what regulator to purchase?

[Caleb.h]

hey guys
im new to both scubaboard and diving so please excuse me if i go about asking questions the wrong way.

im looking to purchase a regulator and im not very well educated on good brands/styles were to find them well priced and all that.
any help and personal exp anyone can give me will be much appreciated

thanks heaps

 

[sheeper]

there is soooo much to choose from and different shops will carry different brands. Scubapro, Atomic, Aqualung, Hog, Mares, Diverite all make great products. My advice is that a regulator is fundamental life support equipment so I would suggest buying the best one you can afford. To a large extent, you get what you pay for.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

As long as you don't mind paying for free parts up front based on service intervals you probably don't need to do. The truth is that any reg will work. For the vast majority of recreational divers any reg will work well. There is no need to break the bank on a reg. I ask customers what type of diving they are doing, what they want to do, and what their budget is. I will not even suggest a 900 dollar titanium set when a 250 dollar warm water reg will do. The truth is that most divers could not tell the difference anyway. Don't buy the most expensive one you can. Buy the one that will work for you and your budget. Rarely is that an expensive one. Spend the money you save on diving more.
No mfg will sell junk. They all are keenly aware of the risks of doing that. I sell regs, dive tech, and my gf dives. She uses a 200 dollar reg. She and I both trust her life to it. Why? Because the reg is not life support, what's between her ears is and that is much more important than the cost of her reg.

 

[claymore]

I would make a guess that sheeper works at and/or sells gear at a shop or he has an en extremely large disposable income. Buying very top end gear is almost always want not need.

 

[tbone1004]

in Oz you are in a bit of a bind as your selection and pricing is very different than what we see here in the states, unfortunately there isn't a Dive Rite dealer near you, there technically is one in Sydney but they don't stock anything, few real good ones in Brisbane and Melbourne though if you travel there.

Here's my recommendation
If you see yourself going to sidemount or any technical diving in the future, it is cheaper to purchase two first stages and two second stage at the same time as most regulators are sold as a "package" with one first and one second, you'll save a lot of money, generally a few hundred dollars than buying separately.

Since you're diving in salt regularly, I'd go with a sealed diaphragm regulator, that rules most of Scubapro out btw, not that pistons are bad, but cleaning sealed diaphragms is much easier and they are more tolerant of not being cleaned, pistons aren't, or they will require expensive and potentially messy packing with grease, not good eats.

Brands, they matter if you don't want to service them yourself since you have to stay with the more well known brands. I prefer Poseidon personally, but they can be difficult to find to purchase, even more difficult to find good service centers, and are rather expensive. They also breathe very differently than normal regulators so a lot of people don't like them. For "normal" regulators, I prefer Apeks for the big brand name, made in England, very high quality, price to match if buying new, but can generally find good prices on used ones on ebay and the like.
Apeks Regulators | eBay
This is actually a pretty good deal and will last you the rest of your life.

You will read a lot about Edge and Hog on this forum but I don't believe there are dealers in Oz yet, so you are a bit stuck there on that, and with the recent price hikes, they aren't the value they used to be.

 

[chrisch]

....The truth is that any reg will work. For the vast majority of recreational divers any reg will work well.....

Yup. Says it all.

 

[sheeper]

I would make a guess that sheeper works at and/or sells gear at a shop or he has an en extremely large disposable income. Buying very top end gear is almost always want not need.

Ha...wrong on all counts. I'm NEVER opposed to value. I have several Hog regulators that I think are a great match between quality and price!

and the "best" is not the most expensive. the top $$ regs from the big manufacturers have some flash and dazzle like titanium, or a fancy finish, or a cool "tactical" name. When I say best I mean look to the actual performance and features. That Aqualung Legend Lux Supreme is pretty and fancy but the features and performance are not radically different than the Legend LX model. But there is a HUGE price difference. On the other hand, if I sold gear, I know which one I'd rather sell you!

 

[stuartv]

I don't know if DRIS will ship to you, but if they will, this deal is hard to beat:

DC3-212 - Dive Right in Scuba

I just went through the same process as you and this deal is what I settled on. USD$199 for a good quality reg set is hard to beat, in general. This particular set appealed to me because:

- the first stage is a sealed, diaphragm design. This has benefits as tbone described above. Essentially, ease of maintenance. It will also be good if you ever want to dive in cold water (i.e. below 50 degrees F). All of the staff and instructors at my local shop dive using the ScubaPro MK25 first stage. It seems like a lot of people feel like the MK25 is the Cadillac of first stages and there is nothing that breathes better. But, the MK25 is a piston design, not a diaphragm, and so it is not as low maintenance as a sealed, diaphragm reg. And, after using my Hollis regs for a few dives, all I know for sure is that they breathe plenty well enough that I wouldn't spend any extra money just for something that is supposed to breathe better. I am glad that my local guys told me they use MK25s and then they actually steered me towards a seal, diaphgram reg because I'm a new diver and we all agreed that I didn't want the extra maintenance burden (small though it may be) and extra expense of a reg like the MK25.

