Whats wrong with Sherwood?

[rollinssm]

I have a Sherwood Avid BC and love it but I have noticed in all the recomendations and raves on the subject of jacket stile BCs, The Avid or Sherwood is barely(if ever) mentioned. Not that my preference will change but I was wondering if there is a reason other people seem to not like the Avid or Sherwood.

I dive with a Dive Rite with wings and all of that. My wife (who I do love, and want her safe) will be diving with either a Luna or Athena. Since I own a dive shop, she can get a little spoiled; she can dive with both but not at the same time. I would not let her dive with something that had something wrong. I also would not sell anything that could hurt people. I dive with a Dive Rite because my diving (when not teaching) calls for that type of set up. I will also be diving with a Sherwood or Genesis product (Freedom or Tortuga or Avid or Cayman or......) this year, as well as my Dive Rite. In reality, there are very few manufactures that I would advise against.

People recommend what they dive with, few people dive with a variety of gear, unless you only rent. It causes one to get confused. You get comfortable with what you use.

 

[scubadoguk]

When I was in living in the Caribbean I used a basic BCD by Sherwood and a maximus reg with a console by Sherwood, The reg went at least 2 yrs without a service or wrench on it, it was in need of a service for sure by that time but just kept on working, some time ago Cancun Mark had a Caribbean service guide for a Sherwood reg very funny but true, its in the search some where.
So they get my vote for a good buy, shame they are lost in the shuffle now-days.

 

[Island Hoppa]

How often do you have to ditch your weights? If that's a real problem, maybe you should retake your OW class

i have never had to ditch my weights. i just think the zeagle way is the better way and if i had to ditch them the zeagle would be a breeze. the sherwood just didnt work for me, i think it might have been an older model. the weights were so hard to ditch. its probably just me though.

 

[Knight1989]

When I was first learning to dive and really even up untill recently, I used almost pure Sherwood gear. Never had a problem with any of it. I fond the BCDs to be very reliable and sturdy, and the regulators with just some simple routine maintanance worked great. Our diveshop exclusivly used Sherwood gear and I found it very easy to do the repairwork and maintance on all of it. While I am now working on going with a TUSA setup its only because I find thier BCD fits me a little better. There is certainly nothing wrong with Sherwood and I would have no reservations at all with diving with thier gear.

 

[Poseidon8118]

Sherwood is just not as big as Scubapro or Aqualung.

Can you clarify “not as big”
Sherwood is a huge company, much bigger than Scubapro (JWA) and USD combined. They have been in the life support business for more than 75 years. Don’t believe me? If you have a gas grill look at the valve on the tank, it will say Sherwood on the handle regardless of the brand of grill. If you have a relative on oxygen the valve and regulator is a Sherwood. If you have a Fire Dept. their life support equipment is Harsco/Sherwood; Harsco is the parent company to Sherwood. Sherwood is the worldwide leader of valves and regulators and makes many other brands OEM’s; they are part of Harsco’s gas technologies division. The company pulls in over 2 billion dollars a year with an annual growth of 280 million dollars.

Their BC’s are made buy them supplied to Genesis (another company of theirs) and other scuba OEM's. If you meant “not as popular” please disregard this post.

This post is just to put in perspective how big Sherwood really is…I believe a lot of people think their just another scuba company.

Here are a few links to make you believe that Sherwood is bigger;

http://www.harsco.com/Operations/ops_gs.htm

http://www.sherwoodvalve.com/

http://www.sherwoodvalve.com/products.htm

 

[DavyJones]

Can you clarify ?not as big?
Sherwood is a huge company, much bigger than Scubapro (JWC) and USD combined. They have been in the life support business for more than 75 years. Don?t believe me? If you have a gas grill look at the valve on the tank, it will say Sherwood on the handle regardless of the brand of grill. If you have a relative on oxygen the valve and regulator is a Sherwood. If you have a Fire Dept. their life support equipment is Harsco/Sherwood; Harsco is the parent company to Sherwood. Sherwood is the worldwide leader of valves and regulators and makes many other brands OEM?s; they are part of Harsco?s gas technologies division. The company pulls in over 2 billion dollars a year with an annual growth of 280 million dollars.

Their BC?s are made buy them supplied to Genesis (another company of theirs) and other scuba OEM's. If you meant ?not as popular? please disregard this post.

This post is just to put in perspective how big Sherwood really is?I believe a lot of people think their just another scuba company.

Here are a few links to make you believe that Sherwood is bigger;

http://www.harsco.com/Operations/ops_gs.htm

http://www.sherwoodvalve.com/

http://www.sherwoodvalve.com/products.htm

On top of that. I just recently found out that Sherwood makes its own parts, right down to tooling their own brass. It is becouse of this that (in many cases) you can still get parts and service kits for 20 year old regulators. Many people are still breathing off of 20 year old Sherwood regs. Many other companies get their parts from outside vendors and no longer supply parts for their older equipment as the vendors go away making consumers HAVE to upgrade as opposed to choosing to.
As to how easy Sherwood regs are to maintain and repair and to thier world-wideness, I have heard the joking phrase " If you out on the islands on a dive vacation and the operation there doesnt know how to service a Sherwood reg....Go far away, you don't want to be there".

 

[theskull]

People do recommend what they are familiar with, and Sherwood is not as popular a brand with dive shops (in my somewhat limited experience) as the other brands mentioned. I have been told by more than one shop that it is because of poor response to warranty problems and less than desirable replacement policies.

Of those I know who USE Sherwood (as opposed to sell the brand) there are no complaints and glowing recommendations.

theskull

 

[waterwraith]

Nothing wrong with sherwood BC's. I've used their BC's a few times and have never had them fail. My only real complaint was that the inflators were not as responsive as I like.

 

[padudle]

I have an Avid and to ditch the weights you don't need to touch the buckle in the back. You only grab the ditch handles near your navel and pull.

i dove an avid when i got my open water a while back. i thought it performed well, but i feel the weight system is terrible. i had so much trouble ditching the weights because the buckles are so far back, terrible weight design if you ask me. now i use zeagle and ditching is a breeze.

 

[Lt9]

i dove an avid when i got my open water a while back. i thought it performed well, but i feel the weight system is terrible. i had so much trouble ditching the weights because the buckles are so far back, terrible weight design if you ask me. now i use zeagle and ditching is a breeze.

New this year Sherwood is changing their weight system and moving the buckles forword so that they can be ditched easier.