Sound off!! Whats your favorite Regulator?

[havaiisteve]

OK, here is my first post...and I'm a newbie…so take this for what it is worth! I love to research and here is what I find on eBay

Atomic---nobody sells their used gear! Conclusion: They love what they have and never seem to upgrade!

Scuba Pro...lots and lots for sale both new and used. Most used stuff seems to be fairly current or very current. Conclusion(s): Scuba Pro owner upgrade regularly to the hottest new model, or Scuba Pro owners are not as satisfied as Atomic owners, or Scuba Pro out sell ATOMIC by about 100:1 and hence there will be a whole lot more used regulators to sell

APECKS... a little used for sale, but not much: Conclusion(s) What little used regulators are for sale are model that have been around 2 to 3 years...so that suggests a high degree of satisfaction and moderate trade up fever! If scuba pro outsells APECK by 50:1, then I would say Scuba Pro folks are about as satisfied with their regulators as APECKS owners are.

I was focused on Atomic, Scuba Pro and APECKS, so didn't pay a lot of attention to the other makers.

From what I've read here, other board, mag ratings and eBay sales...I would guess that it would be hard to go wrong with all three, but that edge goes to ATOMIC and APECKS.

Fire away; there are admitably other ways of interpreting the eBay auction data!

 

[tainosoldier]

My only reg, the Delta 3, no problem at all breathing, adjustable knob really simple to operate.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

OK, here is my first post...and I'm a newbie…so take this for what it is worth! I love to research and here is what I find on eBay...

Scuba Pro...lots and lots for sale both new and used. Most used stuff seems to be fairly current or very current. Conclusion(s): Scuba Pro owner upgrade regularly to the hottest new model, or Scuba Pro owners are not as satisfied as Atomic owners, or Scuba Pro out sell ATOMIC by about 100:1 and hence there will be a whole lot more used regulators to sell

APECKS... a little used for sale, but not much: Conclusion(s) What little used regulators are for sale are model that have been around 2 to 3 years...so that suggests a high degree of satisfaction and moderate trade up fever! If scuba pro outsells APECK by 50:1, then I would say Scuba Pro folks are about as satisfied with their regulators as APECKS owners are.

I watch e-bay on a regular basis and in my experience, the majority of used Scubapro regs for sale there are at least 10 years old with many being 20 years old and a few being over 30 years old.

Most of the "new" regs on e-bay are new regs obtained from offshore sources for the purpose of selling on-line in the US as they can under sell US dealers constrained by the US dealer agreement. Some of the used Scubapro regs advertised as "used on one or two dives" are I suspect new regs that may or may not actually be used once or twice in order to enable them to be sold by a US dealr without violating the SP dealer agreement. Or are in some cases new old stock discontinued models that cannot command the full MSRP and end up getting moved on-line as "used" at clearence prices.

As a repair tech, I still see a huge number of 15-25 year old Mk 5 and Mk 10 regulators come through the shop for serivce with Balanced Adjustable, G250, D400 and other second stages. The owners still use them as they offer a level or performance comparable to that of newer top end regulators from SP or any other company.

My observation is that SP regs last literally for decades and still offer a very useable degree of performance even after 20 years. If you look at the price a 20-25 year old SP reg will bring on e-bay, you will normally find it is substantially higher than the price obtained by a reg made by almost any other company as they still offer great performance even by current standards and parts and service are still available for them. Even better, SP continues to provide parts and service support for their old regs and designs new models in a manner that allows the mechanical improvements to be incorporated into older models whenever possible. So in practice a 35 year old second "Adjustable" second stage can be upgraded to offer current G250 HP performance and consequently these second stages still sell for a minimum of at least $50 on e-bay even in unserviced condition and I have seen them go for as high as $90. In contrast, an entire US Divers/Aqualung (parent company of Apeks) regulator of similar vintage can almost always be had for under $25 and it will be in most functional respects a dinosaur.

So I would further conclude that SP regs last essentially forever and generally have very loyal owners who part with them only when they upgrade to a newer model after several years, retire from diving, or die.

