The First Question: Which reg?

[M_B]

Hello,
Help for dummy needed
I'm thinking of buying regulator ( and maybe BCD ). But have no idea which one. From my experience the biggest difference for me ( and my best part ) made a mouth piece...
any advise will be welcomed.

P.S. we usually have 2 vactions a year. only warm tropical waters. if it matters.
thank you.

 

[nauidiver2004]

Wow, did you open a can of worms here! Everybody will chime in with thier opinions and passions. To be honest, (in my opinion), no one can tell you which is the perfect reg for you. The best way to buy would be to go to your Local Dive Shop and try some out in thier or a local pool. If anyone tells you toi buy a specific piece of equipment without letting you try it out BEWARE! See what they suggest, see what feels good to you. Tell them what you like and don't like about each unit. Try them some more. Then come back here with two or three models in mind and do a search. See what others say about them, see what people who have used them over a period of time say about them, then TRY THEM AGAIN! sleep on it a week then try to decide. Just my 2 cents but you asked. ( BTW I use an Aqualung LX Supreme but I'm diving Lake Erie)
Good luck

Ken

 

[solo_diver]

if i only dove 2 times a year i'd probably just rent them to be honest with you. But since you want to buy one, the main thing I've noticed is that my regs are not serviceable everywhere. So when you go to buy a set of regs make sure you get a name brand. you'll know you've got a name brand when you call around the different dives shops (not just the one you bought them at, they may go out of business) and make sure they actually stock parts and are able to service that brand. And if you plan moving in the near future check the dive shops in that area too. I learned this the hard way.

Also make sure it's a balanced regulator (i'm told almost all of them are).

REGULATOR: My vote would be Sherwood. They are considered (by the instructors i've known) to be the 'workhorses of the rental industry'. Something like that anyway, basically they are supposed to be very well constructed.

BCD: Sherwood Avid is my vote.

MOUTHPIECE: don't buy a reg based on the mouthpiece. if it's a big deal for ya spend the 20 bux or whatever it is and buy the kind that you can heat up in water and then bite down on, they cool off and retain the shape of your teeth. maybe somebody here can think of the name.

 

[theskull]

Another vote for the Aqualung LX (don't need the Supreme model for tropical). This is a very inexpensive yet dependable and good quality regulator. Many of my dive buddies have it as their only reg with no troubles. I own a couple of them and use them as stage bottle regs.

You can't go wrong with any of the major brands. But the "perks" of the higher end and more expensive regs will not be noticed by a twice-a-year diver at recreational depths.

theskull

 

[Moogyboy]

heya MB

The first universal question that you need to answer for us and for yourself is what kind of diving you plan to do most often. Ie, cave or wreck diving in 35 degree oily water every day is a lot different than paddling leisurely around Grand Cayman at 15 feet every six months. I'm being goofily extreme, but the environment you dive in will dictate the minimum level of gear you will need.

I don't want to direct you to specific models personally, because I've only had personal experience with a few, and mostly not the ideal stuff. I will second the advice to try out as much gear as you can and make subjective judgements there. You could also take the approach to do your research sight unseen and go with stuff that in general has a good reputation. ScubaBoard is a good way to get a general feel for what brands and/or types of gear divers prefer.

Around here, you're gonna find that most people give high marks to Apeks, Aqua Lung (the old US Divers Conshelf series especially), Scubapro, Zeagle, and Mares regulators; and various brands of backplate/wing BCDs (I'm no expert in this field).

A lot of people will tell you to avoid Dacor regs because of their controversial "orphaning" of their older regulator models; I'll second that because I've mostly Dacor regs myself and besides now having an expensive paperweight labeled "Enduro", I just think they're kind of gimmicky and plastickey and not all that impressive performancewise either. If really long term service is important to you, Scubapro and Aqua Lung have great reputations for supporting their products for decades.

One old standby in the regulator world that is still popular and pretty inexpensive to buy new is the Scubapro Mk 2 Plus (first stage) / R190 (second stage) combination. This reg gets a lot of mentions as a classic, simple, go-anywhere workhorse reg that doesn't necessarily offer the highest absolute performance but will do an adequate job within recreational diving limits, and keep doing it for years. I strongly considered buying one of these myself until I instead started piecing together a US Divers rig from piecesparts on eBay.

Anyway, that's my two bits worth. Good luck!

cheers

Billy S.

 

[halocline]

I second the scubapro mk2/R190 for the following reasons; it's extremely simple and reliable, servicable almost anywhere, inexpensive, and diving at recreational depth you'll probably never notice the difference in breathing response between this reg and a high performance reg costing 3X more. I'm a pretty new diver, (less than 100 logged dives) and when I was buying a reg I remember all sorts of doom and gloom scenarios from my LDS owner about not buying a balanced, high performance reg. Then my instructor was nice enough to loan me a few regs of widely varying cost (including the mk/R190)for a lake dive (less than 40 ft) and I could not tell ANY difference in performance. They each "felt" a little different on direct comparison, but in terms of which one would do the job better, all the same. I even sat on the platform at 20 ft and breathed through the mk2 with low tank pressure to experience the increase in resistance that unbalanced 1st stages have at low pressures, and I can tell you that I just started to notice a little difference at just under 300psi. That's just hanging around, watching the pressure guage, trying to notice increased breathing effort. And, it's not like you can't get air at that point, you just notice a slight increase in the effort needed to draw air; nothing problematic. Also, you'd rarely be at any depth with 300psi anyway, more likely at the very end of your safety stop.

