What do you think of the Apeks Sidemount Regulator Kit?

[00wabbit]

Hi,
I'm formulating my christmas list and I am looking to get into sidemount. What are your thoughts on this kit? I will dive in the Great Lakes and might do a small amount of ice diving once I get up to that level. Will these be suitable for cold weather?
I'm not asking about the store. I don't know where I will buy these when I do, I jjust used their link because it listed the details.Apex Apex Sidemount Regulator Kit Regulatorsscubapro, aqua lung, aqualung, henderson aquatics, dui drysuits, dry suits, dive gear, dive equipment, wetsuits, wet suits, underwater, sealife, sea life, skins, rash guards, fins, dive masks, scuba masks,

Thanks
Brandon

 

[ams511]

I don't dive sidemount so I cannot speak to that. You may get more informed responses if you post in the cave diving section. However, I can tell you that these regs should be fine for cold water use.

 

[Colliam7]

What are your thoughts on this kit? I will dive in the Great Lakes and might do a small amount of ice diving once I get up to that level. Will these be suitable for cold weather?

Yes, they will be suitable. The kit if fully functional for sidemount diving. Four caveats, however:

1. There is not universal agreement on the need for turret regulators for SM diving, but I personally use them for SM diving, and I like them.

2. Likewise, I can't say that the 5th port, available on the Apeks regs, is necessary but it is a nice feature that may add to the ease of hose routing.

3. The hoses in the Apeks kit support the long primary hose / short hose bungeed alternate set-up, which is a vestige of the back mount configuration where many of us started. There really isn't compelling logic for it in SM, other than habit (I still use that configuration, for no other reason than habit). Some people diving SM have moved to a configuration with the same length second stage hoses on both sides - 5ft or 7ft, for example. The SPG hose lengths in the Apeks kit (6") are functional. The kit lists the inflator hoses as 'custom length' - I use 15" LP inflator hoses for both a wing / drysuit configuration and for a wing / back-up bladder (diving wet). But, there are a number of threads on SM hose lengths that you might look through

4. The kit includes one 90 degree elbow, which is fine. I have moved to the use of two 360 degree swivels, one on each second stage hose, between the hose and the second stage.

The kit is not inexpensive. But, if you price out the individual components, it is hard to say that it is too expensive. I created an Apeks SM kit from scratch - 2 used DSTs and 2 used XTX50s regs from eBay, and new hoses and hardware - for quite a bit less. But, that also took time, waiting for a couple of DSTs to show up, at a good price. I have also created the Zeagle 50D equivalent (minus the 5th port), which also works well.

You may get more informed responses if you post in the cave diving section.

While I wouldn't necessarily post in the cave diving section, I would also look at threads in the Sidemount Diving subforum of the Technical Diving Specialties forum.

 

[Scott]

The only change I have made to my Apeks SM kit is the LP inflator hoses. I use the stock 15" hoses that came with the BC. Not sure how Apeks decided 6" was long enough but it feels like it is putting unnecessary stress on my dry suit inflator and puts my BC inflator in a position I didn't care for. Skinny divers using small diameter cylinders may not have an issue.

 

[decompression]

I agree with the above posts, I've used my atx50's with DS4's for many years in 46f water. Years ago there was a concern about the turret as "one more failure point" which turned out to be unfounded. Sadly, that was a reason I went with the DS4, never imagined I'd move to SM. Now the turret and 5th port are looking good.

 

[offroadr1]

my hose lengths are 30"with a swivel and 7' with a swivel. 24" sounds too short unless you are not a very tall person. i do like the swivel turrets as well. i have not utilized the 5th port though, but i am still tweaking as i go.

 

[pholife]

I am stuck in a debate right now with the kit... for sidemount it's great, but I don't use the fifth port. I do, although use it for backmount config. Which is to say that they work great in both configuration and the component that come with them are great. I have taken them to 80m on backmount and 65 on sidemount.

Problem is now, what do I do for my deco regs.... DS4's which are strickly deco (or recreational) or the XTX which gives me the swivel, no 5th port (optional) but I dont use it (unless in backmount)

SO it's either
A) DS4's which are strictly deco or ugly sidemount
B) XTX which should be perfect for sidemount and deco, sloppy back mount but expandable if needed.
C) Sidemount, not the cleanest deco useless fifth port (maybe for the drysuit if using a Tmx blend), but beyond par. And get all the stuff out of the box?

 

[Crass3000]

Not sure it will be helpful but I have great faith in Apeks XTX50 regulators with the 1st stage with the 5th port for hose routing. I have been wanting to drop the money on this setup for a year or more and finally purchased the kit yesterday. Along with the Hollis SMS-100 I think I'm going to be very happy. I love their regulators and dove the Hollis SMS100 in a pool with a kit that basically resembled the Apeks kit with parts from other Apeks regulators. I was amazed by the great trim of the BCD and the kit seemed easy to use and made with parts I really respect. After my first freeflow on a Scubapro kit, I switched to Apeks and haven't looked back.

I could have got by without the sidemount kit using the other Apeks parts I have that I used in the pool but I don't want to be changing around parts when I want to dive a different configuration.

 

[00wabbit]

Wow - you resurrected this post from the dead! MY original post was 2.5 years ago. For what's it worth, I bought the sidemount kit and I have been using it ever since with no problems at all. I am diving sidemount now and use most of the pieces in the kit except for the very short drysuit hose. I'm a big wide guy so that hose was too short to get to the center of my chest. I got a great Black Friday deal on the kit from Northeast Scuba Supply.

I would buy it again and I see no need to upgrade in the near future.

As a small bonus, one time when I took my regs in for annual service the guy went ahead and did them before others in the que because he liked working on Apeks regs more than some of the other brands he had to service at the time.