 

[dbg40]

MK25 and my beloved D300

 

[Aquacatfighter]

My favorite is a doublehose U.S Divers Aquamaster.




Deb

 

[zboss]

Thanks!

doh!

 

[havaiisteve]

That is exactly the kind of response I was hoping to elicit! Scubapro is definately on my list, but so is ATOMIC and APEKS. Anybody want to venture an ideas as to why so few of those brands show up on ebay as used equipment?

I watch e-bay on a regular basis and in my experience, the majority of used Scubapro regs for sale there are at least 10 years old with many being 20 years old and a few being over 30 years old.

Most of the "new" regs on e-bay are new regs obtained from offshore sources for the purpose of selling on-line in the US as they can under sell US dealers constrained by the US dealer agreement. Some of the used Scubapro regs advertised as "used on one or two dives" are I suspect new regs that may or may not actually be used once or twice in order to enable them to be sold by a US dealr without violating the SP dealer agreement. Or are in some cases new old stock discontinued models that cannot command the full MSRP and end up getting moved on-line as "used" at clearence prices.

As a repair tech, I still see a huge number of 15-25 year old Mk 5 and Mk 10 regulators come through the shop for serivce with Balanced Adjustable, G250, D400 and other second stages. The owners still use them as they offer a level or performance comparable to that of newer top end regulators from SP or any other company.

My observation is that SP regs last literally for decades and still offer a very useable degree of performance even after 20 years. If you look at the price a 20-25 year old SP reg will bring on e-bay, you will normally find it is substantially higher than the price obtained by a reg made by almost any other company as they still offer great performance even by current standards and parts and service are still available for them. Even better, SP continues to provide parts and service support for their old regs and designs new models in a manner that allows the mechanical improvements to be incorporated into older models whenever possible. So in practice a 35 year old second "Adjustable" second stage can be upgraded to offer current G250 HP performance and consequently these second stages still sell for a minimum of at least $50 on e-bay even in unserviced condition and I have seen them go for as high as $90. In contrast, an entire US Divers/Aqualung (parent company of Apeks) regulator of similar vintage can almost always be had for under $25 and it will be in most functional respects a dinosaur.

So I would further conclude that SP regs last essentially forever and generally have very loyal owners who part with them only when they upgrade to a newer model after several years, retire from diving, or die.

 

[decoeric]

Poseidon Odin hands down...

 

[jonnythan]

That is exactly the kind of response I was hoping to elicit! Scubapro is definately on my list, but so is ATOMIC and APEKS. Anybody want to venture an ideas as to why so few used Atomic or APEKS regulators show up on ebay?

Well, I dive Apeks, and can't imagine any reason I would ever go onto something else.

They breathe well, they're made with an extraordinarily simple design, they're exceptionally robust, they're easy for me to service, they are as freeze-resistant as anything else on the market, they're environmentally sealed, I can do quick on-boat or even in-water repairs on them, they route well with singles and doubles.. the list goes on.

They leave me wanting absolutely nothing.

So maybe that's it

 

[DA Aquamaster]

That is exactly the kind of response I was hoping to elicit! Scubapro is definately on my list, but so is ATOMIC and APEKS. Anybody want to venture an ideas as to why so few of those brands show up on ebay as used equipment?

They are relative new comers and fewer have been produced. Apeks is a subsidiary of Aqualung and is a major player, so in 10 years I suspect the used situation will be much more equal. Aqualung has also been very good about long term parts and service support (although not in terms of designing upgrades for their older regs) and I assume they will continue this trend with Apeks. The same can probably be said for Atomic.

Another choice is also Apollo. Apollo makes some excellent regs but is a relatively new company and is a smaller company that has not produced regulators in numbers comparable to Scuabpro. They have strong Scubapro roots as their company was founded by a group of former SP engineers.

The truth is that despite a lot of personal bias and preference on all sides, Scubapro, Apollo, Atomic and Apex are all very good companies that make very good regulators, so you will not go wrong buying one from any of the three.