Who does not like their Hog regs?

[kelemvor]

The owner of the shop even called me after learning from the shop manager/reg tech and realizing I had bought the regs from the shop and not on line. He assured me that he would try and make up for selling an inferior product and get me into something more reliable at a decent price.

I discussed with him the problem his shop had with HOG and he offered at least one small reason that some love their HOGs and maybe have seen no corrosion issues; perhaps these people primarily dive fresh water or since they are a newer brand many so called happy customers might not yet have had them serviced.

It was suggested by some posters to contact HOG or one of the online dive sites and send the regs off to get another opinion but I don't want to bother with that additional expense with an uncertain outcome. I think the fact that this shop no longer carries HOG is statement enough for me and if HOG has anything to say in their defence it might be to explain why this shop no longer carries their line. I also don't believe any shop in the Vancouver area carries HOGs.

For me, I am going to invest in something that will cost me more money but hopefully last more than two years. Its an age old lesson that I am forced to learn yet again.

Regardless of what you decide to do regulator wise I would run as fast as possible from this shop. He sold you something and then didn't stand by that product when you needed him to. He then went on to tell you to replace it at the very first sign of trouble. The only reason to use a brick and mortar shop for dive gear is the service and expertise. If you're going to get that kind of treatment from the shop you might as well go over to an online store for your replacement.

I own 0 hog products, so this is not coming from a fanboy.

FWIW, my 2 year old scubapro mk25 s600 has not been problem free. It had to be fixed for a problem I had during a dive. It also had to have some piece of the guts replaced during service. The shop didn't tell me my reg should go in the circular file, they fixed what needed fixin'.


If that's the only shop for 100 miles and you have to depend on them for fills, you might want to start looking for a local fire department or join a dive club that has a compressor... They obviously aren't doing you any favors on the gear front.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I`ve had problems with my HOG D1 Cold water regs and went on the board recently asking if anyone had the same issue. To restate what I said in that post, I bought them 2 years ago from Ocean Quest Dive Center in Burnaby, BC, Canada. I too was pumped after reading the excellent Scubaboard reviews and the price was excellent.

I didn't have issues with how they breathe but when I took them to the shop for servicing, the manager already had an "oh no" expression when he saw what I had brought in for service. I was told that they stopped carrying HOG after noticing other customers having issues with extreme corrosion. I was told they would service them but that I should not be surprised if they were in a similar condition to other HOGs they have serviced. After they were taken apart the manager showed me the corroded orifice. He advised me there was no way they should be in this condition after that period of time and he pointed to possible inferior quality components.

Now for those wondering, this shop has been around for a long time and they also carry other brands such as Scubapro and Apeks and they didn't say they get these complaints from them. Additionally, I was not the only one to have this issue, so I doubt one can point to them being inexperienced in selling or servicing regs or that I mistreated my equipment. I previously dove a Sherwood Brut reg set for a couple of years before selling them and I had no issues when I had them serviced.

The owner of the shop even called me after learning from the shop manager/reg tech and realizing I had bought the regs from the shop and not on line. He assured me that he would try and make up for selling an inferior product and get me into something more reliable at a decent price.

I discussed with him the problem his shop had with HOG and he offered at least one small reason that some love their HOGs and maybe have seen no corrosion issues; perhaps these people primarily dive fresh water or since they are a newer brand many so called happy customers might not yet have had them serviced.

It was suggested by some posters to contact HOG or one of the online dive sites and send the regs off to get another opinion but I don't want to bother with that additional expense with an uncertain outcome. I think the fact that this shop no longer carries HOG is statement enough for me and if HOG has anything to say in their defence it might be to explain why this shop no longer carries their line. I also don't believe any shop in the Vancouver area carries HOGs.

For me, I am going to invest in something that will cost me more money but hopefully last more than two years. Its an age old lesson that I am forced to learn yet again.

The orifices were corroded?
That only means one thing, that you mishandled the regs at some point and allowed salt water to enter somewhere, it just doesn't get in by itself.
That's not the regs fault, it's your fault.
Sure, I could corrode the hell out of any reg if I work at it hard enough. I once flooded the inside of a MK20 by not cleaning it right early on when I wasn't clued in on how to properly clean a reg set. The shop wondered how I could have gotten it so crusty inside. I learned to keep my regs hooked up and pressurized during the soaking and rinsing and never had a problem since.
On boats when they fill my tank with a whip I make sure to always hang the first stage down so the inlet is facing down to avoid any salt water from dripping into the 1st stage inlet while I'm waiting for a fill. I also crack the valve for a second to blow out any water that may have collected somehow in the valve opening before I hook up the reg.
All these protocols are standard with any reg. The materials used to make Hog regs aren't any different from any other comparable reg.

