Scubapro X650, to buy or not to buy

[PsyPhin]

I will get those maintenance and if they have a problem attempt to repair myself if needed. But I will try them as the past user was a tech instructor and didnt seem to have any problems.

But I will test them out and post back in the future. Seems people split in opinions about these.

Just remember I am in South Africa, tech stuff is not plentiful at all. I would pay around 500$ just for a wing, 980$ for a MK25/a700 and about 380$ for a 300bar AL80(working out with exchange rate).

 

[halocline]

Just remember I am in South Africa, tech stuff is not plentiful at all. I would pay around 500$ just for a wing, 980$ for a MK25/a700 and about 380$ for a 300bar AL80(working out with exchange rate).

Just wondering what you mean by a "300bar AL80"? Do you mean a regular AL80 (77cft, 3000 PSI) with a 300 bar DIN valve? Something like that, used, in the U.S. would be maybe $100. It's hard to imagine almost 4 times that, but of course I don't know what your economy is like there.

Still, there's international shipping all the time. You might have a look at caveadventurers.com and see what kind of specials they're running on BP/Ws and regulators. The tanks you'll have to buy locally of course, but surely AL80s can be found for less than $380, and you could get the bands and manifold shipped easily. 300 bar manifolds are usually easier to find and less expensive than the 200 bar convertible valves.

 

[PsyPhin]

I dont know why I put 300bar there ignore that haha.

The MK25 I definitely want, its the second stages I am more weary about but I will give them a go anyway.

Putting Rand dollar into account, delivery charges, the stuff I am getting seems to be a better price than what I can ship into the country taking that its second hand into account. The tax on an order like this will be like $200 alone.

You are correct that the prices will work similar especially having a look at caveadventures.com, there are great deals there. But all in all getting it all together and bringing it to my doorstep I work out about 300$ cheaper not importing it all.

 

[PsyPhin]

Just to update on this.

I decided to buy the stuff and went for a few quarry dives with the double and single cylinder configuration. One of the dives being to 30m.

I am in love with this regulator, normally that deep I would need to control my breathing and make sure I dont overwork too much but this time it just forces the air in no matter what I was doing.

I do see what others said about the freeflow. If the x650 is set to dive mode with the adjustment all the way up then it freeflows like crazy when I giant stride in so I just need to keep an eye on that being adjusted before hand.

Also when doing a shutdown drill, switching to backup causes the primary to freeflow but also as long as the adjustment knob isnt all the way up then there is no problem. I know leave it around halfway and all is fine, at 30m I just turned it all the way up.

Frog kicking every few seconds with doubles and Jetfins is the most relaxing thing ever. It feels like I cant mess up my buoyancy if I wanted to.