Life Support Equipment - Regulators

[Mr Carcharodon]

Show me even a shred of evidence that "cheap" regulators are less reliable. There seems to be a lot of very pricey regulators on the market that are not any better than older or less expensive regulators.

 

[herman]

I read your blog article. No offense, but you might have a more realistic view of regulators if you had a better understanding of how they work rather than simply regurgitating some of the basic fallacies about regulators and continuing the fear-mongering of "life support." Your article contains several errors; balanced regs do not "compensate for environmental pressure" any differently than unbalanced regs, and unbalanced are not by design "more durable" than balanced. "Divers prefer diaphragm regs for their ease of gas delivery" is a false statement; even if you meant to say 'piston' rather than 'diaphragm' due to the higher flow capabilities of some balanced piston regs, it's still a false statement because there is no practical difference in the ability to deliver sufficient gas between diaphragm and piston regs.

I understand you are trying to send a message about how seriously you take diving and dive training, and that's understandable, but consider learning a little more about the actual topics of regulator design and performance before publishing articles about them.

Oh, and one other thing, it's misleading to students to tell them that their life depends on their regulator. In fact, it tends to negate all the training you are giving them in how to deal with equipment failure safely.

Thanks for saving me the trouble of typeing Matt, I was thinking the same thing. A good understanding of reg operation would help.

 

[Hank658]

Thanks for saving me the trouble of typeing Matt, I was thinking the same thing. A good understanding of reg operation would help.

+1 on what he said. :lol: Thanks Matt.

 

[redacted]

You guys did well to be able to stay with the article. As soon as I see regulators - life support as a foundation, I expect anything built on that to be crap.

It's like; since the world is flat, blah blah blah....

 

[Hatul]

I agree. I would be willing to say that 99.99% of all regs on the market are more than adequate in normal diving conditions.

Most of the time that's true. Where the reg may make a difference is in a critical situation where things are not going right, you're hyperventilating and can overbreathe a low performance regulator. The feeling of having to work to breathe is very distressing and may drive someone to panic.

Besides, a regulator lasts a long time, easily over 10 years. So I advise buying a top regulator once someone knows they'll keep diving. The extra cost over the life of the regulator is worth it.

Adam

 

[scubafanatic]

...before we 'slam' the OP too heavily, it might be revealing for everyone responding to this thread to reveal what reg/regs they personally dive...as well as what regs they let their wives/girlfriends/S.O.'s/kids dive: Ok, I'll start.....

Apeks XTX 200's (2)...Atomic M1 and T2 are my 'daily divers'. (also have some Poseidon Jetstreams.....various older Mares regs...and an Aqualung Titan LX.)

......based on what I've seen so far, I'm pretty much expecting everyone to respond that they dive 20 yr. old Sherwood Brutes, because regs are all pretty much the same, aren't they ?

....I'm betting, in reality, that most of the responders to this thread so far are actually using recent vintage, mid-to-high end name brand regs...and it will be interesting to see all the back-tracking on this issue, where they recommended a Brut to the general public but personally they and their loved ones are using a premium reg.

 

[redacted]

...before we 'slam' the OP too heavily, it might be revealing for everyone responding to this thread to reveal what reg/regs they personally dive...as well as what regs they let their wives/girlfriends/S.O.'s/kids dive: Ok, I'll start.....

Apeks XTX 200's (2)...Atomic M1 and T2 are my 'daily divers'. (also have some Poseidon Jetstreams.....various older Mares regs...and an Aqualung Titan LX.)

......based on what I've seen so far, I'm pretty much expecting everyone to respond that they dive 20 yr. old Sherwood Brutes, because regs are all pretty much the same, aren't they ?

....I'm betting, in reality, that most of the responders to this thread so far are actually using recent vintage, mid-to-high end name brand regs...and it will be interesting to see all the back-tracking on this issue, where they recommended a Brut to the general public but personally they and their loved ones are using a premium reg.

I dive mostly 30 to 40 year old Scubapro regs; Mk5/7/10 with 109 & 156 2nds. Bought used. Most expensive setup was $150. I also use a Mk2 with G500 or R380 on my pony.

 

[scubafanatic]

I dive mostly 30 to 40 year old Scubapro regs; Mk5/7/10 with 109 & 156 2nds. Bought used. Most expensive setup was $150. I also use a Mk2 with G500 or R380 on my pony.

....alrighty, here's one diver who 'walks the talk' ...anyone else out there who's not a hypocrite ?

 

[RJP]

....alrighty, here's one diver who 'walks the talk' ...anyone else out there who's not a hypocrite ?

I'm not sure why whatever someone dives makes them a hypocrite on the subject...

I dive AquaLung Legends LX Supreme's for back gas and DiveRite's for stage and deco bottles. These regs are probably a touch on the "premium" side but for the local, cold, deep, deco diving that I do certainly not overkill.

I would probably be diving 20yr old, well-worn, but well-maintained regs, but I've only been diving 3 years.

 

[D_B]

....alrighty, here's one diver who 'walks the talk' ...anyone else out there who's not a hypocrite ?

Why?
.. the OP makes it sound like "inferior" regs are unsafe (at least that's what it sounded like to me)
If he does, I would like to know why he thinks this.

Me, I dive a Mk18/G250Hp .. because it was on sale at the LDS for a very good price, and also after listening to my instructors only gear buying advice given to our class ... avoid the temptation of getting a "good enough for now" entry level regulator, and to get the best performing regulator that you can afford .. not because entry level regs are unsafe, none of them are, but a good regulator can last you a lifetime of diving and you do not want to wind up wishing that you had bought a better breathing reg later