Question Regulator recomendation

[BoltSnap]

Argh. Why do people keep repeating this? Mares didn't kill off Dacor. It was already dead. Dacor had ceased production of the few items it actually made, stiffed its suppliers who made most of the stuff sold under the Dacor name and was preparing for bankruptcy liquidation proceedings when Head offered to buy out whatever was left and fold it into Mares.

Yes, what they were primarily interested in was the dealer network. There were no true Dacor products still being manufactured to supply that network, but there was a full line of Mares' gear they could offer instead. For those dealers that still wanted to sell Dacor branded products, Head simply slapped the Dacor name on existing Mares products. This wasn't very effective and Mares eventually shut down the Dacor branded gear line entirely.

Mares did get whatever spare parts were left in the Dacor warehouse and they continued to distribute them until they were gone.

An obligation to produce new spare parts to honor Dacor's Lifetime Guaranty program was not part of the sale. Dacor could have tried to insist on it as part of the sale, but it likely would have killed the deal entirely as uneconomical. Mares did try to partially compensate Dacor reg owners for the loss of their warranty by offering to replace Dacor regs with heavily discounted Mares regs for a few years after the acquisition.

Yeah, it was a terrible thing when Mares killed DACOR. They bought it just for the dealer network and then killed it. Terrible

 

[rpd19801980]

Hello,

Thanks for your reply. Sadly there is no compelling set offer for scubapro at this store and anything with a mk19 would be ar least as expensive as the Xstream

Agree with this

 

[NorthLakeFire]

I miss my Dacor Pacer. First reg I owned. Sad to see what happened to Dacor

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Yeah, it was a terrible thing when Mares killed DACOR. They bought it just for the dealer network and then killed it. Terrible

I'm not sure anybody really cared. There was a reason Dacor was failing. I also heard that their regs were a total pain in the ass to work on.
I'm not sure anybody will miss Aqualung either.
I find a lot of their stuff gimicky.
Add up all the brands of scuba gear in the world, holy crap! how many brands do we really need?
There are so many other brands that will slide right in and take their place.
I just like solid simple gear that works.

 

[BoltSnap]

I'm not sure anybody really cared.

The people that owned DACOR equipment, and that's all they have owned, DACOR had a strong following, did care very much.

I also heard that their regs were a total pain in the ass to work on.

In general, they were straightforward, with no issues. The Extreme Plus had many o'rings but nothing that was too difficult or challenging. It also had an excellent service manual for the technician.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I lost an anchor once on my boat, so instead I tied off an old Dacor 1st stage and used that. Worked like a charm!

 

[USdiver1]

The Dacor Pacer was one of the better regulators of its time. Well made and well liked.

AL, especially the Conshelf and its variants [Titan, Glacia] are workhorses, nothing gimmicky about them.

Dacor Dart was the 'breath' of Darth Vader in Star Wars. 'nuff said.

 

[T-Bird Diver]

I'm not sure anybody really cared. There was a reason Dacor was failing. I also heard that their regs were a total pain in the ass to work on.

No, that's incorrect. Tens of thousands of Dacor dealers were affected, including many who exclusively sold Dacor or relied heavily on their products. Here in Puerto Rico, Dacor sold really, really well, and they are still equipment and thousands of Pacers still roaming around. Dacor was one of the best scuba manufacturers from the 1970s through the 1980s, leading the industry with countless innovations—far more than Healthways, Scubapro, or Nemrod at the time. If you look at their entire timeline, you’ll see they were true pioneers in manufacturing, something that’s practically nonexistent today.

The Olympic/PACER series wasn’t as difficult to service compared to other brands back then—or even today. The only challenging steps were reinstalling the lever and adjusting the crown, but even that improved over the years. A port was eventually added to make servicing ten times easier. Later, the XLB/XLP/XLS models introduced balanced designs that were even better. They were a hundred times easier to service because the entire valve body could be removed (for plastic housing models), and the adjusting crown was replaced with a balanced chamber that was incredibly simple to screw back in. In fact, you could assemble the entire regulator by hand, only needing a stick to push the seat assembly into place for the lever. Yet, people rarely mention these models—only the XL, XLE, and XP get attention.

Innovation isn’t about copying what already exists. If Dacor used a different valve system, it was because it was more efficient. Their Venturamatic System was second to none. True innovation comes from testing entirely new concepts rather than sticking to traditional designs.

I’ve heard plenty of people criticize Dacor, calling their regulators “finicky,” “gimmicky,” “hard to service,” or “unnecessary.” But most of these people don’t know the full history of the company—nor do they have insider knowledge like a few of us do, myself included.


In reality, The Dacor Corporation died in 1987 when Samuel M Davison (Founder-Owner) passed away from cancer. And postponed to that, after 1991 when the Pacer Series was replaced with the Quantum Series and other administrative issues, also led to the total downfall. 1999-2006 was Mares mimicking Dacor with copy paste regulators. Mares didn't use any bought ideas/innovations/Patents, And they still don't use anything from Dacor. The Venturamatic System is way better than their Vortex System, and has been compared numerous times.

Many that knew and had a relation with Sam, including me. Still miss him.

 

[Diverspoint]

Hello,

Thanks for your reply. Sadly there is no compelling set offer for scubapro at this store and anything with a mk19 would be ar least as expensive as the Xstream

As you buy a reg for years getting an deal should not be at the forefront of your thought.