adapter does defeats the advantages of din but buying din now allows you to grow with your gear if you choose and has little down side where as yoke will require you to either buy a conversion kit for your reg or buy a new setup if you decide to do bigger dives.

I have to disagree with this too. It seems more versatile until you forget to bring the adapter on a trip to caribbean or SE Asia. And it is worse in the absolute sense if you have to use the adapter in every single dive.

The true is yoke is more versatile. I really wonder where in the world you go that you can't rent a yoke tank? But many, too many vacation spots don't have DIN tank for rental. Another true is if you decide to go tech diving later (if that happens at all), the cost of buying another 1st stage is very minimal in the grant scheme of tech diving. And you can always use your Yoke reg for vacation.

My advice is to buy your first reg (most likely for single tank) with Yoke. If later you need to do double, then buy DIN for that setup.