Opinions wanted by Tech divers

[rescuediver009]

Yes the Abyss is made by Mares.

As fo the best reg, it depends on where you are.
All around diving and versatility I like the Apeks. They are great for cold salt deep and dark. The seal is a great thing
The poseidon Xstream is a nice choice too. If I had my pick it would be one of either on either post.

The Scubapro is a great reg is you are diving in warmer water.

The Diverite is kind of a clone of the Apeks DST first stage without the environmental seal. I would assume it breathes the same. Not to mention people trust dive rite for caves as that is where they are located.

Yes the sherwood brut is a good reg for minimal parts. Would I personally use one in a cave? No. They are good for shallow water though. I guess that is not really technical.
I know a guy that uses an Oceanic Omega for cave diving due to its great breathability and low snag potential.

Hope this helps.

 

[GDI]

Apeks have been dived to better than 1040 feet whats that tell you

 

[msandler]

I tech dive with Mares MR22/Abyss. SP MK25 /G250 and Zeagle ZX FlatheadVI (Apeks) also. If you think the Mares is not for Tech diving, your doing too much reading and not enough diving. Outstanding air delivery, no adjustments to think about, and good hose routing in DIN or Yoke. Ultra reliable, steel construction. I guess I do it wrong because you do need a tool to get to the diaphragm of the 2nd. With Helium mixtures, what do you think the most important regulator criteria is? foolproof reliability and easy breathing (which doesn't necessarily mean wind tunnel power - that poses other problems) so we do not build-up CO2 or breath unnaturally.

 

[Morg_NZ]

Yes the Abyss is made by Mares.

As fo the best reg, it depends on where you are.
All around diving and versatility I like the Apeks. They are great for cold salt deep and dark. The seal is a great thing
The poseidon Xstream is a nice choice too. If I had my pick it would be one of either on either post.

The Scubapro is a great reg is you are diving in warmer water.

The Diverite is kind of a clone of the Apeks DST first stage without the environmental seal. I would assume it breathes the same. Not to mention people trust dive rite for caves as that is where they are located.

Yes the sherwood brut is a good reg for minimal parts. Would I personally use one in a cave? No. They are good for shallow water though. I guess that is not really technical.
I know a guy that uses an Oceanic Omega for cave diving due to its great breathability and low snag potential.

Hope this helps.

Your quite clearly a Apeks fan, so can you tell me.................what's the nitrox % out of the box{40% ??} and what is the major differance between the AT100 and the ATX 200/black pearl ???

 

[rescuediver009]

Your quite clearly a Apeks fan, so can you tell me.................what's the nitrox % out of the box{40% ??} and what is the major differance between the AT100 and the ATX 200/black pearl ???

Lets start by saying that the second stages are exactly identical witht he exceptionof the sticker on the purge. They perform the same and have the exact internal parts.
As far as the first stages go, the newer 200 is pretty much the same as the older 100 except that it has all the mechanisms of the reg above the inlet instead of below it. They are also a little closer and have less turns. The more turns that the air takes inside the regulator the more its flow is restricted. So the 200 improves on the 100 very very slightly by reducing the amount of turns the air takes. How much this affects the breathability of the reg is another story. The guys that bought the 200 will tell you that it is better. (otherwise why would they buy it?) But I think that is just self justification. They breathe near the same.
One other thing is the configurationof the ports. They both have the same angling of ports. I find that the 200 is better for recreational divers with a single tank. It is a real pain inthe but to route hoses for doubles without ending up with a christmas tree like profile. The 100's can be inverted easily thus angling the ports downwards for a more streamlined pattern. I don't know which one applies to you but please feel free to ask for more information, or anything that I have missed. If it matters the late John Bennett preferred the 100. If you ask me it depends on your configuration. i would look at a picture of either first stage and then see where you would put your hoses. then if you are diving singles (it doesn't matter which one) I would take the cheaper one, which depending on where you are may be the 200 as the 100 may have to be special ordered from europe.

hope this helps.

They are all good for 40% out of the box, but you can buy nitrox versions of each that go to 100%

 

[DepthCharge]

APeks makes good regs no doubt.. The best breathing regs available today are the Poseidon Xtremes. If you haven't ever tried them side by side at depth don't even bother commenting.. There is no compairson at depth.

The newest poseidons are also very easy to service and I have never head of one freezing in even the coldest water.

These regs can also be easily modified for extreme service (that being True 300-400 bar fills) not that would be of an use In The US

I also like the scuba pro regs personally I prefer a g250 hp with a mk25 first stage but most of the seconds breath well..

I use Apeks regs on my RB, but will be switching to Poseidon xtreme first stages since I have seen a few too many APeks regs let go (hp failure) at depth including myself..

For depths up to about 200fsw or so the Atomic B1 and M1 regs are hard to beat, they dont use over balanced 1st stages like the apeks or just the great flow design of the Xtreme so their performance drops a bit compared to these regs, but are still top performers.

Joe,
Could you go a bit more into the problems you've had with the Apex's? I use primarily Apex and ScubaPro's for bail-out, and never had problems with either one.
I had a bad experience with a Poseidon X-treme freeflowing during a cave dive. No big deal, but did loose a bit of gas before shutting it down :11: . They do breath nice when working right, but mine had a bit of corosion in the 2nd stage after only maybe 4 dives, only one of which was saltH2O.

 

[DepthCharge]

Currently I use the Diverite regs and have had no problems at any depth. In the past I have also used Scuba pro, Apex and Zeagle.

I feel most high performance regs today will perform well to most extreme depths.

What I concider even more important is the ability to fix a regulator while in the field without the need for specialized tools. A high performance regulator serves no purpose if its broken and lying in the bottom of your wet dive box.

Once you have chosen which regs to purchase, the next step is to be trained on their repair and stock your save a dive kit with at least one complete reg repair kit.

I have been looking at the new poseidon xtreme first stages for my Meg rebreather, just because of thier stainless ball bearing high pressure seat.

Curt,
That is the problem, locating rebuild kits for the regs. I have a supplier for the Apex, and Scuba Pro's. I've been looking for several years for a supplier for Poseidon kits, but no luck.
The one thing that I don't like about the X-treme's is that you cannot adjust the intermediate pressure very esaily(just like with Scuba Pro's).

 

[Otter]

...snip... since I have seen a few too many APeks regs let go (hp failure) at depth including myself...

Can you elaborate? I know of a dive whose ATX200 1st stage literally exploded in Palau. His buddy was close and they were able to finish a controlled ascent and safety stop (good buddy). The local U.S. distributor said the reg was warped, probably during a servicing, and refused to give him as much as a $.01 credit for a new reg -- he went to the Atomic.

As I have an ATX-200, my interest is more than casual

 

[rescuediver009]

I don't want to start a heated debate by any means, but I would like to comment that all it takes is one bad service tech or a missed o-ring and it willnot likely cause a problem until the ip is increased like at depth. I personally have not seen any problems up here with the apeks regs and they are number one as far as the populatiry goes. As for the story about the exploding first stage, I am by no means calling it BS, but it is not even up to the dealer to give the guy a warranty or his money back for that matter. As far as the way itwas explained it sounds like he was being very inconsiderate for a lack of a better term, to the diver to refuse a warranty that is not up to him. Bennett took his TX100 past 1000ft. and still claimed they were the best.

 

[scubapro50]

before you buy any regulator please read the thread "dumped on by dive companies again" .... a story of how Dacor/Mares are no longer supporting thier products ....