HOG Comparable Regs

[Ste Wart]

Apeks eg. DS4/XTX50, the 200 series is expensive and not offering any improvement over its cheaper brother.

I own both. And would disagree very strongly on this point.

 

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

Before my regulator purchase I looked into all of the ones you suggested. Here are my observations:

1. HOG's main advantage is comparable quality at a much lower price. It also gives you the option of stripping it yourself and not losing warranty.

2. Atomics is one of the best regulators I have used. I owned a Z2 and nothing else out there seemed to breath like this one. It also had the advantage of longer service intervals. Instead of annual service these regs were designed for once in 2 years service. Besides the product, the company was great too. Their customer service really went out of the way to take care of the customers. The only problem was that Z2 was not sealed for cold water diving. I took it down to 40 degrees but later found out that the manufacturer recommends diving above 50! It never free flowed 10 degrees below manufacturer recommendation. The manufacturer was recommending their ice diving model but I since these were all piston regs. I chose to go with a Apeks.

3. Apeks is probably the widest choice in the world for cold water diving. I can see why. My present regulator is a vary basic diaphram reg that seems to be built for harsh conditions. It does not breath as easily as my Atomics Z2 but offers better cold water reliability. I have not had the chance to deal with their customer service yet.

4. Scubapro: I have used their borrowed regs and they also seemed like one of the better regs out there. Not as great as the Atomics but still up there. The company attitude seemed very snobbish. While all manufacturers were selling products over the internet, scubapro was insisting that you buy from their brick and mortar retailer. There were a lot of people in scubaboard who appeared to be pissed off by their attitude when it came to customer support. The company had built a tradition and they considered themselves the "Rolls Royce" of regulators. It was a privilege for you to be owning them and your ownership of their product had to follow their conditions. Given the rising reputation of industry snobs, I felt like there were better products and companies out there.

Long story short: If you wanted to dive tropical waters, I would recommend Atomics over all else. For cold water diving, Apeks (if you would like to save a few hundred dollars.) or Atomics higher cold compatible models if you could dish out the money for them. I dont know if their cold water reliability would be as great as Apeks but if there are Atomics users who have used their regs in ice - or near ice conditions, I would love to hear their experiences too.

 

[turnerjd]

3. Apeks is probably the widest choice in the world for cold water diving. I can see why. My present regulator is a vary basic diaphram reg that seems to be built for harsh conditions. It does not breath as easily as my Atomics Z2 but offers better cold water reliability. I have not had the chance to deal with their customer service yet.

After 21 years of diving my Apeks regs I don't know what their customer service is like either................

Perhaps not the lightest regs, nor the most "design", but sure as hell bulletproof especially in freezing cold water...............

Jon

 

[ScubaSteve]

I have a rebuild kit for the first and second Hog regs in my save-a-dive kit. Any competent service tech (anywhere) will be able to rebuild the reg without any real problems.

And yet they will not. Even though the HOG is very similar in design to other models that various shops carry, most will refuse to work on any brand that they are not insured to work on.

Edit

Looking at this from an "International Touristy" location" point of view, I do suppose it would be easier to get someone to work on a reg that they do not carry. However I still believe that most shops (not independent techs) would decline. This is, however, just my opinion.

 

[redacted]

And yet they will not. Even though the HOG is very similar in design to other models that various shops carry, most will refuse to work on any brand that they are not insured to work on.

Edit

Looking at this from an "International Touristy" location" point of view, I do suppose it would be easier to get someone to work on a reg that they do not carry. However I still believe that most shops (not independent techs) would decline. This is, however, just my opinion.

I suspect that is a myth. I suspect that most shops, even in the USA, that believe they are capable of doing the repair (some are just not capable) will gladly take the $$$. Those that are saying NO may just not have a capable tech available. Some may even be shops that do not perform in-house work but send to work out or have the weekly visiting tech come by to do their work.

 

[ScubaSteve]

I suspect that is a myth. I suspect that most shops, even in the USA, that believe they are capable of doing the repair (some are just not capable) will gladly take the $$$.

I guess it is my looks then because I had two shops turn me away on all my gear servicing (not a huge amount but still 3 2nds, 2 1sts, 4 tanks plus a repair to a wing). I am unwilling to split my service so I found a good HOG shop that wanted to take my money.

FTR, I made the assumption it was liability driven.....they might have turned me away because they simply did not want anything to do with HOG or for some other reason.