I think the rest of your post concerning the shop and the other comments reek of opinion based political bias, sorry.
I'm just looking at the physical evidence of your story minus the opinions and it doesn't make a lot of sense.... Actually it does, if you look at it from the LDS competitive and profit margin standpoint.

 

[redacted]

The orifices were corroded?
That only means one thing, that you mishandled the regs at some point and allowed salt water to enter somewhere, it just doesn't get in by itself.
That's not the regs fault, it's your fault.
Sure, I could corrode the hell out of any reg if I work at it hard enough. I once flooded the inside of a MK20 by not cleaning it right early on when I wasn't clued in on how to properly clean a reg set. The shop wondered how I could have gotten it so crusty inside. I learned to keep my regs hooked up and pressurized during the soaking and rinsing and never had a problem since.
On boats when they fill my tank with a whip I make sure to always hang the first stage down so the inlet is facing down to avoid any salt water from dripping into the 1st stage inlet while I'm waiting for a fill. I also crack the valve for a second to blow out any water that may have collected somehow in the valve opening before I hook up the reg.
All these protocols are standard with any reg. The materials used to make Hog regs aren't any different from any other comparable reg.

I think the rest of your post concerning the shop and the other comments reek of opinion based political bias, sorry.
I'm just looking at the physical evidence of your story minus the opinions and it doesn't make a lot of sense.... Actually it does, if you look at it from the LDS competitive and profit margin standpoint.

The threaded portion of a 2nd stage adjustable orifice is not protected by an o-ring so is exposed to SW. My impression of the pic he posted in the other thread was that it either was not chrome plate (like a sherwood orifice) or there was some other containment discoloring the threaded portion of the orifice. Nothing that would not clean up just fine. I like to give unprotected threads like that a good rub with lube to give them a bit more protection.

I suspect it is a shop that has dropped the HOG/Edge line and is just trying to put their new "brand" on the customer. OUCH

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

..... It is fairly obvious that most dive shops do not like HOG/Edge. The typical dive shop business model tries to maximize the "harvest" every time a new diver takes out his wallet. So, when they can sell someone a $1000 kit and profit the better part of $500 or sell someone a $400 kit and make much less profit, what do you thing they want to do? Add to that the idea that HOG/Edge supports diver performing their own service which may take another $100 per years away from the shop and it is not hard to understand the typical shop attitude. Couple that with the known propensity of many shops to be entirely open and truthful about competitor's products (sarcasm) and you should expect many interesting stories about HOG/Edge products. There are a few, usually larger shops, that recognize that it is often better to make less profit and gain a loyal customer than to maximize that harvest when given the opportunity because the customer will probably eventually take his business elsewhere or just drop out of scuba anyway; but they are the minority.

I don't own any HOG/Edge gear. But I do admire their business model. Basically, all regulators will safely get you through a dive. Some may do it slightly better than others or have features which may make them more or less desirable than others. But they all work pretty well. So, about the biggest difference between regulators is cost and support. The HOG/Edge business model offers the diver savings in both those areas and that is counter to the business model of many retailers.

1+.

Canadave has a legitimate concern with the degree that the orifice and poppet were corroded & discolored in his HOG 2nd stage... if that was my 2nd stage I'd want to figure out why that occurred. Was it something I did wrong, or was there a problem with the materials used? Bad batch, did one of the suppliers substitute a non-spec part? Did some sort of contaminant get in there somehow?

Whatever the cause, the appearance of the orifice and poppet was not what I'd expect after normal use.

My experience with HOG regarding warranty issues has been that they are easy to work with, and bend over backwards to help you. If it were my 2nd stage I would contact HOG. Email them the picture of the orifice and poppet, and see what they say.

Best wishes.

 

[Jax]

<--- See the av . . . I'm not constant diver, but I have had my regs for four years, and get them professionally serviced after two (so twice now).

There's been nothing extraordinary about them. I wonder if the dive shop had that laying around to convince people to buy new regs? It happens.

