capt. dave:
OK, a new diver in search of HONEST answers on equipment. I am a US Coast Guard capt. (50 gross tons). I am looking for diving packages to review, so I am looking on opinions on the best gear. I plan on diving in the cooler water in NY (1000 Islands etc.) and some warmer trips. I was advised that Scuba Pro is good, Oceanic and Areis are related somehow and not that great. So, I am looking for higher end equipment that will last for at least awhile. I appreciate ALL responses and help you provide.
First, welcome to ScubaBoard.
Second, all our answers are HONEST. Some are objective, some are subjective, and some are very subjective, but 99% of them are honest.
Third, there is no best gear. There is only 'best' relative to you and your situation.
Environmental considerations such as where you intend to have your regulators serviced and by whom, (and what regulators that shop/technician is certified to work on and has parts and tools for,) should factor highly into your decision-making. You can buy regulators online, but it is a bit more difficult to have them serviced online. (But you can indeed box them up and ship them off to someone for servicing once each year, if this is your cup of tea...)
All else being equal, it is often handy to have a productive working relationship with a local area dive shop, and "productive working relationships" are not established on air fills alone.
ScubaPro is a top line manufacturer, I dive SPs myself. But both Zeagle and Oceanic make fine regs as well, as do Atomic, Apeks, and many others. No one really turns out crap, because it isn't that much more difficult to turn out quite decent products. Besides, liability issues and the facts that it is a relatively small market and word of mouth gets around would soon drive a manufacturer turning out crap to go into some other line of business.
That said, it is true you get what you pay for. Some regulators sell for $300. Some sell for more than $700. There is generally a reason why this difference exists. (If for some bizarre reason you desire to drop serious ching on titanium, you can find regulators for more than $1500...but we digress.) Sherwood, for example, makes very decent regulators that generally sell on the low end of the scale. I own five Sherwood Blizzards. At 200 fsw and below they do not breath anywhere near as nicely as ScubaPro regulators that cost twice as much. OTOH, they weren't designed to be taken below 200 fsw - they were designed as a very easy-maintenance lower-priced product that would work fine as an entry level recreational regulator, particularly for students and rental gear lockers. They shine in this role.
It is a question of what you are looking for, where you're located, what sort of diving you're doing and where, and what you're willing to pay for it.
Finally, there are over 4 years of archives on this precise topic. If you spend some time going back through older threads there are some fascinating posts, often from techs or guys who memorize intermediate pressure settings for diversion, that you may find beneficial. Control bar top of the thread, fourth button from the right, click on it then on "advanced search" and enter names of reg manufacturers to get lists of similar threads. [Check the dates of the threads before posting. For example, down at the bottom of this thread are a half-dozen "Similar Threads" already listed for you. The oldest is from 2002. If you read it, then post to the end of it without checking the date, you are then resurrecting an old thread which was last posted to in 2002...which is frowned on!
]
Best of luck with finding a reg that meets your needs,
Doc
