I disagree with this assesment. Unless you have no tools at all, there are few extra tools that are required. Most regs do not require much in the way of specilized tools, contrary to what many will tell you. There are a few but most either fall into the "nice to have" or the build your own catagory. For the price of 1 service, you can buy most any of the required special tools you don't have. Both books will run you about the cost of another service. After that, all your services are free..plus parts obviously. In a service shop the tools are needed to help speed production up but for the DIYer, speed it not as improtant.
I agree but what sets a real reg tech apart from a parts swapper is acutally understand how the regs work and what each part is doing, not just where the parts go. IMO Reg Savvy is better at the details of how a reg work. By reading and understanding both you will have a better grasp of how and why the reg works, not just where the parts go and in which order.
I looked over the link to the training you posted and to me that add is misleading and it appears you have fallen for it. Intentional or not, it add implies that the certification will certify to work on any reg.. it does not, it certifies you to work on HOG regs ONLY. Each manufacturer has their own course that is required to be certified on their regs. How good the UTD (or any course for that matter) course is is going to be very dependent on the instructor....are they expereinced reg techs or just "train the trainer" instructors.....which are worse than useless, you don't know if you were taught accurately or handed a line of BS. Before spending any money on the course I would suggest talking with the actual instructor, if they have not been a reg tech for years and certified on several brands, walk away, you will do better on your own...or at least it will cost you less. I also thought this course required you to have some kind if technical diving cert before they would allow you to take it...I do not see that mentioned. It may have been dropped but you need to check into that as well.
What I would recommend is for you to buy both books and read them cove to cover until you UNDERSTAND what they are teaching you then buy a couple of expermental regs to practice on. Inexpensive regs from the 70s on are available on ebay and locally. Get at least 1 diaphragm and 1 piston reg. My suggestion would be a USD/AL Conshelf or Mares MR-12 and a Scubapro MK-2. Practice dissambling, cleaning, lubing and reassembling them. For TRAINING you can just clean and reuse the parts. Once you understand them, buy rebuild kits for them (they are common, easy to find and available to anyone which is why I suggested those regs). At that point you can either ebay them to recoup some money or since both are time tested solid regs, just use them. In the end, you will be into the training for less than the cost of the 1 course, will have 2 great reference books and 2 working regs you can sell or use.
