Deco and Stage Regs.

[lucid]

I am about to buy a couple of regulators to use soley for deco and stage bottles. I was thinking about Apeks tx50 with ds4's. But I am thinking that may be overkill. My question is this; If you didn't have old regs to use as deco/stage regs and had to go out and purchase new what would you buy?

Thanks in advance!

[Rick Murchison]

I like the AquaLung Titan.
Inexpensive and bulletproof.
Rick

[O-ring]

I scored a TX40/DS4 combo for like $130 when they went on sale at Diveinn earlier this year...works great and was pretty cheap..

[trymixdiver]

I did have other regs, but i chose to invest in the Apeks DS4/TX50s. I like these much better than my old regs. Much cleaner hose routing and i like having a TX50 on my stage, its a better breather than my last stage reg.

Andy

[Uncle Pug]

I want the best regulators I have on the deco bottles.

[AquaTec]

For deco regs i agree with pug, the easiest breathing regs you can find

You general spen the most amount of time on the reg at your 20 foot stop.

I use
Apex tx50 on my 80% or 100%
Apex tx100 on my 36%
Apex tx200 on my back gas unless i am doing dives deeper than 300 feet then I use Posiedon and use one of the tx200 for my intermediate trimix

Don't by the OMS O2 reg as it sucks to breath off of for any length of time

I also have a pair of Atomics T1/B1 which i sometime through into the mix as I love the way they breath usualy as an intermediat trimix reg

[swimndive]

Put the easiest breathers on the deco bottles which by definition will contain your denser mixes. Save the hardest breathers for your stages and backgas as these which will carry your less dense mixes. If you are scootering, you especially don't want regs that will tend to freeflow and dump any of this less dense gas supply. If you are just going to breathe nitrox mixes, get the best breathing regs you can and use them for everything. swimndive

[swimndive]

Looks like I forgot to mention specifics. Deco reg: scubapro mk20/g250 or atomic's new m2. Haven't tried the mk25/s600 but the g500 second was less than ideal. Stage: something small and cheap with decent hose routing. US4/DS4's with 40" hoses, anything with a turret you can use shorter hoses, beauchats work well, scubapro though expensive are also nice. Oceanic Zeagle Genisis USD it really doesn't matter.

[lucid]

I am currently usings TX50/DS4's for my doubles. Maybe I should just move them to stage/deco and purchase some higher end TX100/TX200 for bottom mix. I bought the TX50 setup because it came highly recommended. Are the TX100/200 jsut as bulletproof as the TX50 is supposed to be?

Thanks again for your advice.

[lucid]

I forgot to ask. What 1st stages are you using with the TX100/200?

[Rick Murchison]

Couldn't agree more, but the easiest breathers aren't necessarily the "high performance" regs. Hence my recommendation of the Titan (I like the LX for deco bottles)(I have no experience with the Glacia but it scores high too). See Rodales latest reg results, where this little inexpensive reg scores right at the very top of the easy breathers (whipping every Apeks, for example).
Subjective evaluations are skewed by all sorts of human expectations and preconceptions, swayed by opinion, advertising and reputation, and not a little bit of "that's what the experts use." But the breathing machine doesn't lie.
Bang for the buck - Titan.
Rick

[MikeFerrara]

All my regs are Zeagle. Some are the new ones manufactured by Zeagle and some are the old ones manufactured by Apeks. I use the FH-6 DS4 and tech50. They are all trouble free and good breathers. They are also easy to work on (though they seldom need it.

[WYDT]

Agree with the rest here that you don't want crappy regs on your stage/deco bottles... also you'll want to have good mouthpieces on them as well. Sounds strange but after your gums are sore or jaw is tired from some ill fitting mouthpiece you'll wish you'd changed them.

I use apeks for all my stuff. I think it makes sense to pick a brand and stick with it for everything which ever one you pick. It makes interchaning parts much easier if you need to as everything is compatible.

I have Apeks TX40's, TX50's and TX100's with DST, DS4 and TX100 first stages. I use the TX100's on backgas since they have the best hose routing and the DST's on stages since the swivel lets the hose route neatly as well. DS4's I have for my wife's doubles (backgas) and one for an O2 reg. They all breathe relatively the same.

DSAO!

[lucid]

I still am having a hard time figuring out which regs to buy =]

Do any of you have any experience with tx50/ds4 combo at depths ~200? How do they breath? I can get them a lot cheaper than the atx200. Is it worth the money to goto the atx200?

I presently have TX50/DS4's and have been pleased with them at depths ~140. But I am taking IANTD Full Tech and will be diving close to 200ft for the check out dives.

Again I apreciate your feedback!

[swimndive]

lucid once bubbled...
I still am having a hard time figuring out which regs to buy =]

Do any of you have any experience with tx50/ds4 combo at depths ~200? How do they breath? I can get them a lot cheaper than the atx200. Is it worth the money to goto the atx200?

I presently have TX50/DS4's and have been pleased with them at depths ~140. But I am taking IANTD Full Tech and will be diving close to 200ft for the check out dives.

Again I apreciate your feedback!

As long as you are using >30% He any reg will do. You should try to keep your stages as light (balanced) as possible, so I would just recommend the lightest cheapest reg/gauge combo with the best hose routing you can find. US4 1st's with plastic gauges will keep a 300' mix bottle neutral. The small flat brass gauges are expensive and don't stick like some of the plastic ones do at depths > 300'. Your call on that one.

[WYDT]

lucid once bubbled...
I still am having a hard time figuring out which regs to buy =]

Do any of you have any experience with tx50/ds4 combo at depths ~200? How do they breath? I can get them a lot cheaper than the atx200. Is it worth the money to goto the atx200?

I presently have TX50/DS4's and have been pleased with them at depths ~140. But I am taking IANTD Full Tech and will be diving close to 200ft for the check out dives.

Again I apreciate your feedback!

There is NO internal difference between the TX50 and ATX50.

wkpp, gue, etc use these regs regularly for hours at a time at depths exceeding 300ft.

Helium works much better in any reg. if you're diving to 200 I sincerly hope you'll be using Helium!

Does that answer your question?