Mares abyss 22 VS. ScubaPro MK 17 G250V

[goldenwingk]

Mares abyss 22 VS. ScubaPro MK 17 G250V

i was looking into buying one of the 2 regs and i need some help deciding
anyone have any tips on which would be a better choice??
im intrested in ice diving and most likely technical diving in the future
and im still kinda new to diving.

i heard both regs are really good, but which ones the better choice and why??
and can both work for nitrox?

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

Either????

I'm currently a very happy Abyss 22 user. I'd also be a happy Mk17 / G250V user.

Both are great regs, with a different design philosophy. I'd recommend buying the one that you feel you'll get the best dealer support with. I think you'd be happy with either choise.

Good luck!

 

[keyshunter]

Both are good breathing regs and would do the job for you. But, based upon widespread availability of service, and long term company support, I would take the Scubapro--by a mile.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

Service availability in terms of dealers is one issue. Availability of servcie over the long term is another.

Scubapro still supports the vast majority of regs it has made in the last 40 years and has an evolutionary approach to design that usually results in improvements that can be retrofitted inot older models.

Mares, at its worst, bought Dacor and eliminated support for any Dacor reg not in current production and at best, does not provide the same level of decades long support for discontinued models.

I know which one I'd buy.

 

[TN Traveler]

I'm not sure I agree with your assessment DA.

Mares stopped support for Dacor because they could not get the original molds and other equipment to make the parts, since Dacor had been outsourcing the manufacturing. Dacor's suppliers had trashed the equipment since Dacor was not paying their bills. Mares offered a nice trade in program to Dacor owners when it became obvious they could no longer get parts. Let's stop beating this dead horse.

Mares has continued to support it's own branded regulators for years and years. It continues to support the MR 12 which was originally a Voit design, I believe. The is one older Mares reg that I know of that is no longer supported. Mares support for the MR22 has never been an issue and you can even retrofit an old MR22 with current parts, like the Spherical Core Seat and Tri-material Poppit.

So if you have a Mares dealer to support you, I do not think parts availability is really an issue.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

I'd buy what you are saying if we were talking about the hard parts, but we are also talking about support for the soft parts.

The average annual service kit for a Dacor first stage consisted of a pile of o-rings, a seat and a diaphragm. The second stage kit was not much different except for the seat - which again would be fairly simple to tool up and produce. Mares did nothing to produce either but instead chose to take a position of not supporting the regs produced by a copany they just purchased. The trade in program was ok but it still meant a lot of money out of pocket for a customer with a Dacor reg and a now meaningless lifetime warranty.

Cite a primary source for the whole Dacor not paying the bills so the suppliers trashed the moulds thing. The logic of that of is seriously flawed so I tend to doubt the accuracy of the facts.

 

[TN Traveler]

DA

I had several conversations with Phil Mintz and he indicated that without basically remaking the molds, Mares did not have access to the Dacor Suppliers. You know what VDH has gone through in getting soft parts made - not easy and it is expensive. Granted o-rings are easily procured, but diaphragms are not.

I think Mares realizes now that buying Dacor was a mistake because of the problems Dacor had financially. Dacor was living on its inventory of parts before the sale, had not introduced a new product in years and was to all practical purposes bankrupt. I would say if Mares did anything wrong, it was failure to do the proper "due diligence" - but they are not the first company to do so. Mares thought that having the Dacor name would be good for their 2nd tier of equipment - a good marketing idea that backfired.

But back to the original issue - Mares does and has supported its older products and has designed things so that you can upgrade most of them to the latest technology. So saying Mares does not support their products is not really accurate.

We can agree to disagree on the Mares - Dacor situation.
I personally have no axe to grind in that fight, since I only owned one old Dacor mask and it fell apart, just like all my old rubber masks from the 60's and 70's.

I have had great support from Mares on their equipment when I had trouble with a reg and a computer. My single hose reg is Mares and my wife dives Mares regs.

But I still prefer my 1959 PRAM - and Aqualung does not support it, at all (thank heaven for VDH) - should we bash Aqualung for that???

 

[DA Aquamaster]

I agree we should not bash Aqualung for no longer supporting the DA Aquamaster and similar regs, but we do need to bash Aqualung for producing the truly hideous "new" Mistral.

And truth be told, Aqualung still more or less supports your PRAM and mine as they use Titan annual service kits.

I also agree with you that parts are expensive to tool and produce, particularly for a small market like the vintage double hose market. I don't think the number of Dacor reg users was that small in comparision.

 

[shoturtle]

I know the Mares Abyss 22 is nitrox and trimix ready out the box, if that is something you are thinking about getting into some day. Not to sure about the SP MK17 G250V.

 

[squidster]

DA

I had several conversations with Phil Mintz and he indicated that without basically remaking the molds, Mares did not have access to the Dacor Suppliers. You know what VDH has gone through in getting soft parts made - not easy and it is expensive. Granted o-rings are easily procured, but diaphragms are not.

I think Mares realizes now that buying Dacor was a mistake because of the problems Dacor had financially. Dacor was living on its inventory of parts before the sale, had not introduced a new product in years and was to all practical purposes bankrupt. I would say if Mares did anything wrong, it was failure to do the proper "due diligence" - but they are not the first company to do so. Mares thought that having the Dacor name would be good for their 2nd tier of equipment - a good marketing idea that backfired.

But back to the original issue - Mares does and has supported its older products and has designed things so that you can upgrade most of them to the latest technology. So saying Mares does not support their products is not really accurate.

We can agree to disagree on the Mares - Dacor situation.
I personally have no axe to grind in that fight, since I only owned one old Dacor mask and it fell apart, just like all my old rubber masks from the 60's and 70's.

I have had great support from Mares on their equipment when I had trouble with a reg and a computer. My single hose reg is Mares and my wife dives Mares regs.

But I still prefer my 1959 PRAM - and Aqualung does not support it, at all (thank heaven for VDH) - should we bash Aqualung for that???

What i didnt like about the Mares take over of Dacor is the fact that instead of improving Dacor and using some mares design in the Dacor Regs,they instead put a good diving name on a crap reg.
Did we not learn anything from Aqualungs purchase of Apex,how that improved Aqualungs line(Legend)
I guess Not!:mooner::mooner::mooner::mooner: