scored used aqualung regs+octo...good score or not?

[ams511]

I have to disagree with the others on selling it now. The regs are good quality and will work nicely for you as rec or travel regs. I would agree with them that they are not suitable for cave diving HOWEVER it is way too early for you to start worring about cave diving gear now. With the few dives you have, you are years away from cave training, you need a lot of experience before even thinking of starting cave training. Being new you don't have a good idea of what your equipment taste are and the idea that you can buy one set of gear up front that will carry you through to full tech diving is a wishful thinking and for those who live in a fantasy world. Before starting tech diving of any kind you will end up with at least 2 or 3 BCs and 4 or 5 regs, one set of which will be deticated to rec diving, these would do nicley for your rec regs for many years to come.

I strongly disagree with you. Looking at prerequisites for cavern training all that is required is AOL. good skills and recent diving experience. Cavern is the first step to cave training, so I think the OP is wise to think ahead about equipment. If he starts with the right equipment he can add regulators rather than replace them. This is not wishful thinking or living in a fantasy world.

No one has said that the Micra's are poor quality just that they are not really suited for cave diving. You know far more about Aqualung regulators than I do, but I do know they are around 20 years old and no longer made. So they may need more than a simple rebuild and parts could be an issue. For the cost of the service and what he can get selling them he is close to a new Hog or Hollis setup which can also be used for both rec and tec. Also given the weight of the Cousteau first stage, the Micra is not really travel friendly.

While I agree to take cave training slow, he wants to be a cave diving paleontologist so I assume he has an occupational reason for wanting to cave dive. You are not the person to tell him when he is ready or not. That is the instructor's job.

 

[Diver0001]

I don't think you need to doubt the quality. Aqualung stuff is good and made to last. This particular reg is a balanced piston design and they're virtually indestructible although not suitable to use in cold water..... IFAIK I don't believe it can be retrofitted to a din coupling.... alas.

It's clearly an Aqualung but I don't recall Aqualung making a reg with this particular configuration in the mid 90's. What sets me off is the knob on the 1st stage, the dust cap and the screw on the bottom of the 1st stage. I don't recall seeing one with that particular configuration into the 90's The knobs became much more squared after about 1990, the hard plastic dust caps disappeared in favour of softer ones and the screw for adjusting the spring tension disappeared.

Someone with more knowledge can help you dial in the exact date better but I think it's older than you were told. I would be surprised if the date of manufacture was beyond 1988... but that's just based on me not being able to remember seeing certain details beyond that date.

Either way it doesn't matter. As long as you can get it serviced it's a perfectly good reg

R..

 

[ams511]

Has Aqualung ever made a balanced piston regulator? The only piston regulators I know of are the Calypso and Aquarius which I thought are not balanced. Aqualung is known for balanced diaphragm regulators. The first stage is a Cousteau that was used on the SEA series. I remember seeing them when I first started diving in the early 90s, they were branded as U.S. Divers here in the US. They were actually sold into the mid-2000s with a Titan first stage.

 

[Aotus]

Thank you all very much for your helpful comments!

It's cool to hear that these are solid regs, though after reading the comments, I do intend to sell the regulators. As ams511 caught on, I am looking to take my studies into the caves to recover fossil monkeys (Advanced Diver Mag article, my page on the project). What I'm lacking now is the $$ for the training and equipment. Selling these goodies online will help me get closer to paying for the training, hopefully to start at the end of the summer, and then you may start seeing me in National Geographic soon enough

While I hear the other posters' comments about OW experience and cave training, I respectfully disagree for two reasons. 1) in the NSS-CDS cavern manual it says many experienced OW divers have died in caves because of their mistaken idea about how well their knowledge will carry over to the cave setting...the point is made that no amount of OW training will prepare a student for the caves. Thus, I expect no great disadvantage in my cave training for having limited OW experience. 2) More importantly, I have learned one thing from the cave divers' warnings here in the forum...ask whatever you want here but in the end it's between you and your instructor. My instructor is well established and highly regarded in this community and beyond. It is his position that I should get going ASAP so I can avoid picking up bad habits and start learning the right way from the beginning. While I think it is inappropriate for me to name him here, I assure you that I'd get no argument from the cave forums that he is an expert instructor.

Thanks again for the comments!

 

[halocline]

No offense, but what you're lacking for successful cave diving is years of experience with hundreds of dives in open water. Cave diving is several orders of magnatude more dangerous and demanding than OW diving. No respectable cave diving instructor would train you in a cave with the few dives that you have, unless of course your profile is wrong.

It really doesn't matter how 'talented' you are as a diver or how comfortable you are in the water, although those things are VERY helpful when you do start technical dive training. You still need more experience in the water. Going on guided cenote dives would be a great, fun, and safe step in the direction of eventual cave training.