- the first stage has 2 HP (high pressure) ports, which is handy if you ever decide to use wireless air integration, which allows a wrist dive computer to display your remaining tank air pressure. You can use one HP port for the wireless pressure gauge and use the other for a hose connection to a conventional pressure gauge as a backup. Some first stage regulators only have one HP pressure port. And if you're only ever going to use one pressure gauge, you only need on HP port, so this whole point may not matter to you.

- the first stage is actually overbalanced, which means (I believe) that it slightly increases the pressure coming out of the regulator as you go deeper under water, which makes it even easier to inhale when you are deeper.

- the second stage regulator is diver adjustable for inhalation effort. Some people say this is a needless feature. I say that mine works. I can tell a big difference between all the way "easy" versus all the way "hard". But, whether I really need this versus just having it permanently set to "easy" and then just using the dive/pre-dive lever is something I can't say yet. I haven't used mine enough.

- the second stage also has a dive/pre-dive lever to allow low inhalation effort while diving, but (in pre-dive position) prevent free flows when on the surface.

- the second stage is pneumatically balanced. Being balanced means that the inhalation effort stays pretty much the same, even when the tank pressure drops from 3000 psi down to 500 psi. Being pneumatic means that the balancing of pressure (between the pressure coming into the regulator and the pressure coming out of the regulator) is done via the air that is actually coming out of the regulator. Some second stage regulators are marketed as "balanced", but are mechanically balanced, not pneumatically. I'm not sure how that works, but it SEEMS to be not as desirable as pneumatic balancing.

- Hollis is owned by the same company that owns Aeris and Oceanic. A company called AUP. The 212 second stage actually appears to be pretty much identical internally to the Oceanic EOS, which seems to be pretty well regarded. So, these regs should be able to be serviced pretty much anywhere around the world, I think (hope?).

I hope this helps a little bit to understand regs and what features you may want to look for or avoid, even if you don't want to get this exact reg set.

 

[Tbar]

- the first stage is actually overbalanced,.., which makes it even easier to inhale when you are deeper.
- the second stage is pneumatically balanced. Being balanced means that the inhalation effort stays pretty much the same, even when the tank pressure drops from 3000 psi down to 500 psi.

Not sure this is correct. Given that the first stage reduces the pressure to an Intermediate Pressure (IP) of around 140PSI there should be no impact on the second stage while the tank pressure is above the IP. re first point, I would not want the IP increasing this could cause a freeflow.

There are a number of other point that could be questioned in that post.

---------- Post added February 6th, 2015 at 04:39 PM ----------

im looking to purchase a regulator and im not very well educated on good brands/styles were to find them well priced and all that.

What other gear do you have? Particularly do you have a computer, or will this regulator purchase cover 1^st stage, two 2^nd stages (primary/alternate), SPG (pressure gauge) and a computer (in a console or separate)? I only ask as if you do not have an SPG you will need one for the reg to be usable. Likewise you will need primary and secondary 2^nd stages – unless you have a BCD that has an inflator that can operate as an alternate (eg Scubapro AirII).

I don’t subscribe to the diaphragm vs piston comments above. Many people I dive with have piston 1^st stages and don’t have issues. We all dive in salt water. My only 1st stage failure was on a diaphragm. No matter what you have you should be fastidious in cleaning.

You need to be sure what you buy can be readily services by a nearby shop, or your costs will go up considerably in Aus.
There are some good suppliers in Spain and Italy, much lower prices and very fast delivery. I purchased an SPG and a computer on Monday this week and they were delivered on Thursday to Brisbane. If you buy great that is readily supplied in Aus then this can be an economic option.

You could buy second hand, but you will need to know what you are getting and you will likely need to get it serviced as you cannot be sure what state it is in. So factor that into costs. There are bargains on eBay, most of my gear (excluding computers) comes second hand, I have 7 sets.

I have predominately Scubapro gear, regs and BCDs (regs are MK25+S600 or S360, BCDs are Knighthawk or Ladyhawk). Irrespective of how I have come by the gear, OS or second-hand, Scubapro has provided the ‘limited lifetime’ warranty support.

 

[stuartv]

Not sure this is correct. Given that the first stage reduces the pressure to an Intermediate Pressure (IP) of around 140PSI there should be no impact on the second stage while the tank pressure is above the IP. re first point, I would not want the IP increasing this could cause a freeflow.

If what I said was incorrect, I would be VERY happy to have someone correct me! Particularly, if the 1st being "overbalanced" does not mean what I think, I would really like to know what it does mean.