How Old Is Your Zeagle?

[Zagnut]

A while back I was in the LDS here in town and I asked the owner (who sells SeaQuest and Aqualung exclusively BTW) what he thought of Zeagle BCs. He gave me one of those, "They are junk. I used to sell Zeagle. I've been selling gear for 20 years and I've sold all different brands. As far as quality goes, what you see here in my shop is what I've narrowed it down to." type of answers. He said the internal bladder corrodes or degrades or whatever and will eventually start to leak.

Also, when I purchased my Zeagle Ranger, I noticed somewhere in my owners manual it said something about the BC having a shelf life of 7 years. I thought that odd. A BC's shelf life never really occured to me. I assume they mean it should be sold within 7 years. I wondered, "If the Ranger has a shelf life of 7 years, what is it's useful life?" So... all you Zeagle BC owners out there..

How old is your Zeagle and how many dives has it seen?

 

[fredk]

i have a zeagle tech that's 4 years old and has about 1000 dives on it in both cold water in canada and 2 years of working in the tropics. ask that store owner why the american navy dive in zeagle's if they are such junk?

 

[Zagnut]

I didn't know the U.S. Navy used Zeagle BCs. Actually, the guy is an old Navy SEAL. I'm sure it has more to do with profit margins, or having to agree to sell one brand exclusively or something like that. His response just made me curious as to how long they will hold up. Thanks for the inut Fred. Any others?

 

[Dee]

Beast's Ranger and my Concept are both 5 yrs. old with over 400 dives. The outside coverings shows some wear, mainly discoloring from sun and chlorine, but the bladders are still supple and holding air! I see many more years of service in the future.

 

[scubakat]

Mine is less than a year old with more than 100 dives... It still looks new, just broken in a little. I think the "shelf-life" refers to the tendancy for unused gear to degrade . If you are using it you are having it serviced every year, and it should stay in relatively good condition provided you don't run over it with a truck or something....

-kate

 

[Warhammer]

Can't comment much on the life of them, because like scubakat, mine is only a year or so old. But one good thing about the Zeagle is that if that bladder does degrade and blows a hole, you can always just replace the bladder and you're right back in business. Ask the shop owner if his Seaquest/Aqualung can do that. BTW, I'm not knocking Seaquest/Aqualung, they have excellent gear.

 

[scorpiofish]

Gee, I have a Seaquest Balance and a Zeagle Ranger. The Ranger is over 2 years old with somewhere around 175 dives plus pool sessions. The Balance only has about 25-30 dives I think.

I think the dive shop guy is full of crap. The Ranger is far more rugged than the Balance. As for the bladder corroding, bad term, nylon doesn't corrode, again I think he is full of crap.

Any BC should be serviced by the diver. Rinse your bladder out regularly. I've seen some anal people do it after each day of diving. Remove pull dump and rinse with water blended with either Salt-x, Woolite, Listerine, or in my case a sanitizing solution of my own concoction.

I far prefer the Ranger to the Balance, but must use the Balance for teaching (shop brand). The Ranger has some drawbacks. One big one is packing. It's more rugged, but it's heavier, has too much lift, and doesn't pack very well.