My Head is Spinning! Need Help Picking A Regulator!!!

[Slater]

You can't go wrong with any of your choices. I vote for Atomic Z2 because it rocks and it only needs to be serviced every two years. Servicing is not that expensive: I send mine to scubatoys.com, and they return it quickly. While I can't remember the price, I remember being surprised because it was well under what I expected.

Why ship your gear from SD to Texas & have ScubaToys service your regs when we have 2+ great LDS's right here in town that both service in house & are authorized dealers for Atomic..
Am I missing something?

 

[Slater]

To answer the question about good quality affordable regulators, the good news is that almost any regulator model made and sold by a major manufacturer will work just fine for recreational diving. Too many divers (including myself ) get hung up on the particulars of regulators, and believe me there is an absurd amount of hype involved in the design and marketing of modern regulators. Don't forget, just a few decades ago professional divers were routinely making extreme dives on regulators that some of today's salesmen would tell you shouldn't be used in a bathtub.

To me the best way-by far- to save money and get good performance out of regulators is to buy used. Novice divers typically need an experienced mentor to guide them in buying used regs, but with the right guidance the risk is very small that you'll end up with something that isn't easily maintained and made to work as new. A best buy IMO would be a scubapro MK5 or 10 with a 109 2nd stage-one of the greatest 2nd stages ever, and a GOOD regulator tech to rebuild and tune these. There are all sorts of other choices....

For new, one of the regs that commonly gets mentioned as a best buy is the aqualung titan. This regulator is descended directly from the USD royal aquamaster, then the conshelf, etc...and it is a simple, proven design.

The balanced/unbalanced discussion can be found on any number of threads. The short story is that all modern diaphragm first stages are balanced, some piston regs are, some are not. It really does not make a great deal of difference; balanced 1st stages are simply not affected by (or compensate for) changes in tank pressure. However, unbalanced piston 1sts like the MK2 have a VERY SUBTLE loss in performance at very low tank pressures, such that most divers will not notice anything until the tank is well below 500 PSI, at which point a smart diver is back on the boat; and a not-so-smart diver might appreciate the reminder that gas is running low. With 2nd stages, the difference between balanced and unbalanced is even more subtle. In this case, changes in intermediate pressure (from the 1st stage) do not affect balanced 2nds.

The most important thing, IMO for new divers searching for their first regulator is to not fall for some of the BS hype that seems to permeate the dive gear industry. Buy something simple, look for a design that has been around a while, and stick with brands that have proven long term support of their products. One of the few things that can really cause a regulator to become unusable is if you can no longer easily get rebuild parts for it.

At what depths do you really start feeling the benifit to an overbalanced reg like the Aqualung Legend??

 

[halocline]

At what depths do you really start feeling the benifit to an overbalanced reg like the Aqualung Legend??

That's easy, at no depth. "Overbalancing" is one of the stupider bits of modern reg hype. The claim is that because the regulator increases IP as depth increases at a rate faster than the increase in ambient pressure, the regulator "breathers' better as you go deeper. First, this has nothing to do with "balancing". Its more like "over depth-compensating" except that doesn't roll off the tongue as nicely. Second, since the reg has a balanced 2nd stage, any increase in IP is simply diverted in the 2nd stage to actually increase cracking pressure commensurate with the increase in IP. The whole point of a balanced 2nd stage is that it compensates for changes in IP.

Sooo..... hopefully this provides a perfect example of exactly what kind of sales hype to look out for when buying a reg. Thanks for providing it!

 

[flots am]

So, if most people are saying that most all reg's will perfrom well for the average diver without issue then what is a person supposed to use as a guideline for purchasing? I get that much of it is personal preference. I have been looking at it like, "my life depends on this equipment" so I want to buy good quality gear but like many others, I am not rich and will need to peice together my gear.

Your regulator is not "life support" and your life does not depend on your regulator functioning properly. No SCUBA equipment used an an OW, Recreational dive is "life support."

Your life depends on you remembering, practicing and following your training. Aside from an underwater tank explosion (which AFAIK, has never happened), there is no equipment failure that will kill you on an Open Water dive. At any point during the dive, you can ascend directly to the surface, ditch your weights if necessary, and safely remain there. If you are doing a dive where this is not possible, then you need to be carrying redundant equipment, get specialized training and be diving with a similarly trained and equipped buddy.

That isn't to say that your regulator choice is irrelevant.

• If you're diving in very cold water, you'll want a reg that's designed and certified for those conditions, so it doesn't free flow every time the water gets chilly or you start breathing hard.
• You want a regulator that breathes as easily as possible at whatever depths you'll be diving.
• You want a regulator that you can get serviced by a first-class service facility that does a lot of whatever you own. You don't want a reg that needs to be shipped out for service, since that introduces delays, and extra round-trips when they don't fix whatever you were having problems with, or it leaks when you get it back and needs a little adjustment.

flots.

 

[rigdiver]

Breathing water does NOT support life. Therefore a regulator underwater DOES function as "life support."

 

[LowDrag]

Thanks rigdiver...

Breathing water does NOT support life. Therefore a regulator underwater DOES function as "life support."

flots am...

I am not sure why you would not consider this a life support system being as it keeps you alive underwater.

 

[LowDrag]

 

[halocline]

Breathing water does NOT support life. Therefore a regulator underwater DOES function as "life support."

Hitting concrete pavement at 60 MPH does not support life. Is a car "life support"?
Spending enough time naked in the cold will kill you. Is your coat "life support"?
Going without food will cause your death. Is dinner "life support"?

Following this logic, you should spend as much as possible on your car, clothing, and food, because "isn't your life worth it?" Likewise, you should not be able to purchase car parts, sewing gear, or food to prepare yourself because "life support equipment" should only be worked on by professionals.

You'd have to be a pretty piss-poor diver to not be able to survive a regulator failure in recreational diving. In fact, that's why so much of OW class is devoted to doing exactly that; air sharing, buddy system, CESA, etc....

But somehow someone always steps in to perpetuate the BS.

 

[halocline]

I may be a rookie to Scuba but I am not an idiot.

Not an idiot, but you are buying a load of BS. There's nothing different about scuba gear from any number of other devices we use in our lives. It's just that some in the dive gear industry use the "life support" scam to control access to repair parts, force customers to use marginally qualified service technicians for unnecessary service, and up-sell new divers to expensive regulators that, of course, offer ZERO additional safety when diving.

 

[LowDrag]

Not an idiot, but you are buying a load of BS. There's nothing different about scuba gear from any number of other devices we use in our lives. It's just that some in the dive gear industry use the "life support" scam to control access to repair parts, force customers to use marginally qualified service technicians for unnecessary service, and up-sell new divers to expensive regulators that, of course, offer ZERO additional safety when diving.

I am not necessarily buying into any BS but I do consider a reg setup to be a piece of equipment that supports me under water. As for any scams, I am definitely new to this arena and need to be careful about avoiding misinformation. In regards to unecessary service, I have to question that statement. Are you refferring to something other than normal annual service or whatever service interval the manufacturer recommends? I was reading a thread earlier about servicing your own reg's. I believe you replied to that thread as well IIRC. Is that something you would recommend for someone such as myself starting out? I am looking for information pure and simple. Thanks for all the insight given.