Recommendations for a Regulator

[modzs]

Make sure the brand of regulator you purchase can be serviced by your LDS.

 

[buddhasummer]

you will get many recommendations, usually what ever the poster uses. There are not any "bad" regulators on the market just some with better performance than others. You cannot go wrong with any of the bigger companies, Mares, Cressi, Scubapro, Aqualung, Apeks, Hollis, Oceanic etc or smaller companies HOG or DiveRite. The key is to buy a regulator that suits your diving i.e cold or warm water, one that you can get easily serviced in your area and if you travel one that has a good network e.g Aqualung or Scubapro. If you read around this board you will find many reviews on most models. Good luck with your hunt.

 

[beaverdivers]

The Cayman reg. by Subgear is an excellent choice for rec. diving. Great value, very good performance!

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Make sure the brand of regulator you purchase can be serviced by your LDS.

Why would one need to do this? Just because they can service it does not mean they will do it right. When working for a shop and now on my own I saw plenty of regs that the users lds could service. But they still came to us after to fix the serviced reg. You can always send your reg to any number of dealers that will do a better job and may be faster. I dive and sell HOG and Edge because they work, are not overpriced, and if at some point you decide you want to service it yourself you can and not have to go under the radar to get parts.

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[fjpatrum]

Here's my limited experience so far:

Scubapro-- excellent breathing regs, terrible customer support if you don't follow their warranty restrictions to the letter. Expensive to service if you don't get the "free parts" deal buying new (I bought used). My best breathing reg at this point but I don't think I'd buy from them again, knowing what I know now.
Oceanic-- good regs that aren't quite as ubiquitous as Scubpro, at least around here. Breathe well, but not as well as the Scubapros. Not expensive to service but not super cheap.
Mares-- good regs, breathe well. Not cheap to service but not super expensive.
Apex--no personal experience but apparently very good regs
Atomic--no personal experience but apparently very good regs
Sherwood-- good dependable regs but not as "high end" for breathing. Inexpensive starters that will last well until you decide whether you want something different.
HOG-- apparently good breathers that are also supported well by the manufacturer and "user servicing" is semi-encouraged. Harder to find an LDS that supports/services them in house.
Beauchat-- no personal experience but apparently good gear. Not well supported in the USA as I understand it.
Aqualung-- good, expensive, gear. I have no personal experience but I've never heard anything bad about them as far as breathing.

If you're looking for used gear you open yourself up to a lot more options. I have some old Dacor regs that seem to breathe reasonably well but are often considered "low end" for whatever reason. They are very common on Craigslist and Ebay for reasonable prices. As others have said, get used gear serviced no matter what the seller says about its history.

If you get a chance to try before you buy, see what you like personally. I sucked on my scubapro MK10/G250 and my oceanic before I bought them. My Dacors and other regs I didn't but they all work just fine after a cleaning and servicing. Regs from just about any manufacturer will do the job in warm water. If you're going to regularly dive in "cold" water get a sealed unit.

Good luck. Scubaboard is a great place to research specific regs/brands for good and bad. Obviously you will need to determine what factors are important to you. When I bought my scubapro my biggest concern was how well it performed. Now I know what I'm comfortable with and other factors weigh more heavily than they did 2 years ago, which might change my choice.

 

[Bombay High]

Budget ?

Try the Scubapro MK 25 or MK 17 with the G250 second stage.

 

[TravisS.]

Budget ?

Budget as of now: $0. I don't imagine I'll spend more than $200 on a regulator. I'm married, in college and we are expecting
I want to identify something I can be saving towards, something that'll last and I can feel comfortable learning the basics on.

Also, what is considered cold water diving? I don't plan on doing anything below 60 degrees f. for a while.

 

[fjpatrum]

Also, what is considered cold water diving? I don't plan on doing anything below 60 degrees f. for a while.

Not that. Typically I think most people consider cold under 50 F.

 

[diverrex]

Budget as of now: $0. I don't imagine I'll spend more than $200 on a regulator. I'm married, in college and we are expecting
I want to identify something I can be saving towards, something that'll last and I can feel comfortable learning the basics on.

Also, what is considered cold water diving? I don't plan on doing anything below 60 degrees f. for a while.

$200 will tough to get a quality reg. I just spent $299 for a backuo MK25/S600 and I thought I got a good deal. And that didn't include an octo or pressure guage, just the first and second stage. If you really want to hold to $200 then do lots of research on different regs, be open to different brands and look at Ebay often hoping to find a great price. Or look for good sales online such as:

Aeris A1 Regulator discounts on sale Aeris

 

[Jim Lapenta]

They are about a week or so out but Edge is releasing a simple unbalanced piston 1st stage, unbalanced primary and octo as a set for under $200.00 MAP. Similar to the old sherwood brut that was out for decades and which I personally used for years. Will you do the doria with it? Probably not. But for ow dives in warm water (above 50 degrees) and other recreational stuff more than adequate.

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