Recommendations

[Paladin]

Last year, I bought my oldest son an Edge Epic and he loves it. He is now a devoted Edge owner and has no intention of switching brands. The only problem he had with it was just after he got the regulator, the braided hoses began leaking where it went into the first stage. Jim Lapenta replaced it with a standard hose (at my son's request) and there have been no other issues with the regulator.

I took the regulator apart the day it arrived and was impressed with the quality and ease of service inherent in the Epic. I am a devoted Conshelf diver, but I would not hesitate to switch to Edge/HOG if I need to buy new regulators for myself.

 

[aj555]

I wrote a lengthy reply but I've decided that it's just not worth continuing the discussion.

In retrospect I shouldn't have replied to your first post.. Your original post was a textbook troll - bash something, pretend that you are trying to give a balanced opinion, and then predict that people are going to rail against your post. It's the perfect way to spread FUD without it looking like it. I should have known better.

I, my dive buddies, and my tech instructor will I am sure continue to happily dive our HOG's for many years to come.

You might want to look up what trolling actually is to start with, because you have no clue. Please tell me where I bashed HOGS? Especially in my first post I said

I've heard many good things about them

I never said they were bad, I said I heard they were and for the OP to do more research (never said not to buy) from people that have actually used them. I gave opinions of people that know what they are doing, and don't spend all day on Scubaboard. It's pretty easy to guess that people will bash against me when HOG has a small section of their fan base that is narrow minded and does nothing but go all over forums criticizing anyone who questions quality of something made in Taiwan. Oh it's ok to question any other brand of regulator, and ask many opinions from various people on it's quality. But heaven forbid you mention anything negative you might have heard about HOG, or else the HOG forum police with low reading comprehension will come after you.

 

[elan]

So you've never used one, never seen one in person, never inspected one, but have "heard" that they are cheap and nasty? Tech's love them because they PERFORM and you can get parts easily and cheaply, and techs use a LOT of regulators. Techs also trust their lives to their equipment far more than a rec diver, are you saying that all those tech divers switching to HOG are doing so to save a couple of bucks? Tech diving is expensive, it costs over $10k just to get your basic kit together, you really think Tec divers are cheap asses who are going to put their lives at risk to save a couple of dollars on their primary, most important piece of kit???

I have Scubapro, Aqualung Legend, and HOG regs, and the HOG's are every bit as good if not better than any of my other regs that I own or use. They just cost about 1/3 of the price.

I've never heard of any of these horror stories that you talk about either - in fact I cant think of a single bad post or thread here on SB about them. The only "bad" things you read is where people migh have a normal everyday regulator issue, and they are dealt with immediately. Like when I openly admitted that i dropped and broke my regs, and HOG sent me replacement parts - for free. Maybe you are associated with another reg company??? Or maybe these "people" you listening to are people like my LDS who tried to convince me that I was "going to die" diving these things, but hey, they had a great scubapro $1500 reg set I could buy...

And no, i'm not a tech diver. Just someone who appreciates a company with good service that cares about diving more than profit.

I think where the HOG is really ahead is in providing possibility for people to officially service their regs...

Most of the local people that I spoke to who own HOGs were bringing the price as the deciding factor though. Their saying was "it is like an Apeks but cheaper". 1/3 of the price might be a local thing , here it is more like 1.5 compared to Apeks. Performance wise I doubt any of them have an edge , I tried HOG, Apeks, SP , Zeagle, Atomic and all those that have barrel 2nd breath the same, IMHO it depends mostly on how it is tuned, what the IP on the first stage is rather than what make it is.
From all the high performance regs you will be hard pressed to find a reg that does not perform, especially with a reg based on an existing and proven design. If it does not that it's likely a problem with the reg.

Money do matter, if you have 6-10 regulators it's the price of the service that makes a difference. And here I think HOG made a good decision by allowing people to take official training and do their service. This can be an industry changing initiative.

I do find that sometimes the sales pushes of HOG dealers on the board are a bit aggressive but I think that's the nature of the business when you have to establish a new brand; it's important for people seeking advice to treat them as such.

 

[Allan Kaizer]

Sorry everyone, I know I'm just feeding the troll, but I had to do it!

4.	troll	375 up, 143 down
	Someone who is purposefully posting on a forum/messageboard/site sith the sole aim to irritate the regular members. Contrary to popular belief there is much more to internet trolling than posting "OMG UR ALL SO GHEYYYY!!!1" "OMFG TRIVIUM SUX ASS U FAGS LOL" and the like. People who post such things will usually be one-post wonders and get banned, however the more experienced troll will attempt to cause some sort of havoc under the admins radar. Urban Dictionary: troll

I second the motion for a copy of these "horror stories". I need some reading material to tide me over on my week long wreck diving trip with my HOG setup

 

[tech3324]

I've heard many good things about them, and I've heard many horror stories.

Would you share one of the horror stories?

 

[aj555]

Would you share one of the horror stories?

At this point it would be pointless, because the HOG forum police will say either A) I'm lying, B) I'm trolling, C) I work for some other reg company.

Sorry everyone, I know I'm just feeding the troll, but I had to do it!

Urban Dictionary, nice reference. Did you use it for college?

 

[SteelRain]

At this point it would be pointless, because the HOG forum police will say either A) I'm lying, B) I'm trolling, C) I work for some other reg company.

Lol, I see what you are saying. I like HOGs, but after reading through this thread some of the other users are starting to remind me of Apple fans. Don't waste your time with these people, they will never listen. I think I know what problems you're referring too, PM me. The funniest part is that they are calling you a troll, when they are the ones trolling you. I just joined this forum, and I can already tell it's going to be fun with the mentality of usual internet people :rofl2:

 

[Aqua-Andy]

At this point it would be pointless, because the HOG forum police will say either A) I'm lying, B) I'm trolling, C) I work for some other reg company.

I would really like to hear about some first hand accounts of issues with HOG regs. I like to know what to look out for.

 

[Paladin]

I would like to hear some of those horror stories myself. My son dives an Edge Epic and I would like to know if there are, in truth, any real issues we should be aware of. Not some "My dive buddy knows this guy who met a diver whose brother-in-law heard of a diver off the coast of New Guinea whose HOG exploded at 30 feet and killed a whole tourist group" type of thing. To be credible, it needs to be something first hand. Second or third hand "testimony" is not admissable either in court or here, if it is to be believable. So, please, do enlighten us with your facts.

 

[nimoh]

HOG regulators are the best regulators on the market, and all tech divers use them because of this.

I have never used a HOG regulator, and I am not a tech diver, but I have heard things.