What is the oldest regulator still in production or that you own?

[Nemrod]

It is amazing that these 50 year old regulators we have posted will likely still be in service in another 50 years. I dare say, the plastic fantastics will have long been recycled into milk cartons. Once upon a time things were built to be a lifetime purchase, nowadays they only have to last a few years before becoming obsolete.

Think, you bought a 35MM SLR and it was as good as the next year because it could use continually improving film, it was a lifetime purchase and the cameras were built out of metal, brass, aluminum, titanium and steel. The Aqua Lung and Voit double hose regulators ran for nearly two decades with decent parts interchangeability, when a fellow purchased a 1964 DA Aqua Master he thought of it as a lifetime purchase, it was made from brass and stainless and chrome and real rubber. People--consumers --don't think that way anymore and they don't demand lifetime durablity and as a consequence "stuff" in general today is sub par, cheaply built. If it is made out of plastic, it is cheapo. Regulators went to plastic to reduce costs, now they try and tell you it is composites, yeah, it still looks like plastic to me.

N

 

[Greg Barlow]

It is amazing that these 50 year old regulators we have posted will likely still be in service in another 50 years. I dare say, the plastic fantastics will have long been recycled into milk cartons. Once upon a time things were built to be a lifetime purchase, nowadays they only have to last a few years before becoming obsolete.

Think, you bought a 35MM SLR and it was as good as the next year because it could use continually improving film, it was a lifetime purchase and the cameras were built out of metal, brass, aluminum, titanium and steel. The Aqua Lung and Voit double hose regulators ran for nearly two decades with decent parts interchangeability, when a fellow purchased a 1964 DA Aqua Master he thought of it as a lifetime purchase, it was made from brass and stainless and chrome and real rubber. People--consumers --don't think that way anymore and they don't demand lifetime durablity and as a consequence "stuff" in general today is sub par, cheaply built. If it is made out of plastic, it is cheapo. Regulators went to plastic to reduce costs, now they try and tell you it is composites, yeah, it still looks like plastic to me.

N

This is one of the reasons why I am a big fan of the Mares line of regs. You get the modern design features, with the great benefits of a metal second stage. The new Proton models are even easier to fine tune than the metal bodied regs of the past, due to their access port on the reg's body.

Greg Barlow

 

[Creed]

It is amazing that these 50 year old regulators we have posted will likely still be in service in another 50 years. I dare say, the plastic fantastics will have long been recycled into milk cartons. Once upon a time things were built to be a lifetime purchase, nowadays they only have to last a few years before becoming obsolete.

Part of it is that people used to design things based on the KISS principle. Now, it's a different story. For example, I borrowed a bike recently, and when I got it home, couldn't keep it running. It would die everytime I put it into gear. My Harley riding uncle and I worked on this beast for quite a while, and were left scratching our heads. It was when a friend mentioned that Japanese bikes often have kickstand switches that I finally figured out what was going on. I can't think of a valid reason, besides compensating for mental handicap, that a bike needs a switch on the kick stand. It's just one more extraneous part that can break and ruin your day. It's bad enough on a bike, nevermind a piece of equipment needed to feed me air.

Now, while I am a brass fan through and through for regs, in my own experiments, I'm coming to the conclusion that a plastic body may be what I have to use. I haven't had much luck casting thin brass parts yet, and my custom double hose cans keep getting pushed back while I work out the issues. If I went with a cast plastic(ala the Jet Air), I could be diving all of my theoretical regs already. So, I am being seduced by the Dark Side.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

Metal cases for second stages were comparatively expensive to produce and I can see the argument for switching to plastic from chrome plated brass as they were stamped pieces that then had to be brazed, copper plated and then finally chrome plated - both expensive and labor intensive.

However when for example SP came out with the G250, it used Balanaced Adjustable internals with a metal air barrel in a plastic case that allowed the inexpensive incorporation of an adjustable flow vane and it was in fact a very good second stage with a case that cost about $3.00 to produce compared to the $30 or so it cost to make the brass case for the Balanced Adjustable. But they charged a lot MORE for the "new" G250 even though the production cost was lower. A G250 case, if cracked can be replaced for very little, but few dealers will tell you that and will instead try to sell you a new second stage. So in the end SP saved money and boosted profits, but the diver/customer never realized any of the potenial cost savings - and ended up with a second stage that looks scuffed in a very short period of time, will not tolerate the same level of use and abuse as a brass cased second stage and does not get the heat transfer and recycled moisture benefits (no dry mouth) of a metal case.

And to be honest the G250 did not really breath any better than the already excellent breathing Balanced Adjustable and in fact performance got slightly worse over time as other parts were eventually changed to plastic such as the orifice and air barrel.

I don't mind cutting costs but it does not have to mean cutting quality.