 

[BRT]

The orifices were corroded?
That only means one thing, that you mishandled the regs at some point and allowed salt water to enter somewhere, it just doesn't get in by itself.
That's not the regs fault, it's your fault.
Sure, I could corrode the hell out of any reg if I work at it hard enough. I once flooded the inside of a MK20 by not cleaning it right early on when I wasn't clued in on how to properly clean a reg set. The shop wondered how I could have gotten it so crusty inside. I learned to keep my regs hooked up and pressurized during the soaking and rinsing and never had a problem since.
On boats when they fill my tank with a whip I make sure to always hang the first stage down so the inlet is facing down to avoid any salt water from dripping into the 1st stage inlet while I'm waiting for a fill. I also crack the valve for a second to blow out any water that may have collected somehow in the valve opening before I hook up the reg.
All these protocols are standard with any reg. The materials used to make Hog regs aren't any different from any other comparable reg.

I think the rest of your post concerning the shop and the other comments reek of opinion based political bias, sorry.
I'm just looking at the physical evidence of your story minus the opinions and it doesn't make a lot of sense.... Actually it does, if you look at it from the LDS competitive and profit margin standpoint.

We mishandle our Sherwood regs every time we dive. They come out of the saltwater and get rinsed with fresh water usually within 24 hours, but not always and never while pressurized. They get carefully serviced on the 12th of never every year and give problems anytime we manage to get sand in the seat. Some of them I've owned for 20 years. I had a regulator get a corroded seat once but it was an ancient Dacor that I dove for years with that same careful service schedule.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

The threaded portion of a 2nd stage adjustable orifice is not protected by an o-ring so is exposed to SW. My impression of the pic he posted in the other thread was that it either was not chrome plate (like a sherwood orifice) or there was some other containment discoloring the threaded portion of the orifice. Nothing that would not clean up just fine. I like to give unprotected threads like that a good rub with lube to give them a bit more protection.

I suspect it is a shop that has dropped the HOG/Edge line and is just trying to put their new "brand" on the customer. OUCH

OK, thanks for that. I didn't realize this was part two of another thread and didn't see where it was the second stage. Maybe it was mentioned somewhere in this thread but I'm not always the best at picking up on details when I'm tired. It's been a tough week.

 

[pensacolaracer]

I have a few sets. They now sit on a shelf. They are junk... Well, the 2nd stages are. Have had no issues with the first.

Seconds won't adjust properly to purge without free flowing. The breathing adjust knob also gums up and sticks wayyyy to often.

I was going to give all my seconds away and let someone else deal with the headache but have not got around to posting that yet.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[WarrenZ]

I'll take them off your hands. I have seen good gear treated poorly and been fine I've seen bad gear treated well that was fine. If someone dives 1000 dives a year and does no maintenance then they need that titanium reg.

 

[Canadave]

Canadave is obviously a troll and probably works for the shop he is talking about. Either that or he flooded his reg and let it sit for a couple years.

I don't have any HOG regs yet, but I have some of the Apeks regs they are copied from and they are great, and I have a Dive Rite branded clone which works just fine as well.

Nice contribution to the discussion , djtimmy77.

As you say, you don't even own a set of HOGs, so why weigh in on this discussion? You have no idea what you are talking about, your accusations are unfounded and I don`t appreciate being called a "troll".

Like I said, this shop didn`t just find this problem on my regs. and I never had corrosion issues on the Sherwoods that I owned previously. You HOG dealers and others with a dog in the fight can say what you want, but I have nothing invested in this shop and no particular axe to grind with HOG other than that I shelled out a bunch of money for substandard equipment. I initially put it out there as I found it curious in the face of all the rave reviews and as a heads up to others to check their HOG regs. While I don`t clean my regs to the level of Jim Lapenta I should not have had the issues I had with the HOGS after regular soaking and rinsing in fresh water after every dive. I didn`t get any special reprimand or blame for this corrosion even though I waited almost two years to service these new regs. Maybe that is the HOG-lovers, "ah-ha" moment, but the shop advised that even waiting that long should not have done the damage to the internal metal parts that they found.

In any event, my HOG story is over now.

I went back to the shop today and the owner, refunded me half what I paid for the HOGs, and has replaced them with an Apeks DST XTX50 set up. Looking forward to many years of safe diving.

Peace out...