I'm hardly an expert on this stuff, but I do have a good understanding of your perspective, having recently been there.

 

[M_B]

nauidiver2004 and all all all .
thank you for your comment and opinions.

I'll try to compose all your questions here. So let me begin:

1. Rent/buy..
Well, the math is like this :
~ 2 vacations a year * 7 days each *1 one person * ~ $12 rent ( for BCD + reg; Cozumel prices. But seems like it's good average rent price. Please correct if i'm wrong. )
~ $ 150 ( a year per person ).
so for 2 of us - ~ $300 a year . We have been diving for 2 years already. in 03 we had 3 diving vacations.....

The way my mind works : If i'm spending $150 a year on rent, so if i can get reliable reg for, say, <=$100...
another question is how much is the service, how often, warranty etc.

2. Type of diving:
as i mentioned - it more "hanging on 15 feet around Cayman", rather then knocking on the doors of Grandfather Poseidon...

3. I didn't know that it is a normal practice to try out several regs ( i guess other types of gear ) in LDS before buying it. I'm not sure if in the Garden State it is the same practice

 

[Stirling]

Some people think that Scuba Diving magazine is just a shill for its advertisers, but I think they do a pretty good job of providing useful information about a lot of products - and if nothing else you can use their articles to learn enough to ask more specific questions here from people who have actually used the specific regulator or other piece of equipment that you are interested in.

I would read a couple of articles on their website.

"How Much Should You Spend on a Regulator," which includes some useful information to help you decide what you really need and what the differences are between some inexpensive and some very expensive regulators:
http://www.scubadiving.com/gear/regulators/how_much_should_you_spend_on_a_regulator?/

"16 New Budget Regulators" (from 2001, so it will be a little bit out of date on prices and some specific models - but still useful to point you toward some specific regulators that you can look for in your LDS or ask about here) - and notice their list of "past winners" at the end of the article, too:
http://www.scubadiving.com/gear/regulators/16_new_budget_regulators/

You may notice that they give higher marks to some of the less expensive regulators included in that review. These prices are the "list" or MSRPs, so they may not be very useful as guides to the actual prices - you can check online to see what some of these models are actually selling for today from different suppliers. When you are ready to ask more questions about specific models (here or at your LDS), be sure to ask about maintenance and service and parts - all things being equal, a common and popular model will be easier to get serviced or fixed if and where you need it.

I don't think anybody or any article can tell you with confidence what *you* should get, but I think it's pretty hard to go wrong with popular models that have been used by a lot of people and are still popular - they are popular for a reason, after all. If you get something that a lot of experienced divers have used and liked, it may not be perfect for you, but it's not likely to be a waste of your money, either. If nothing else, it will be easier to sell if you later decide to try something else.

 

[rescuediver009]

You would likely be happy with any of the suggestions mentioned, however, it depends on what is near you for service. No matter how great the sherwood reg is if you local guy is a scubapro dealer only you are buggered. And vise versa. So The best thing is to look at what your local dive shop caries and decide from there. If they carry sherwood or scubapro, the magnum and mk2 are good choices repectively for your situation. I would forget about the legend mentioned above as you would not benefit from its function.

 

[M_B]

that's funny. I forgot about this thread and now while looking around for a few answers came across it again.

we've been thinking for some time about this ans this is what we have.

starting conditions:
1. 2 people, 2 vacations ( tropical waters ) ~10 days each.
2. LDS - carries Aqua Lung, Scubapro
----
Math :
1. Own :
a. set of legend class reg ~$500 / $600 depends on the octo.
b. maintenance - ~$70 each 13 months
c. I forgot that i actually need a brick - another ~$150
-- total out of pocket: (550 + 150 ) x 2 ~ $1400 + $140 annual service ( skipping first 13 months )
2. Rent :
$12 - $20 per day for the whole set - octo, reg and spg ( let's take $15 as an average )
-- Out of pocket on a average in a year : $15 x 10 days x 2 times a year x for 2 of us ~ $600
--------
Q. : how long should one use this set to brake even ?
I see several variables :
a. let's hope that manuf. will stay in business and will support the model for next 10 years.
b. LDS won't change it's mind and switch to another brand thus either dropping support or raising the main. charges.
c. no change in our diving "profile" : 2 vac. a year always gone diving , tropical water...

so if i set this vars to be a const, then the answer is ~ 2 years.

Pros/Cons:
I thought carefully about all variables and it seems to me that the most vulnerable is our profile. So the real answer should be :
to brake even on the rent/own >= 2 years.

The 2 years time frame seems like reasonable time frame and lead to the “own” decision. But if i take into account that there are other interesting places, so we might do one diving vacation a year only, thus time to brake even almost doubles and the realistic answer becomes >= 4 years .

Sum up:
I would love to buy the staff - just because i like toys. But i see no clear advantage of owning smth that might be used once a year and has to be attended to all the time.