scubapro or apeks

[elan]

However - the Tec 3 regs are handed regs - and expensive at that. I wouldn't advise these as they are hard to swap out with other team members or to cross over as stage regs. They day you want to turn your back gas regs into stage regs and find you have to route them differently I think you would be a bit fed up that you paid a premium for the inflexibility. If you have that much to spend buy scubapro or halcyon (I'd go for the Halcyon personally)

If you have one set of Tek regs why would you want to swap them with your team members ? You would need some regs on the doubles to dive ? Unless you are not diving at that time.

The price difference here in canada is not that huge, Depending on the shop Tek3 set is slightly expensive or goes at the same price as double DS4 - it was at least when we were looking for the regs.

 

[limeyx]

If you have one set of Tek regs why would you want to swap them with your team members ? You would need some regs on the doubles to dive ? Unless you are not diving at that time.

Try going into the jungle for a week, day in, day out where there is a 3-5KM drive over mud and dirt roads that only a 4x4 can get over. Maybe you can leave the jungle at night for replacements / repairs but maybe you cant and are there for 1-2 weeks straight.

Generally every combination of everything that can fail likely will.
On our week-long project, we had high pressure hoses go, first stage leaks, argon regs fail, things go missing ....

there is a huge huge benefit to having as much stuff as possible interchangeable, even down to having wet-pluggable light heads with E/O coords to allow changing a light quickly, or even during the dive...

We sadly learned some of these lessons the hard way ...

 

[elan]

Try going into the jungle for a week, day in, day out where there is a 3-5KM drive over mud and dirt roads that only a 4x4 can get over. Maybe you can leave the jungle at night for replacements / repairs but maybe you cant and are there for 1-2 weeks straight.

Generally every combination of everything that can fail likely will.
On our week-long project, we had high pressure hoses go, first stage leaks, argon regs fail, things go missing ....

there is a huge huge benefit to having as much stuff as possible interchangeable, even down to having wet-pluggable light heads with E/O coords to allow changing a light quickly, or even during the dive...

We sadly learned some of these lessons the hard way ...

Sorry , but it does not make any sense in relation to the question that I posted, no matter where you go you will need 2 regs on your back.

If you place your back gas Tek3 reg somewhere you will need to replace it with something so why not to put that something to the place you put your Tek 3 ?

Tek 3 is not impossible to use on another post it will just stick more to the outside - the valve is still reachable. Even if you are forced to place it on the deco bottle or an argon bottle it's not a big deal.

If you go on some project and you have no access to the parts all you need to do is to take spare parts and regs that can replace your argon, stage and back gas not the other way around

How far do you go with unification ? Do you put a DS4 on your inflation tank? Do you maintain your back gas regs to be able to handle high percentage of O2 ? Having all your regs including the inflation reg O2 compatible so that all of them can go on the deco bottle just in case, can be too much of a burden I would think.

 

[Tortuga68]

Sometimes people need to swap regs during dives too

 

[limeyx]

Sorry , but it does not make any sense in relation to the question that I posted, no matter where you go you will need 2 regs on your back.

If you place your back gas Tek3 reg somewhere you will need to replace it with something so why not to put that something to the place you put your Tek 3 ?

Tek 3 is not impossible to use on another post it will just stick more to the outside - the valve is still reachable. Even if you are forced to place it on the deco bottle or an argon bottle it's not a big deal.

If you go on some project and you have no access to the parts all you need to do is to take spare parts and regs that can replace your argon, stage and back gas not the other way around

How far do you go with unification ? Do you put a DS4 on your inflation tank? Do you maintain your back gas regs to be able to handle high percentage of O2 ? Having all your regs including the inflation reg O2 compatible so that all of them can go on the deco bottle just in case, can be too much of a burden I would think.

If you are diving on a week+ project, you probably wont be in the water the entire time, so regs may need to be swapped around, moved from backgas to stage/deco, or moved from back gas to Argon regs etc etc

Keeping everything simple and multi-purpose rather than specialized, where possible is definitely IMO best. Take the non-standard 1/2" Apeks LP ports for instance ...

In this case, some people did not have balanced regs on Ar bottle (me included). Now the dive was to 390 feet, so suddenly you are forced to break down a back gas post or stage regulator to make a new argon reg, while divers are in the water needing to get going on their schedule etc.

My backgas and stage regs are all serviced O2-clean so yes, I can use them on back gas or stages (plus or minus some non-O2 clean doubles

If I am flying to Mexico already with camera, 4 strobes, already 3 or 4 deco regs, I am naturally limited in what I can reasonably carry with me, so simply bringing 3 of everything while nice is just not practical, so the more tasks a reg can do well, the better ...

just my opinion.

 

[Tortuga68]

Take the non-standard 1/2" Apeks LP ports for instance ...

While I agree they are pointless and somewhat annoying, every Apeks reg that has them also has multiple standard 3/8" LP ports with the possible exception of the ATX DS1

 

[limeyx]

While I agree they are pointless and somewhat annoying, every Apeks reg that has them also has multiple standard 3/8" LP ports with the possible exception of the ATX DS1

True, but it's just one more useless thing that doesn't work the same as other stuff.
If that port starts to leak, or you need to borrow a hose out of it and put a plug in it, you have to now carry 1/2" ones (if someone put a hose in that 1/2" port ... just useless crap that causes issues and doesn't solve any honestly, just IMO like the Tek3 regulators... but each to their own I guess)