Newbie looking at Regs - confused

[mossym]

, but once you breathe a great reg, you're hooked.

ain't that the truth..love my atx50, but you'll get a lot of peole here who will say their reg breathes just as well..

 

[Jarrett]

Thanks a bunch for all the info so far. I see a lot of people really like the Apeks (sp?) but I haven't run into a LDS (ScubaToys, Tucker's, Dive West) that carry that brand yet. The brands I have seen thus far are:

Scuba Pro
Atomic
Oceanic
Zeagle
Tusa

I did go to ScubaToys yesterday and talked to Larry (seemed like a very cool and knowledgeable guy) and he took a good amount of time telling me about all the various regulators. Unfortunately, being an ignorant newbie it didn't clarify anything for me really. Titanium is expensive. Balanced is good. Different brands excel at different price ranges. That's about all that stuck.

Anything up to $600 seems reasonable to me. But for a newbie/warm water/rec diver is that overkill? The one that I kept gravitating back to was the Atomic B2, but for no specfic reason. Guess I liked the color That and I was planning on the Atomic SS1 for the integrated octo/inflator.

 

[mossym]

thats a big budget…at that price you could get an atx50 with change, so you should be able to get a comparable reg in one of the manufacturers you talk about..for what it’s worth, of the names you mentioned I’d go with scubapro, atomic, or zeagle, just my opinion though, and I haven’t dove any of them, but I have heard good things about all 3

 

[staticcornflake]

I use a Titan LX. Not as good as the Apeks, but a great reg for the money.

 

[lairdb]

Unfortunately, being an ignorant newbie it didn't clarify anything for me really. Titanium is expensive. Balanced is good. Different brands excel at different price ranges. That's about all that stuck.

I'm not sure you need much more than that.

(Incidentally, if you haven't picked up on it yet, Larry may be the ONLY local dive shop that everybody here agrees can be trusted. You're in good hands.)

Try it this way: The reason you're having trouble finding relevant distinctions is that the distinctions that are relevant to the common OW diver have all but disappeared. The bell curve has moved up, and gotten sharper and taller.

Said differently, the regs and reg-makers that would have scored Cs or Ds have mostly vanished, and at this point, 80% of the regs out there would score somewhere between B- and A-. Another 5% genuinely deserve an F (you aren't likely to find those at Larry's store) and the remaining 15% would receive an A or A+... but the prices accelerate rapidly for relatively fine differences.

You'll certainly see folks around here heatedly debating the merits, but for the most part, those debates are either of the S&W vs. Colts variety (whatever I've had for 20 years is a Good Thing, whatever you've had for 20 years is a Bad Thing) or they're of the this-feature-will-save-my-life-when-I'm-able-to-use-my-underwater-lathe-that-my-support-team-deposited-at-the-7,000-foot-marker variety.

(I have no opinion on the latter, but for all the rest of you, S&W is the right answer to the first question.)

Anything up to $600 seems reasonable to me. But for a newbie/warm water/rec diver is that overkill? The one that I kept gravitating back to was the Atomic B2, but for no specfic reason. Guess I liked the color That and I was planning on the Atomic SS1 for the integrated octo/inflator.

If you're talking about $600 for just first stage and second, that's actually quite generous (given good shopping); if for backup second as well, it's just sorta generous.

I'll leave the integrated backup/inflator argument for others (but please put on your fierproof garment in advance.)

 

[jbichsel]

Thanks a bunch for all the info so far. I see a lot of people really like the Apeks (sp?) but I haven't run into a LDS (ScubaToys, Tucker's, Dive West) that carry that brand yet. The brands I have seen thus far are:

Scuba Pro
Atomic
Oceanic
Zeagle
Tusa

I did go to ScubaToys yesterday and talked to Larry (seemed like a very cool and knowledgeable guy) and he took a good amount of time telling me about all the various regulators. Unfortunately, being an ignorant newbie it didn't clarify anything for me really. Titanium is expensive. Balanced is good. Different brands excel at different price ranges. That's about all that stuck.

Anything up to $600 seems reasonable to me. But for a newbie/warm water/rec diver is that overkill? The one that I kept gravitating back to was the Atomic B2, but for no specfic reason. Guess I liked the color That and I was planning on the Atomic SS1 for the integrated octo/inflator.

Come on down to Hillsboro! We are an authorized Aqualung and Apeks dealer. You can try before you buy.
We believe in letting potential customers try equipment so they can feel comfortable with their purchase.
PM me and see if we can set something up.

 

[Jarrett]

Thanks again for all the info. Still a little confused on this one, but I'll figure something out. Thanks.

 

[mossym]

well, tell us what you're confused about and we'll try to help!!

 

[Jarrett]

No real confusion I guess other than there are no real clear choices on regulators. It seems like with other gear, it's easy to boil it down to one or two models based on various factors, but not quite the same with regulators apparently.

I will most likely just take the recommendation of whichever LDS I end up buying all my other gear from on a regulator. Probably a Scuba Pro, Zeagle or possibly Atomic since that's what most seem to carry around here. Thanks again.