I was surprised at the so many positive reviews, then, I looked deeper into the contents of the review and was amazed to see people reviewing the regulators even without using them once! For example here:
D1 Regulator Set - Dive Right In Scuba - Plainfield, IL
"I have yet to dive these regulators, but my initial impression is these are high quality. The first .." and lots of similar crap.
I think the problem is that the shop (which I really like, BTW, and they visit this board quite frequently to answer questions etc) in order to encourage divers to write reviews has offered 5$ (not cash- but in redemption points) for writing a review... I think it is a wrong policy, as lots of the reviews do not contain any useful information.
That said, I think these regulators are just the same as Dive Rite 3000, Zeagle 50D and probably many other brands that buy the very same regulators from the same source in Taiwan:
ODS you'll probably find quite a lot of familiar regulators. Funny, but sometimes the very same product jsut with a different logo costs a fraction of the price
And if I forgot to mention, Hog are fine regulators!
Well, I did not get mine from Dive Right in Scuba or get any "points". But a couple of points raised by this post and several others.
I don't know about the Dive Rite (have not taken one apart or even used one), but it is not the same as the Zeagle 50D.
Being made in the same place as other regulators does not mean it is the same (speaking from an engineer that has been in mfging for over 30 years)... it may use similar parts.. it may not.
While I don't have hundreds of dives on it, I would hope at this point in my dive experience, it would not take that long to tell if something is wrong with the design.
Does price go into the my evaluation...not really. I can afford pretty much any regulator I want.
Do I take them apart? Just the second stage so far, but yes.
Do I like (love?) every regulator I have purchased? Nope.
Is this regulator for everyone? Don't think so.. it has both good and bad aspects.
Here is a short list of regulator issues I did not like:
1. Zeagle flat head - like the first stage, hate the second. The second stage, to be adjusted to breath really fine, one has to have the lever bent just so...not a fan of bending parts to make a regulator work well. Zeagle did not clean the metal that sits against the seat in the second stage, two of mine (I had 4) had large burs that over time damaged the seat. And if someone adjusted them without pushing in the purge, it destroyed the seat (had it happen twice at different shops). Fixing it, once one knew the issue was easy, but you should not have to.
2. The 650 scubapro second stage. Leaked water when upside down, and more importantly, in a strong current, the exhaust valve was easy to pull up and flood the second stage. I would suspect that people have died from this aspect.
Here are regulators I do like:
1. The TX200 apex regulators... have several, like everything about them except for the din connection, where it is easy to extrude the internal o-ring and have a leak.
2. Scubapro 250V... a tank of a second stage... noisy, large, but a very nicely built reg.
3. Posiedons..any of them. Just wish they had stable distribution in the US.
There is a huge list of ones I think are "ok", including several Mares and Oceanic.
So, back to the Hog's. They are metal second stages, so they are heavy... and you can break them putting the back together (plastic is so much more flexable).
I think they could have made the inside of the second stage a cleaner design.
I think they could have had better water exposure to the diaphram.
However, I like the build, the materials and the function of them. And building them with all Viton o-rings is a very nice feature (my reason for buying it in the first place).
