Low, mid, or high range regulator?

[runsongas]

Any thoughts on:

Halcyon Regulators (and a kit?)
Zeagle F8 Regulators (and a kit?)

halcyon is rebranded tusa. the tusa version goes for less money.

the new zeagles look nice, just don't have turret. not a big deal for single tank though.

 

[Caveeagle]

halcyon is rebranded tusa. the tusa version goes for less money.
.

uh.. You sure about that? I don't pretend to keep up with all the Halcyon products, but I was pretty sure they were selling re-branded ScubaPro regs.

 

[tbone1004]

many of which are made by TUSA ;-)

Halcyon has the same parts availability concern as the rest of the big brands though, can't get parts for them. OP is interested in DIY service down the road which rules them out. They're good regs, just have a fine detail that eliminates them from consideration.

 

[halocline]

They're not exactly made by TUSA or Scubapro, they're made by Tabata, the same company that makes SP and TUSA regs. TUSA is the U.S. branch of Tabata, I think. Anyhow, Halcyon regs appear to be clones of SP designs that are particularly popular with cave divers; the MK25 and G250V initially but they might have expanded their line by now. I guess they're for cave divers that can't stand the thought of using anything without a nice blue H.

I don't this for a fact but I suspect that SP parts will work fine in Halcyon regs, and there is a large grey market for SP parts. So they are available, its just a matter of how and where.

In Europe, any SP dealer will sell parts to divers, it's a law. It's only in the U.S. (and I suppose Canada) that the dumb we-want-to-save-you-from-yourself policies exist.

 

[runsongas]

by that argument, apeks parts and kits are "available" too if you hit up ebay or take a trip to germany.

 

[filmguy123]

I have heard this - that APEKs kits aren't all that hard to come by. I also see other brands have some deals on their sidemount kits, for example thoughts on this one? With a call it may be able to be modified similar to the DiveRite package to change hose lengths, etc. And with ebay APEKs kits, self-serviceable (seems a number of guys take to the grey market to self service)?

THOUGHTS?: Apeks Side mount kit DIN buy and offers on Scubastore

(Don't get me wrong, the DR kit still appears to be a better value and cheaper - just inquiring here, if one were APEKs inclined with a little extra $$, this was seems like a pretty good deal as well yeah?)

Interesting on Halycon! Good to know. Though it did steal the show from the other half of that question - thoughts on that Zeagle F8 setup as the other alternative to the DiveRite?

Right now my frontrunners for a setup are:

1. DiveRite SM kit
2. APEKs vs. Zeagle
3. why choose anything else?

 

[tbone1004]

the apeks kit you linked to is a factory kit from Apeks, the DR kit linked earlier is a kit "created" by the dealers which allows them to navigate MAP. I have never seen that kit marked down that low, it is normally $1550 online and held by a strict MAP. This place is in Spain and I'm not actually seeing any way to add that kit to your cart, so I'd be very skeptical.

Apeks are indeed grey market only for service kits and they aren't any cheaper than OEM kits for Dive Rite, and any service not done by an authorized service tech nullifies the warranty, which is idiotic and is part of why I sold off my Apeks regs.

Zeagle F8 isn't a reg I've ever actually seen used. I'm sure it's a good regulator, but it is horrifically expensive, and with no swivel turret is not a regulator I would consider purchasing.

 

[runsongas]

scubastore won't ship to US addresses anymore iirc. the apeks SM kit is darn expensive compared to the dive rite.

dive rite has the same warranty nullification if you self service. the only way to get around that is with hog regs and after taking the hog service course.

 

[tbone1004]

oh bollocks, you're right. I thought Dive Rite still had the lifetime warranty on their regs. forget that then, either way Dive Rite is pretty good with CS and you likely won't have an issue if for some reason something goes wrong and it's "out of warranty"

 

[filmguy123]

So what I am hearing is... DiveRite VS HOG?

How valuable are these warranties anyway? "Lifetime" sounds great but I could've sworn a lot of the regs or stuff I've seen has just been a "1 year warranty"...?