Mares Rover 12 reg Vs Scubapro mk 17 r395

[Akitakoi]

by the way its not called rover 2 its rover 12!

I'd say your both right. (can't post links yet, Mares site lists it as Rover 2 and Rover 12.

Any way I'm looking at these at my LDS, salesman/owner says this model replaces the Ranger line with a few improvements. It was pretty busy there so I didn't get a chance to ask what has been changed.

Would like to hear more as I'm looking for a entry level setup.

 

[Dave1981]

Personally I'd go with Scubapro. It's what I have and has been perfect for the past few years. I've had bad experience with Mares regs, and heard similar from a few people. Out of the 6 (mares) kits I used to look after 4 of them had problems with the primary and octo within a year and only a few dives.

 

[claytonxuereb]

thanks guys. keep telling me what u know about these regs. thanks.

 

[claytonxuereb]

Dave .. you dive with the mk17/395 regulator and 295 octopus? are they good? thanks.

 

[divin'dog]

Personally I'd go with Scubapro. It's what I have and has been perfect for the past few years. I've had bad experience with Mares regs, and heard similar from a few people. Out of the 6 (mares) kits I used to look after 4 of them had problems with the primary and octo within a year and only a few dives.

Ditto the above...
I'd pretty much go with the Scubapro too if I had to pick from your selection. I owned a Mares set up for 20 yrs and loved it until I couldn't get parts for it any more. The dealer that sold me the Mares said that getting parts and customer service for it was becoming more difficult and recommended other brands! I think the Mares regs are probably as good as other regs you'll find on the market and you'll like how they perform for the value, but other intangibles would steer me towards ScubaPro.

I now own ScubaPro and understand it to be more customer friendly for service and getting parts here and abroad. They also stand well behind their products.

 

[Dave1981]

Dave .. you dive with the mk17/395 regulator and 295 octopus? are they good? thanks.

Exactly that, maybe 150 dives on them and both perfect. I'm happy with them and don't really see the point in having anything more expensive for the diving I do.

 

[claytonxuereb]

dave sorry to bother you again, what type of diving do you do? and what depths? thanks. SO FAR...SCUBAPRO IS ON TOP.

 

[Dave1981]

No problem. warm water rec diving, shepherding the odd OW diver around, and when I get the chance wrecks, drifts and quite a few dives down to 40m. The octo gets a little restricted at that depth but nothing bad, the primary is hardly noticeable as a change.

You won't go wrong there.

Edited to add, always warmer than about 23 Celsius.

 

[PADIinstructor]

I personally wouldn't even touch Mares gear anymore. I work at a dive shop and we stock both the Mares and Atomic regs and I can tell you that Mares quality is slipping badly. Go for the Atomic 10 times out of 10. Just don't buy your stuff online....support your local dive shops. If they go, have fun finding places to get gear serviced, tanks filled and boats to dive off of.

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

I personally wouldn't even touch Mares gear anymore. I work at a dive shop and we stock both the Mares and Atomic regs and I can tell you that Mares quality is slipping badly. Go for the Atomic 10 times out of 10. Just don't buy your stuff online....support your local dive shops. If they go, have fun finding places to get gear serviced, tanks filled and boats to dive off of.

Interesting statement. How is the quality slipping? I'm not familiar with the most recent Mares regs, but the Mares regs I've owned and serviced (MR-22 Abyss, MR-12 Voltrex, MR-12 Proton) were well-made, reliable, and breathed as well (or better) than any reg in their price range (or well above their price range) that I've tried since the 1970's when I started diving.

Mares did have a problem with longevity of their high pressure poppet. I believe in 2007(?) they switched to a redesigned Tri-material poppet that seems to have solved the problem, and all of the Mares diaphragm regs (I believe) can be upgraded with the new high pressure poppet... and to be fair to Mares, other manufacturers (including Scubapro) went through design revisions with the seat material of their high pressure seats, tried sharp and blunt edges on the hard seat, etc.

But if you are correct about an actual decline in quality, that is really too bad.

Best wishes.