why is zeagle brand looked down upon

[616fun]

Mike,

I noticed you mentioned gear price in an above thread. I know Zeagle products aren't the cheapest BC (probably more on the higher priced side), but search this board a bit and see how many of us bought a cheaper product to save some $$. Then, about a year later as our diving progressed, we ended up buying different (and likely, more expensive) gear to fulfill our needs as divers. That being said - you may want to get more than 5 dives and decide what kind of gear you really need. My example is I bought a set of regs that aren't enviromently sealed. Now I've been diving year round in water as cold a 36F and I've had two times I've nearly froze the reg. I'll be replacing them before next winter. Not a cheap mistake.

Most LDS will sell you gear as soon as you're out of class, knowing that you'll most llikely be back in a year to replace it with something different. I'm not knocking them, if I were in the LDS business I'd probably do the same.

BTW - I don't own Zeagle currently, but as soon as I can I will be upgrading to a Zeagle Ranger. Now - if I can just get my wife to run over my BCD again when I leave it out to dry...

 

[seahep]

I am also a newbie (8 dives) I spent over 6 months visiting different dive shops, reading the different dive mags, reading forums, cruising the net (espeicially manufatures sites). If you know the type of diving you plan on doing that's a good start. A dive shop that states that a perticular brand or type gear is no good, to me is narrow minded. Your gear is life support, it all works, but some gear will work better then others depending on the enviroment you choose to dive in or the type of diving you choose to do.
I too was going to purchase a Ranger but becuse I wanted to dive doubles the Tech has more lift and my G/F loved the Zena, for me though I decided that I still wanted a BC that would meet my future demands (future TECH Diver, OMS, BP/W) My LDS sells lots of the Zeagle BCD's, the Zena is the womens first choice at the LDS.
Once you do enough research you will deffinately be able to form your own opinion on what type of gear will best suit you.

Good Luck and Dive Safe

 

[RonFrank]

I REALLY like my LDS. I think their advice is great. However when it comes to equipment purchases, not as much. They are biased (they do sell Zeagle), and the sales people are NOT the same people I train with.

From a maintenance and product support standpoint if a Zeagle BCD needs warranty work, your LDS would likely send it to Zeagle. Not many LDS's can repair BCD's.

As for LDS's that refuse to do business with manufactures that will warranty stuff sold online, that my friend is a dangerous attitude for a business to have. Zeagle is NOT saying that they back unauthorized dealers, but they ARE saying that they will allow a Dive shop the freedom to sell within the Zeagle agreement online. There is a BIG difference between ScubaToys who is an authorized dealer of most everything they sell, and LP who basically buys from the outside, and has no ties with most manufactures.

As to the LDS that said they had problems did they say what? I'm curious as our LDS DOES carry Zeagle, and they recommend them over many other Brands they also carry.

As to LDS's pushing you into high end gear, that's what many do. There is nothing wrong with this assuming you are actually getting some benifit.

As for people here putting down Zeagle, the only examples I can think of is from the BC/Wing crowd who for some reason don't like Zeagles BP/W setup. That has little to do with a BCD like the Ranger.

You are doing the right thing by asking questions, but I don't see you getting *attacked* in this post. People are are esentially giving you the dope on how some LDS's operate, and they are by no means all good.

 

[Mako Mark]

As for people here putting down Zeagle, the only examples I can think of is from the BC/Wing crowd who for some reason don't like Zeagles BP/W setup. That has little to do with a BCD like the Ranger.
.

The only negative thing I have ever heard about the Zeagle range of BCD's, is not from the user, but from divemasters that lift the units out of the water. They are a little on the heavy side compared with the standard rec style bcd, but with the growing popularity of intergrated weights and weighted backplates, this difference is less noticable than before.

Apart from that, they have glowing testimonials from users. I am a bp user so I am perhaps a teenie wee bit biased, but overall Zeagle is a good product with a sound reputation. Not to be looked down upon at all.

 

[MikeC]

Did the shop that told you that sell Zeagle products?

If you went to a Honda dealership, would you expect them to tell you how great the Camry is?

Actually I once left a Nissan dealer because they way the salesman bashed another car. I have had a Toyota and VW dealer compare their cars to the model I was thinking of without any bashing. Both treated their competition with respect. Amazing, both dealers are among the largest in the area.

