Dir regulator

[Soggy]

Upstream regs will fail to closed if something breaks in the first stage (high IP or high pressure seat) whereas a downstream reg will fail to free flow.

As we recently learned on a thread on The Deco Stop, this is not true. Modern upstream regulators have an overpressure relief and will not fail closed.

 

[Daylonious]

I have a pair of Apeks ATX200's. Figure might as well bite the bullet and get shell out the bucks for the good stuff.

D.

 

[RTodd]

OK, here is an easy one:
if money was no concern, which regulator do you think would be the perfect DIR choice???

There have not been a lot of advances in reg design in the last few years. Your best bet is a proven performer not a bunch of bells and whistles. Personally, I still buy just the TX50s, the ATX are too "new" for me to deal with any growing pains. But, they are probably fine. Unless you live in an area, such as the Yucutan, where access to Apex parts is dificult, go with Apex. Second choice is Scubapro, but these are a self fullfilling problem since they will definately need parts. I, for all practical purposes, never overhaul my Apex regs. Personally, I would use them even if parts were a pain since the point of Apex is they rarely need parts. Scubapros typically go in the to be repaired box after about a year.

The above is for back gas regs. For stages, I still use Scubapros because I have so many of them. If I was going to start over, I would probably go with Apex or Oceanic pistons since, last time I bothered to check they were largely copies of the older more durable Scubapro Mk 10 design.

The above is very general advice. The guys that overhaul regs all of the time will have all sorts of comments. My criteria are simple: (1) the needed performance to fullfill the task and (2) requires the least amount of non-diving interaction on my part (i.e. maintenance and overhauls).