Newbie Regulator question

I'm a newbie and was wondering if there's any real difference in regulators (1st,2nd,octo,etc) from today vs 20 years ago.
I'm looking at used equipment and find that older equipment that's been well maintained can be bought for about 1/8th the cost of new equipment.
Soooo, is there a huge benefit to buying new equipment?

mksmith713:

I'm a newbie and was wondering if there's any real difference in regulators (1st,2nd,octo,etc) from today vs 20 years ago.
I'm looking at used equipment and find that older equipment that's been well maintained can be bought for about 1/8th the cost of new equipment.
Soooo, is there a huge benefit to buying new equipment?

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The designs haven't changed much over the years, although some manufacturers have come and gone, so parts availability might be a problem.

Other manufacturers have been especially good about keeping parts available, like ScubaPro.

You can buy pretty much anything they ever made, and get it rebuilt today. My pony bottle reg is a Mk 1, (30 years old?) and breathes as good as any of my newer regs.

However you do need to make sure it was a good reg to begin with. If it was awful 20 years ago, it will still be awful after you have it serviced. Also, no matter what you buy or what the seller says (unless it comes with a service recipt from a shop you trust), have it serviced.

Terry

Is it safe to say that the bigger named manufacturers offer the best regs?
If so, then Mares, ScubaPro,Sherwood,Dacor, etc are all a safe bet?
Is there a source for info on older models and if they were hits or misses?

You would not want to buy a old Dacor, parts are hard to come by, good chance that is exactly why it's being sold. Dacor does not exist as a standalone company, the remains (pretty much the name) was bought by Mares.

This board is a good place to ask about specific models, also if you search on them there are llikely already comments on any reg you will find. I'm not sure if search is working for 3 letter words right now, if you have problems with that do it like abc*

How does everyone feel about AquaLung,Posiedon or Tusa?

mksmith713:

I'm a newbie and was wondering if there's any real difference in regulators (1st,2nd,octo,etc) from today vs 20 years ago.
I'm looking at used equipment and find that older equipment that's been well maintained can be bought for about 1/8th the cost of new equipment.
Soooo, is there a huge benefit to buying new equipment?

Click to expand...

If your a newbie dont bother with used equipmnt.

Leave that to the experienced.

here are some suggestions

1 scuba pro mark 2/r395 regulator 250.00 0r less
2 areis bc or scuba pro pilot 325.00 + -
3 octo any brand 100.00 + -
4 Mask 40.00
5 fins 140.00 +-
6 Snorkel 20.00
7 Akona wetsuit 150.00 +-
8 footies,gloves,hood 60.00 +-
9 wts and belt 40.00+-
Total 1125.00
These items listed are good quality gear
If you buy used stuff dive shop wont want to service it
I have been through this and its not worth saving a few hundred dollars.
if you buy used you will have to make sure its safe and when you take it in its going to cost the difference to get it serviced.
if you could service it yourself that would be ok but you are a newbie,not safe for you to do it yourself.

the items listed above will do you for 5 or more years if you keep them maintained
By then if you stick with diving you will learn enough to make wise used equipmnt purchases.

Poseidon can be harder to find service for. But they're really good breathing regs.

Might want to consider looking at brands a local LDS can service for you.

And contact them to see if they can get parts for older models you're considering.

Be careful if purchasing from eBay as I've seen a lot of posts here about used regs purchased there that aren't able to be serviced or repaired.

mksmith713:

Is it safe to say that the bigger named manufacturers offer the best regs?
If so, then Mares, ScubaPro,Sherwood,Dacor, etc are all a safe bet?
Is there a source for info on older models and if they were hits or misses?

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A well know brand is a good thing, especially if you will travel. Mares & Dacor may be sketchy. Sherwood can be serviced practically anyplace there is compressed air.

Be sure to get the 1st stage and both second stages from the same brand for painless servicing.

Pete

I would first check the shops in your area to see what you can get serviced. It kind of sucks to have to send a reg out for service. I would stay away from Dacor because parts are very hard to find on their older regs. Poseidon are great regulators but they can be expensive to maintain. I can't speak for Tusa since not many people sell them or use them in my area. Scuba Pro, Mares, Aqua Lung, Apeks, Oceanic and Atomic are good bets new or used.

Both Aqualung and Scubaopro are good bets for older regs as both still support regs that were sold and even discontinued decades ago.

Scubapro supports pretty much everything it has produced except:

1. The Pilot second stage
2. The first generation Air 2 inflator/octo
3. The Air 1 second stage

Scubapro also uses a design approach where whenever possible upgrades and improvements in design can be retrofitted into older models. This rends to keep the performance of older models on par with newer ones and in most cases means that older seccond stages use the same annual service parts as new second stages, ensuring easy parts availability.


Aqualung/US Divers still supports all their single hose regulators back to the Conshelf 12 (approximately mid 1970's vintage) and most of those parts work in the slightly older Conshelf 11. Their even older second stages are pretty generic and the soft parts are for the most part still available. The fact that their older first stages (pre Conshelf 14) have only 1 or 2 LP ports is the critical limiting factor in their utlility.

As an aside, most US Divers doble hose regs are now once again fully supported in terms of soft parts by third party companies and individuals devoted to vintage diving.

Sherwood is another good bet as their parts are pretty generic and readily available even for their older designs - this is a side effect of Sherwood being about the oldest reg maker around and one that has made and continues to make a great deal of the equipment sold by other companies.

Tabata is another company that also produces many of the designs developed and sold by other companies. They often sell a slightly cosmetically altered but mechanically identical licensed copy through their US subsidiary - TUSA (which stands for Tabata USA). For example market a licensed copy of the Scubapro Mk 16 and the parts are fully interchangeable between the two. So some, but not all, TUSA regs are in effect Scubapro designs and can use Scubapro parts.

Dacor used to be a company known for long term parts and service support, but that changed the day after Mares bought them and essentially gutted the company. At this point all Dacor regs except the few models in current production are not worth much more than the scrap value of the brass they contain.