Question Need suggestions on travel regulators

[Doc Harry]

Look at regs that can be serviced world-wide. Getting regulators serviced is a big deal. Talk to your dive shop for advice on what regs are serviced most easily.

I had trouble find a place to service my Apex regs. The last time I sent my regs to someone who said they could service them, it took 3 months to get the parts needed.

 

[DeathPheonix]

A new Mikron is selling in the US for $300. So use that as your baseline. I haven't used any modern Oceanic gear (my most modern is a Delta 2) but usually their gear is solid. However, I have heard of parts availability problems. Although, I heard the same about Aqualung. I would talk to your dive shop about that.

I don't recommend mixing and matching regulator brands because it could cause a problem with future servicing as the shop needs to be both an Oceanic and Mares dealer. I would stick with one brand.

There are several dive shops in Europe that sell internationally. You should check them out.

The reason of mixing and matching regulator brands is that the shop is running a promotion where they will give an mares octo and a pressure gague for free when buying oceanic. My local shop services both of them and mainly carries Oceanic gear so I think that servicing won't be much of an issue.

 

[DeathPheonix]

Everything you mentioned will work very well.

Are the used regs already serviced? If not, once you add in the price of a service, the new set looks even more attractive. If they are serviced, then I'd also consider the Mikron and Flight. But first find out from the shop if they are having any trouble getting service parts. It's been an issue with both Aqualung and their subsidiary Apeks for a while.

Assuming you'll be diving warm water, there's no need for the additional weight and expense of the Legend.

I would also recommend getting the same type octo as your primary second stage.

Finally, since you mentioned Mares. If the shop is a dealer, how much is a new 62X Dual or Dual Adj? That's their premium compact reg. Also the 15X Prestige or Dual is their low priced travel regset. I bought it for my son and it works great.

62X would be around 500USD without spares and gauge. My shop seems to run promos mostly on oceanic gear, I’ve got my fins, mask, snorkel from them all oceanic branded for less than 70

 

[gordonscuba]

If you are scuba diving, and traveling, and traveling to dive, and owning your own gear then just get "the best regulator, period", not "the best regulator under $300 on ebay that is probably corroded on the inside" etc. It's critical life support gear that you probably expect to have for what, a decade? Why consider it less important than what you pay for a decent suit or a couple of nights in a dive resort?

 

[lowwall]

The reason of mixing and matching regulator brands is that the shop is running a promotion where they will give an mares octo and a pressure gague for free when buying oceanic. My local shop services both of them and mainly carries Oceanic gear so I think that servicing won't be much of an issue.

Which Mares octo? The good news is they don't make a really low performing one like the Aqualung pancake octo. The only one that would be borderline for me would be the Instinct in which case I'd ask how much to upgrade to something better.

I'd also ask if they've adjusted the octo for the lower stock IP on the non-Mares first stage. It will still work if they didn't, but will breathe harder than necessary.

 

[LandonL]

OP is in China, Deep6 is probably not the best choice there, though it would be an outstanding choice in the US.

Why not? We have an Asian office, distribution, and many dealers in Asia.

 

[lowwall]

Why not? We have an Asian office, distribution, and many dealers in Asia.

Where are your international dealers? Your https://www.deep6gear.com/storelocator page is broken.

 

[GiraffeMarineSalvage]

Local serviceability by a trusted dive shop is an important consideration, but shipping in for service or getting trained to service your own gear are also options (but in my opinion supporting your local dive shop is worthwhile...). Also if traveling includes cold water destinations it will be important to have a regulator rated for cold water use.

 

[GF99/99]

Look at regs that can be serviced world-wide. Getting regulators serviced is a big deal. Talk to your dive shop for advice on what regs are serviced most easily.

I had trouble find a place to service my Apex regs. The last time I sent my regs to someone who said they could service them, it took 3 months to get the parts needed.

Thats interesting. I regularly travel around the world for diving (minus the US) and I have found that SP and Apeks are by far the most used regs and easiest regs to get serviced based on my experience. I run Apeks regs and most of my friends do as well or SP and we never have had issues getting parts of service for them. I lived in Indonesia for many years and have dove in probably 15-20+ countries. Plus not to mention I can fully service an Apeks 1st stage in about 5-10min with 3-4 tools on a rocking boat. Very expedition field service friendly.

Why not? We have an Asian office, distribution, and many dealers in Asia.

Another interesting point I have never seen or heard of anyone in Asia knowing about deep 6.
Deep 6 and other knock off Apeks/SP regs (DGX, Dive Rite, TDS, Tecline, HOG, Problue, IST, etc. etc.) you will find are very very very difficult to get parts and service for.

My wife and I am looking to purchase a set of regulators and mainly dive during traveling, our local dive sites are all quarries. I need some suggestions on what regulators to buy. For about the same price ($480) I can get Oceanic Alpha 10 + CDX with mares spares from my local dive center, used aqualung legend online, for around 320 I can get used aqualung mikron (maybe better suited for my wife) or used apeks flight. The used options all have been used for 100 dives or so. Our dive instructor strongly recommends us to buy new.

Anyways back to the OP:
If your looking to save money go used, honestly regs are such a simple mechanical item there is not alot that can go wrong with them if they only have 100 dives. I own 15+ regs and all were bought used never had an issue with any of them. Im sure there are many people on this board that are using 30+ year old regs. Also think about it if you use rental equipment this is probably the most used and abused equipment you can find so if your happy to use that why would you be concerned about a "used reg"

Also personally this whole "travel" reg thing I think is just a industry marketing scam to try and make an old product look new a shinny to sell more. Every reg is a travel reg, to me a "travel" specific marketed reg just means they made it with more plastic crap so it is "light weight" but plastic = braking. Even if you save 1kg on a plastic travel reg over something sturdy like a DST or MK25 who cares. It is 1kg. really in the grand scheme of things what is 1kg. Ill take 1kg extra weight any day over a plastic hunk or crap. plus your probably going to put the reg in your rolly bag carry on anyways so not like you have to worry about overweight check luggage.

As others have said stick with a reg that you can get support for. And if your traveling alot stick with the big name brands that you will find world wide. Think SP, Apeks, Mares. In this order these are probably the most popular brands you will see outside the US, especially in Asia, Africa, and EU

 

[LandonL]

Where are your international dealers? Your https://www.deep6gear.com/storelocator page is broken.

The module I was using for that is no longer maintained, I thought that link was removed, I took care of that now. Thank you.

For Asia, we have some in Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Japan, Indonesia and probably a few others I can't think of right now. Product is also available on online sales portals in Asia as well. We have pretty good coverage in the region.

Deep 6 and other knock off Apeks/SP regs (DGX, Dive Rite, TDS, Tecline, HOG, Problue, IST, etc. etc.) you will find are very very very difficult to get parts and service for.

An often repeated line to disparage us, but the Signature series regulator is our design. Parts availability is quite easy with us, as we ship all new orders with parts, the service manual is available online, and any competent balanced diaphragm technician can perform the service.

We aren't one of the other dive manufacturers previously mentioned that makes it difficult for our customers to get parts and service. We are the exact opposite, we make it as easy as we can for them. We want to keep you diving, so we give you multiple ways to do that.