salvo regs

[dferg77]

apon reading several forums i heard of the salvo brand that seems to be owned by a former halcyon employee. I haven't been able to find anything bad about his cannister lights, but i haven't found much about the regs other than that they may be the same as
dive rites. anybody know anthing about them or have a personal experience. they seem to be cheaper than the dive rites, apeks and sp.

 

[AquaHump]

Now before I say this. If you cut me I bleed Dive Rite. they are not the same as Dive Rite. My mentor tryed them out on a cave dive and had problems with them before they even got in the water. He related that he would not buy them. That is all the info I have.

 

[Dryglove]

I have a SR2 first stage and two SRS second stages. My second stages did not come equipped with the lever(predive/dive switch??) on top of the reg as shown in the pic. I just recently got back into diving after a year long break and have only used it a few times.

My deepest dive with them to date has only been 45 feet and i cant complain as they worked great. Rebuild kits are readily available. From what i understand they come from the same manufacturer of the dive rite reg and some other similar style regs. See this thread http://scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=129027&highlight=salvo

I am not saying they are a dive rite reg but appear very similar on the inner workings after checking out the dive rite repair manual. http://www.diveriteexpress.com/library/manuals/reg_service.pdf

Time and some deeper dives will tell how good they hold up and breathe at depth. So far i am happy with them. When i bought them the price was right and did not have a lot of money for some of the more popular high performance regs. Wish i could tell you more but thats all i have for now

 

[dferg77]

thanks guys I really appreciate the info. Dryglove, I would love to hear your opinion after more experience with these regs in case i haven't purchased any yet, as you said the price is right for me as a beginner but would like something that would perform good as my experience and difficulty increases.

 

[*Floater*]

apon reading several forums i heard of the salvo brand that seems to be owned by a former halcyon employee. I haven't been able to find anything bad about his cannister lights, but i haven't found much about the regs other than that they may be the same as
dive rites. anybody know anthing about them or have a personal experience. they seem to be cheaper than the dive rites, apeks and sp.

The SR2/SRS looks similar to the Dive-Rite's RG1200 with ICESUB, but without the din-to-yoke adapter unless you pay extra to have one included. I asked about them on the decostop and was told that the second stages are basically the same as the unbalanced, adjustable dive-rite second stages and the dive-rite service kits should work with them, but the first stages are a little different, and the kits would not be exchangeable with dive-rite. But this is just what I was told, I cannot confirm myself.

I have some DR RG2500 regs and Salvo SR1/SRS regs. I prefer the SR1 first stages on my doubles because they are smaller and lighter than the DR1208 first stages, and they don't have the turret. But I prefer to use the DR RG2010 second stages on my primary and backup because they are balanced.

My Salvos have performed well though down to 150' (I haven't tried them deeper) and I haven't had any problems with the SR1 first stages either (down to 200' -I haven't gone deeper). Another thing to note is that the DR regs come with viton o-rings, whereas my salvos came with black o-rings, which I presume are bunas (vitons are better quality and considered o2-compatible unlike buna o-rings). Also, dive-rite offers a service manual for their regs free to download, and I'd like to see one for the Salvos as well, but so far they don't offer one.

 

[dferg77]

floater, is there that much difference in the dr balanced second stage and the salvo second down to say 100' as i will not begoing any deeper than that for awhile?

 

[Dryglove]

Floater- Thats great to hear your salvo regs work great. I have not heard or read much about them but decided to buy a set as the price was right and hopefully Barry doesnt sell shoddy equipment

Speaking of Salvo service manuals, Dwain from salvo informed me a while back that one was in the works.

 

[*Floater*]

floater, is there that much difference in the dr balanced second stage and the salvo second down to say 100' as i will not begoing any deeper than that for awhile?

No. In fact, the Salvos breathe a little easier for some reason in shallow waters, maybe it's just the tuning they came with.

Dive-Rite Express says this about the balanced second stages:

"The use of a balanced second stage offers the ultimate in performance at depth -- the deeper the dive, the less effort to breathe."

And that's been my experience. I actually adjust them down a little using the side knob as I go deeper, and very shallow (last few safety stops) they can actually become a little difficult to breathe, but no so much that it would be a problem.

I have noticed a marked difference in how the balanced dive-rite (adjusted fully open) breathes vs. the Dive-Rite octo (non-ajustable, unbalanced), the former performing better at deeper depths. But with the adjustable, unbalanced Salvos (adjusted fully open) I have not noticed any loss in breathing ease in recreational depths or a significant (negative) difference with the balanced dive-rites. I presume the latter is better if you go deep enough, but as I said I've only switched between them at 150' max and didn't notice problems there. Also, I've opened them up and they look exactly the same inside, except the dive-rite has the balanced design part whereas the Salvo has the unbalanced design for that part. I'd post pics, but that function doesn't work anymore on SB.

 

[dferg77]

thanks for the reply that will give me some studying to do

 

[dferg77]

I was in a local shop a couple of weeks ago asking about what regs they carried and the guy there show me one set ( i believe it was scuba max). He said that they were unbalanced and their more technical divers preferred them over balanced regs because of the air consumption, another customer came in and he lost interest in me, but. after thinking about it for awhile I got to thinking that a diver at depth(>100') would use more air if they were having to work for it(unbalanced reg) rather than being able to breathe easily. Am I thinking right or just thinking to much.