Eric Sedletzky
Contributor
Maybe I’m lucky, but I have never come across a piece of used dive gear that was not usable, except for a few gauges and consoles.
I’ve been given mountains of free used dive gear of all sorts in my diving career.
Whether or not I’d use it is another story, but it was usable.
One example, I got two free bright orange original Scubapro Stab Jackets once. I wouldn’t be caught dead in one if those but they were usable.
Another one was an early Dacor jacket that I would never use.
Next is a slew of old MK5’s that were given to me, all of them were/are in great shape internally and perfectly rebuildable and usable. I got a competely corroded green MK3/108 once that I figured was garbage. Cleaned it up, pitting and all, put a kit in and it worked fine. No leaks, solid IP.
All the used steel 72’s I get and an LP 85 , all free and all pass hydro no problem. I have a whole fleet of used tanks 10 total and I only bought two of them.
I had a next door neighbor that dropped a box of “old diving junk” off in front of my garage door. It had a Conshelf 21, another reg and a few old second stages (1085’s and plastic ones) that most people would only use for yard art (considered obsolete by many) but I serviced all of it and it all works just as it did when it was new.
It could have just as well been something off ebay or CL.
Yes occasionally you run into a turd that is so butchered internally that it can’t be saved but I think it’s rarer than people think. I think that buying used scubapro regs would also mean that it was most likely serviced in the past by a shop technician since they have such extreme parts restrictions to the general public. That would make the odds of a DIY hack much less, but then there’s a small percentage of shop techs aren’t super great either, so there’s that. But most are good.
I actually believe that regs which have been sitting in a closet somewhere for the last 20-30 years unused is better than something fairly new that’s been over serviced.
Every time a reg is torn down it is subjected to more stress and possible damage to delicate surfaces, threads, volcano orifices, knife edges, etc.
Given the choice of two identical regs both 10 yo. The first, the owner said was serviced religiously every year, that would mean it was torn down and reassembled 9 times.
The second serviced maybe once and put away in a box for nine years.
I’d take the second one.
The only thing I would advise against used is old consoles, especially old ones that had plastic face plates and were considered bargain sets at the time.
Every plastic SPG I’ve gotten used was cracked and no good. But I got a few good Scubapro Italian made original SPG’s and they were perfect.
So top of the line stuff always seems to be good.
Cheap old compasses also a lot of times are junk.
I’ve been given mountains of free used dive gear of all sorts in my diving career.
Whether or not I’d use it is another story, but it was usable.
One example, I got two free bright orange original Scubapro Stab Jackets once. I wouldn’t be caught dead in one if those but they were usable.
Another one was an early Dacor jacket that I would never use.
Next is a slew of old MK5’s that were given to me, all of them were/are in great shape internally and perfectly rebuildable and usable. I got a competely corroded green MK3/108 once that I figured was garbage. Cleaned it up, pitting and all, put a kit in and it worked fine. No leaks, solid IP.
All the used steel 72’s I get and an LP 85 , all free and all pass hydro no problem. I have a whole fleet of used tanks 10 total and I only bought two of them.
I had a next door neighbor that dropped a box of “old diving junk” off in front of my garage door. It had a Conshelf 21, another reg and a few old second stages (1085’s and plastic ones) that most people would only use for yard art (considered obsolete by many) but I serviced all of it and it all works just as it did when it was new.
It could have just as well been something off ebay or CL.
Yes occasionally you run into a turd that is so butchered internally that it can’t be saved but I think it’s rarer than people think. I think that buying used scubapro regs would also mean that it was most likely serviced in the past by a shop technician since they have such extreme parts restrictions to the general public. That would make the odds of a DIY hack much less, but then there’s a small percentage of shop techs aren’t super great either, so there’s that. But most are good.
I actually believe that regs which have been sitting in a closet somewhere for the last 20-30 years unused is better than something fairly new that’s been over serviced.
Every time a reg is torn down it is subjected to more stress and possible damage to delicate surfaces, threads, volcano orifices, knife edges, etc.
Given the choice of two identical regs both 10 yo. The first, the owner said was serviced religiously every year, that would mean it was torn down and reassembled 9 times.
The second serviced maybe once and put away in a box for nine years.
I’d take the second one.
The only thing I would advise against used is old consoles, especially old ones that had plastic face plates and were considered bargain sets at the time.
Every plastic SPG I’ve gotten used was cracked and no good. But I got a few good Scubapro Italian made original SPG’s and they were perfect.
So top of the line stuff always seems to be good.
Cheap old compasses also a lot of times are junk.