I understand the allure of cave diving, in fact I'm studying it as I have time. But I didn't even take the TDI cavern class until I had several hundred dives and a PADI DM certification.

Back to the topic of the regulator, I agree with herman that you should hang onto this set, it will serve you well and you will never regret owning it. The small amount of money you would get selling it is inconsequential to the many thousands you will eventually spend on gear and training for cave diving, and it will always be convenient to have a yoke regulator set for recreational diving.

Sorry I realize this is not what you wanted to hear; in general I try to not judge someone's diving ability strictly from an internet post. But IMO there simply is no safe, responsible way a new diver should be diving in caves.

 

[Aotus]

no offense taken. I understand this is a hot-button issue, and I respect your perspective. I expect there are legions of people more experienced than I who would argue the fine points of training and experience and the risks of cave diving. To clarify, I am taking small steps in my training, no zero to hero maneuvers in my future, though I suppose "fast" is subjective. By in large I have heard recommendations by instructors and cave divers that range from 25-50 dives, or sometimes just AOW certification before cavern and cave training is started. See for example the pages of Jim Wyatt and Edd Sorenson. I've never heard "years" or "hundreds of dives" before. Perhaps that's a valid position, I really don't know. I'll reiterate my position - I will be trusting my instructor's advice on training issues as he trumps me in experience by several orders of magnitude and he will be the only one to see me in the water. Thank you for your thoughts.

 

[buddhasummer]

I don't think you need to doubt the quality. Aqualung stuff is good and made to last. This particular reg is a balanced piston design and they're virtually indestructible although not suitable to use in cold water..... IFAIK I don't believe it can be retrofitted to a din coupling.... alas.

It's clearly an Aqualung but I don't recall Aqualung making a reg with this particular configuration in the mid 90's. What sets me off is the knob on the 1st stage, the dust cap and the screw on the bottom of the 1st stage. I don't recall seeing one with that particular configuration into the 90's The knobs became much more squared after about 1990, the hard plastic dust caps disappeared in favour of softer ones and the screw for adjusting the spring tension disappeared.

Someone with more knowledge can help you dial in the exact date better but I think it's older than you were told. I would be surprised if the date of manufacture was beyond 1988... but that's just based on me not being able to remember seeing certain details beyond that date.

Either way it doesn't matter. As long as you can get it serviced it's a perfectly good reg

R..

I don't know know about all AL regs but the photo he posted is of a Cousteau 1st stage which is a diaphragm reg.

 

[Aotus]

I don't know know about all AL regs but the photo he posted is of a Cousteau 1st stage which is a diaphragm reg.

it says US divers Micra on it, made in france. the second stage says US Divers micra and aqualung in small print. One poster said that it was marketed in the US as "US Divers" while it was Cousteau elsewhere.

 

[Luis H]

Has Aqualung ever made a balanced piston regulator? The only piston regulators I know of are the Calypso and Aquarius which I thought are not balanced. Aqualung is known for balanced diaphragm regulators. The first stage is a Cousteau that was used on the SEA series. I remember seeing them when I first started diving in the early 90s, they were branded as U.S. Divers here in the US. They were actually sold into the mid-2000s with a Titan first stage.

The regulator in the picture is definitely a balanced diaphragm regulator. It uses many of the same internal parts as a Conshelf. The same first stage was sold with a couple of different names. It is basically a derivative of a Conshelf, which makes it a bullet proof first stage.


About the question above:
In the 70's US Divers made Calypso III, the Calypso IV, and the Calypso J (the J was the same as the other, but it had built in reserve, which could be added to the others).
The 1970's Calypso were all flow through balanced piston regulators. They were basically sold as US Divers top of the line regulators. They were actually not as good performers as a Scubapro Mk-5 (but most of the performance always comes from the second stage)

The Calypso first stages had a few issues, but in general they were decent regulators.

The Conshelf which was sold as their second best, was far superior in reliability, and the performance was just as good.

The Aquarius was the bottom of the line. It was very reliable, but being un-balanced piston, the IP would vary and it would affect the breathing performance.

All three regulators throughout the 70's used the exact same second stage. A very good and simple downstream demand valve second stage.

US Divers/ Aqua Lung basically abandoned the balanced piston since their Conshelf was such a great regulator (one of their best designs of all times), and IMO, concentrating on balanced diaphragm made their brand different to their primary competitor (Scubapro).

 

[buddhasummer]

it says US divers Micra on it, made in france. the second stage says US Divers micra and aqualung in small print. One poster said that it was marketed in the US as "US Divers" while it was Cousteau elsewhere.

The 1st stage is a Cousteau, the second stage in some countries, and also depending on manufacture date, was called a US Divers Micra and Aqualung Micra in others. It's the same reg of course. From memory my Micra ADJ primary was US divers but my Micra octo was branded Aqulaung, or visa versa I don't remember exactly. Like I said I dove one for years and had no complaints, it's a good reg set.