Which Apex ?

[Conor]

Hi all

Having had your help on BCD's I thought I would see if you could help me with choosing the right Regulator.

Having looked at other posts and prices in the UK I think I am happy to restrict the brands down to just Apeks. The question is what to get now.

I am an AOW with 20 dives (all warm water) hoping later to get into UK diving and ulitmately more technical diving, so I would like to get equipment that can last as my interests develop. I am not sure if the ability to make lots of adjustments would be a good or bad thing for someone at my level, as it may be distracting so advvice on this would be appreciated.

So what Apeks setup would you reccomend for someone in my position in terms of first stage, second stage and safe second/octopus ? (am I using the safe second referenceapproprately ???).

Thanks in advance

Conor

 

[nickjb]

An ATX40 will do just fine. The 50 has an extra knob for easily adjusting the breathing resistance but you don't really need this.

The 100 and 200 have better hose routing when you use a twin set and some people say they breath a bit better but they use almost all the same parts as the cheaper models so go figure. The twinset benefit is pretty moot as you will need to buy more regs and will probably want stage regs by then too.

I would suggest:

ATX 40 primary 2nd and Back-up with a DS4 first stage. The DST4 doesn't really offer any benefit.

PS get 300bar DIN 1st stage

PPS its 'apeks' if you want to have a look online (You beat me to the punch ) . Check out the reviews at divernet and the apeks home page.

 

[Conor]

Thanks spelling was never my strong point, I just changed it when I realised (probably while you were writing your reply).

If what you are saying is right then you have probably halved the cost of regs for me

 

[Scubaroo]

The ATX40 with a DS4 is a great first reg - I just bought the ATX40/DST combination for my girlfriend for Christmas. The DS4 has no swivel, and no 1/2" port (all 3/8" ports, which is the most common, Apeks add a 1/2" port on their higher end first stages but the benefit is debatable). If you trully are interested in getting into technical diving, you can then move this reg onto a deco bottle, and buy a pair of ATX200s (just a suggestion) for a set of double tanks. The hose routing on the ATX200 for doubles is *really* nice.

Or you can leave the ATX40 as a singles rig for its life.

The adjustment knob on the Apeks is a bit of a gimmick - to be totally honest, I've never adjusted mine during a dive (apart from trying it once and noticing no real difference) on either my TX50 or ATX200s. My TX50 now needs servicing though - sounds like some sand in there. The ATX40 does not have this adjustment knob, and they breath really nice to begin with, so why pay for the knob if you're not going to need it. People say that you need it for diving deep, but mine work just fine down to 120' - anything deeper and you should be breathing trimix which has less breathing resistance anyway.

Plus everything that nickjb said

 

[cyklon_300]

I use a TX50/40 with the DST...

If I had it to do over, I'd get the DS4, the swivel doesn't provide any benefit that I can tell and is another potential failure point.

DiveINN had these at ridiculously low prices a while back.