Regulator Question

[FuzzyNutz]

This is definately a personal choice and a lot of factors can influence a decision, but for what it's worth, this is what I ended up purchasing a few months ago as my first reg setup:

HOG D-1 package (although the spg wasn't included when I bought mine...) and I got it all for 299 during a black friday sale. I went with it because it's an environmentally sealed reg system than I can take to cold water, deep depths, or anywhere else my future of diving takes me. You can take a course to service it yourself, and Chris from Edge/HOG is very active on the boards and offers great customer service and backs up his products. His gear is often quite low priced, but don't let that fool you on the quality! Most of his stuff is geared towards the tech/cave diving community and is top notch!! I have been extremely happy with my purchase, and even more glad I didn't end up spending what I was originally planning on spending. In my opinion, this is where I got the biggest bang for my buck!

 

[herman]

Interesting...the SR1 has lifetime warranty and parts are covered under their annual/bi-annual - 200 dives servicing interval unlike previous Sherwood regs. Therefore, I do not really think that more expense applies in this case. I own a SR1 as well.

By expense, I mean you are spending a lot of extra on regulator (first stage) that performs no better than less expensive reg. Couple the SR-1 second stage with a Magnum and you would have a solid first stage with a good second. The lifetime warranty is only as good as long as Sherwood decides to keep parts for it and if you have looked inside one, it is full of special parts. Odds are they will discontinue the parts in a few years. Brands like Scubapro and Aqualung reuse the internal parts of their regs over many years and models so they can much more easily continue to provide parts for older regs.

 

[Quero]

My first regs were Sherwoods. They were the right price at the right time. I got rid of them fairly quickly, though, within a couple of years, and upgraded to Aqualung regs, which I've now been diving for years and years. While the Sherwoods were okay for what I needed at the time, I wanted something quieter and easier to breathe, and even more importantly, easier to get service for all over the world. Sherwoods are hard to get parts for or get repaired in most of the world. That, to me, is critical. If all the diving you are planning to do is in North America, you'll probably be okay in that regard, but if you really get into diving and start to do serious dive travel, this may become an important consideration.

 

[airizzy]

I have an SR1 and a Blizzard. I sometimes think I should sell both and get a Maximus and be done with it. I have several friends who have the Maximus and they all love it.

 

[Kellyccz]

Well, my fiance and I went last weekend and he bought me the Sherwood Maximus. There is a guy at our shop who is a regulator expert and we went through everything I was looking for and the Maximus was the one we went with. I am very excited about it. I will get my first chance to use it next Friday when I go back for one-on-one time with my instructor from my OW class for some review so I can get comfortable doing a couple of the skills I had trouble with that I will need to do in my OW dives. Thanks everyone for all the advice.

 

[endurodog]

I have an SR1. It has blown up and was not recalled. The fix for the blow up problem is more lube in the 1st stage o-ring (and replacement parts for those damaged). When my shop asked the techs how much more there reply was "more". I have also had the first stage tower come loose. Both issues were on dive trips and I had to rent regs. The reg breaths great when it's functioning so I will say that. I would not recomend the SR1 to a friend. I highly doubt I will buy Sherwood products again because of my experinces with this reg. Just my 2 cents.