 

[redacted]

I guess it is my looks then because I had two shops turn me away on all my gear servicing (not a huge amount but still 3 2nds, 2 1sts, 4 tanks plus a repair to a wing). I am unwilling to split my service so I found a good HOG shop that wanted to take my money.

FTR, I made the assumption it was liability driven.....they might have turned me away because they simply did not want anything to do with HOG or for some other reason.

Plus, HOG may be somewhat of a special case because there seems to be quite a few shops that put HOG gear in the same category as any gear bought from large internet dealers. They seem to think this is an effective way of deterring the competition.

Could you sense anything in their attitude towards you?

 

[rsingler]

Centrals
Post No 3
.....its a faithful copy of the Apeks DST 1st stage and ATX50 2nd stage.

Yah, sorry! Didn't have a DST variant exploded diagram handy last night.

Here you go. The Apeks, oops!, HOG, oops!, Apeks, in all its glory.
The spring carrier (#2) and DIN arrangement is different, as noted before, and HOG uses washers on either side of the diaphragm spring. That's about it. Anybody tested the springs to see if specs appear different?
Great regs.

 

[mathauck0814]

Mountains of molehills. Regulators don't fail as often as internet divers would have you believe. If you're traveling on vacation with service kits you have the wrong equipment in very poor shape. Come on guys, the OP is a new diver 0-24 dives on his profile. The fact is if it delivers gas from his tank to his mouth, it's perfectly fine as a regulator for him.

OP - your regulator should last through several hundred dives without servicing. Rinse it well and it will serve you for years. At the cost of a HOG, you can buy it, dive it for several years and when it starts to underperform, come back on SB and sell it to an enthusiast and buy a new set. Just my $0.02.

 

[elan]

Before my regulator purchase I looked into all of the ones you suggested. Here are my observations:

1. HOG's main advantage is comparable quality at a much lower price. It also gives you the option of stripping it yourself and not losing warranty.

2. Atomics is one of the best regulators I have used. I owned a Z2 and nothing else out there seemed to breath like this one. It also had the advantage of longer service intervals. Instead of annual service these regs were designed for once in 2 years service. Besides the product, the company was great too. Their customer service really went out of the way to take care of the customers. The only problem was that Z2 was not sealed for cold water diving. I took it down to 40 degrees but later found out that the manufacturer recommends diving above 50! It never free flowed 10 degrees below manufacturer recommendation. The manufacturer was recommending their ice diving model but I since these were all piston regs. I chose to go with a Apeks.

3. Apeks is probably the widest choice in the world for cold water diving. I can see why. My present regulator is a vary basic diaphram reg that seems to be built for harsh conditions. It does not breath as easily as my Atomics Z2 but offers better cold water reliability. I have not had the chance to deal with their customer service yet.

4. Scubapro: I have used their borrowed regs and they also seemed like one of the better regs out there. Not as great as the Atomics but still up there. The company attitude seemed very snobbish. While all manufacturers were selling products over the internet, scubapro was insisting that you buy from their brick and mortar retailer. There were a lot of people in scubaboard who appeared to be pissed off by their attitude when it came to customer support. The company had built a tradition and they considered themselves the "Rolls Royce" of regulators. It was a privilege for you to be owning them and your ownership of their product had to follow their conditions. Given the rising reputation of industry snobs, I felt like there were better products and companies out there.

Long story short: If you wanted to dive tropical waters, I would recommend Atomics over all else. For cold water diving, Apeks (if you would like to save a few hundred dollars.) or Atomics higher cold compatible models if you could dish out the money for them. I dont know if their cold water reliability would be as great as Apeks but if there are Atomics users who have used their regs in ice - or near ice conditions, I would love to hear their experiences too.

It looks like your info is a bit outdated.

Apeks and SP have 2 years service interval with Apeks requiring a check up on the year in between (a bit cheaper)

SP sells online (you can buy one from LP).

you can only strip your HOG if you have taken their class which is a significant expense as you need to be a tech diver and then you need to take the class

---------- Post added August 16th, 2013 at 12:42 PM ----------

Nope it's not. May be in your area. My LDS stopped servicing the regs that they are not trained in servicing a couple of years ago.

I suspect that is a myth. I suspect that most shops, even in the USA, that believe they are capable of doing the repair (some are just not capable) will gladly take the $$$. Those that are saying NO may just not have a capable tech available. Some may even be shops that do not perform in-house work but send to work out or have the weekly visiting tech come by to do their work.