 

[crpntr133]

As for people here putting down Zeagle, the only examples I can think of is from the BC/Wing crowd who for some reason don't like Zeagles BP/W setup. That has little to do with a BCD like the Ranger.

Haven't talked to Walter lately have you? He would have been the first on Sb to pop in and tell you that "he thought" the Ranger was a design flaw, that it trapped air because the dump valve wasn't at the highest point of the bladder (ya right). This wasn't first hand experience that he was talking about. At any rate it was a classic thread and Scott pretty much backed his product and even offered to let Walter dive one and return it if he didn't like it. Of course he never took Scott up on the offer.

Do keep in mind the maintenance issue but keep in mind that a BC is pretty much low maintenance. Regs, now that is a different story.

 

[ScottZeagle]

The only negative thing I have ever heard about the Zeagle range of BCD's, is not from the user, but from divemasters that lift the units out of the water.

We made a design change on the bladder cover a couple of years ago to help out with this problem.

On the older models, there were grommets in the bladder cover for drainage. These would allow water to leave the cover, but only as fast as the size of the hole would allow. We have now started using a heavy mesh for drainage, which allows the water to leave MUCH faster, and makes the BC easier to lift out of the water.

Scott

 

[OE2X]

Haven't talked to Walter lately have you? He would have been the first on Sb to pop in and tell you that "he thought" the Ranger was a design flaw, that it trapped air because the dump valve wasn't at the highest point of the bladder (ya right). This wasn't first hand experience that he was talking about. At any rate it was a classic thread and Scott pretty much backed his product and even offered to let Walter dive one and return it if he didn't like it. Of course he never took Scott up on the offer.

Do keep in mind the maintenance issue but keep in mind that a BC is pretty much low maintenance. Regs, now that is a different story.

I am a Ranger owner.

The reason why I don't like the Ranger is because it is an inferior BCD to others that I own. The ranger while well made does not perform nearly as well as my other two. Unlike my other wings the Ranger turtles you underwater. I have a knighthawk, a Ranger and an Oxycheq. I have loaned out both the Ranger and the Knighthawk to a number of friends and they also prefer the the Knighthawk over the Ranger. To those who have then gone on and purchased a BPW they prefer that to either of the other wings.

I looked into getting a Zeagle BP&W setup when after a dozen dives I realized that the Ranger underperforms. When I looked at the connecting points for the Ranger wing to the BP I realized this was another factor that made it inferior to some of the other BPW's on the market.

For the sake of argument the shop monkeys at one of the many LDS's in Seattle did sell me on this BCD. For a variety of other reasons I don't use that shop anymore.

So I just want to say that I do have experience with the Ranger and can't extoll it's underwater virtues because other than being well made and floats you on the surface it really doesn't have any.

 

[JustinW]

The only negative thing I have ever heard about the Zeagle range of BCD's, is not from the user, but from divemasters that lift the units out of the water. They are a little on the heavy side compared with the standard rec style bcd, but with the growing popularity of intergrated weights and weighted backplates, this difference is less noticable than before.

Apart from that, they have glowing testimonials from users. I am a bp user so I am perhaps a teenie wee bit biased, but overall Zeagle is a good product with a sound reputation. Not to be looked down upon at all.

I must admit, this is my biggest beef with the product. I generally like american made products (not so much for american cars) but from my experience pulling them out of the water for students, the last one I dealt with was one of the heaviest and bulkiest BC's I have seen, but perhaps that was before the design change. On a shorty tank, it was the only BC in the lineup that couldn't stand up on its own. But i'm still willing to concede that I don't know what year or model it was (it was at night and I had several people to tend to). I would be willing to demo one, cause its nice to clear the brand of my not so positive experience.

 

[Shiprekd]

One of my LDS's here in S.E. Pennsylvania, has the full Zeagle line right next to their bp/W line. That shop is a big tech oriented shop and has been for many many years. I can guarantee that if Zeagle was inferior in any way, John the owner wouldn't look twice at the rep even.

What I can't believe, is the BS that LDS gave out. Jersey is no place for a jacket style BC (nor a wetsuit) IMHO. Right now, the surface temp out off of Atlantic city is 42 degrees and no 7mm semi-dry is even worth the time.. My Ranger and DUI are my go-to pieces when I hit the wrecks and artificial reefs off of Jersey.