Hey SCUBA gear heads - best regulator for under $1,000 = ?

[elbig]

I was under the very strong impression that SP's regulators and BC's are all made in Italy now.

At the Ferrari or the Lamborghini factory?

 

[divad]

At the Ferrari or the Lamborghini factory?

You left out the, more reliable, Fiat factory.

 

[ams511]

The same factory does not mean the same quality. I build houses. I can build you various levels of durability, efficiency, perfection or fancy. Same builder, same workers and same lumber yard. It doesn't mean its the same product. We start with a design and make the desired compromises to achieve the product. The factory doesn't define the product, the specifier does.

I think you are about 20 years behind the times. Today the specifier and the factory work together to design and develop a product the meets performance and cost expectations. The manufacture of a scuba regulator is not the same as a stick-built house, so your analogy is a poor one. You have much more discretion in materials and assembly with a house than with scuba regulators. I am not an expert on home construction but to me it seems that there is very little fixed costs and a lot of variable costs. In scuba it is the opposite, much more fixed costs than variable costs. You have specialized molds and equipment needed before manufacture begins. To cheapen a product may require additional dollars spent on new design, tooling, and testing which may actually increase the cost of the final product. However, I do admit there could be some variation, for example an air barrel could be chromed on one model at not the other. Which in your analogy would be like changing the kitchen cabinets.

Also Scubapro, Halcyon, and Tabata are all reputable companies. None of them are going to damage their reputation selling junk. Most of the retail price on scuba gear is mark-up. If you don't believe me look at the cost of Apeks regulators in Europe vs. the USA. We pay roughly twice as much. Do you really think Apeks is selling different products (higher quality) in the US, than in the UK? Scubapro tried the same things themselves with their Subgear brand several years ago. They sold older (and some recent) models under a different brand at a lower price point. For example the SG-1000 was a S-600 with a MK-17 for about half the price of the Scubapro brand. Scubapro discontinued the brand (probably due to too many lost sales).

 

[runsongas]

You left out the, more reliable, Fiat factory.

missing sarcasm tag there

i'm just waiting for FCA to crash alfa romeo straight into a brick wall

 

[halocline]

You left out the, more reliable, Fiat factory.

Fix It Again Tony

 

[Hoag]

So, at the risk of derailing this conversation, getting back to the OP's original question, @sarahlee did you make a decision and buy a reg yet or are you still looking for suggestions?

 

[buddhasummer]

I have a conshelf 21 for sale in excellent cosmetic condition, freshly serviced with two completely rebuilt and updated excellent condition G250s. A very reliable and high performing reg set. No hoses. Selling to further fund my growing and somewhat out of control habit.

 

[ams511]

I have a conshelf 21 for sale in excellent cosmetic condition, freshly serviced with two completely rebuilt and updated excellent condition G250s. A very reliable and high performing reg set. No hoses. Selling to further fund my growing and somewhat out of control habit.

Why are you selling your g-250s you love them.

 

[cerich]

To continue my analogy, I can use the same windows and the same plywood etc but that doesn't mean it will be the same finished product. To an outside observer, it may look like the same house with a different paint color but that doesn't mean that it is. @cerich can you share your opinion on this?

Depends on the brand, one of the things I did at EDGE/HOG was work on the oem offering to change materials and tweak design to make it better than the oem/change faceplate routine. EDGE/HOG still does changes as time passes along and that's something I continue to doing with deep 6 and in fact the signature has quite a few unique to us features and parts, and better performance than the standard OEM versions.. Is everything unique? No, but even the not unique parts has likely unique coatings or materials used for Deep 6.

Then there is HOG D3 and the derivative Deep 6 Signature first. The D3 was my my brainchild and the Deep 6 Signature first was my making it better performing and more robust and a bit different. That first stage is ODM, not a OEM product

 

[RayfromTX]

Depends on the brand, one of the things I did at EDGE/HOG was work on the oem offering to change materials and tweak design to make it better than the oem/change faceplate routine. EDGE/HOG still does changes as time passes along and that's something I continue to doing with deep 6 and in fact the signature has quite a few unique to us features and parts, and better performance than the standard OEM versions.. Is everything unique? No, but even the not unique parts has likely unique coatings or materials used for Deep 6.

Then there is HOG D3 and the derivative Deep 6 Signature first. The D3 was my my brainchild and the Deep 6 Signature first was my making it better performing and more robust and a bit different. That first stage is ODM, not a OEM product

Thanks Chris
I guess that means I'm not 20 years behind in my thinking about how this works. I was actually referencing the comment about washing machine manufacturers in my analogy but I'm aware that the same concepts apply to most manufacturing operations.

From the outside looking in it is easy to think that we know what must be going on. Often there is far more involved than will fit on a bumper sticker. For instance, it may seem obvious what being a homebuilder means and what the process is like without having to understand the details. That would be a mistaken assumption. I work on the design and details of a project for more than a year before we break ground. I develop the details on a set of plans that will grow to 120 pages. Most of the techniques we use will be used only on our projects and some will be used only on a single job.

Speaking to manufacturers about this I find that there is a similar process that is used in many industries. What may seem like simple mass production is actually continually evolving and being tweaked.

It is great to be able to get straight answers from an industry insider. By the way I'll be calling you tomorrow.