Orion12521
Guest
Alrighty, I've made my first post as my introduction and now onto my first question.
After giving careful consideration to renting vs buying, I decided that buying my own equipment made the most sense for me. I'm probably going to make less than 10 dives in most years, but am okay with the added expense for the peace of mind knowing how my equipment has been treated.
I am horrible at haggling over prices and generally take the position that the tagged price on an item is firm. The direction I'm going with this is the internet ends up being the best place for me to shop. I am now realizing the one drawback - getting the gear assembled. While I know that several place will assemble the gear, I was unfortunate enough to have the gauge console I purchased on backorder so because I was going to have a missing component I didn't get anything assembled. So, getting to the point (finally
) I'm now left with the dilemma of how to get things assembled.
I am very mechanically inclined but have reservations about attaching the inflator hose and gauges to the primary primarily because I don't have a torque wrench and the owners manual is calling for a specific tightness. Additionally I purchased the Aeris Atmos LX and Air Link and see that I will invalidate the warranty if I do the assembly myself.
Am I going to sour my relationship with the LDS I'm taking lessons through by taking in a bunch of equipment for assembly? Alternatively, there is a big-box retailer that is an authorized Aeris retailer that I could look into doing the assembly.
The regulator I bought is an Oceanic CDX5 primary with an Alpha 8 secondary. In additional to the Aeris Air Link, the gauges (on back order) are the Mares Mission 3 Gauge Console. My intent will be to get the Mares Puck and integrate it in the console. If anyone thinks I'm going in a drastically wrong direction with my equipment selections, please feel free to tell me. I will probably ask you why you feel the way you do so that I might learn more.
I imagine most of my diving will be local (Chicagoland area) so I'm anticipating primarily fresh water and cold. That being said, I certainly am not going to turn down any opportunities to dive in warmer locales that might be salt water.
After giving careful consideration to renting vs buying, I decided that buying my own equipment made the most sense for me. I'm probably going to make less than 10 dives in most years, but am okay with the added expense for the peace of mind knowing how my equipment has been treated.
I am horrible at haggling over prices and generally take the position that the tagged price on an item is firm. The direction I'm going with this is the internet ends up being the best place for me to shop. I am now realizing the one drawback - getting the gear assembled. While I know that several place will assemble the gear, I was unfortunate enough to have the gauge console I purchased on backorder so because I was going to have a missing component I didn't get anything assembled. So, getting to the point (finally
) I'm now left with the dilemma of how to get things assembled.I am very mechanically inclined but have reservations about attaching the inflator hose and gauges to the primary primarily because I don't have a torque wrench and the owners manual is calling for a specific tightness. Additionally I purchased the Aeris Atmos LX and Air Link and see that I will invalidate the warranty if I do the assembly myself.
Am I going to sour my relationship with the LDS I'm taking lessons through by taking in a bunch of equipment for assembly? Alternatively, there is a big-box retailer that is an authorized Aeris retailer that I could look into doing the assembly.
The regulator I bought is an Oceanic CDX5 primary with an Alpha 8 secondary. In additional to the Aeris Air Link, the gauges (on back order) are the Mares Mission 3 Gauge Console. My intent will be to get the Mares Puck and integrate it in the console. If anyone thinks I'm going in a drastically wrong direction with my equipment selections, please feel free to tell me. I will probably ask you why you feel the way you do so that I might learn more.
I imagine most of my diving will be local (Chicagoland area) so I'm anticipating primarily fresh water and cold. That being said, I certainly am not going to turn down any opportunities to dive in warmer locales that might be salt water.
Look in the Classifieds section and you're more than likely to run into some quality stuff or at least equipment that's been well taken care of. Another popular option is "the bay". 
