Ranking of Regulators

H2Andy · May 27, 2005

ok... this has been talked to death on here, and i was going around trying to
put all the threads ranking the various regulator manufacturers together, but
there's just too many of them and too many variations... so.... i thought i'd
start this thread regarding how we rank the various regulators.

this is what i have so far:

Top of the Line

Apeks
Atomic
Poseidon
ScubaPro
Zeagle

Middle of the Pack

Aeris
Aqualung
Cressi Sub
Dive Rite
Genesis
Mares
OMS
Oceanic
Tusa
US Divers
XS Scuba (IDI)

Economy Class

Apollo
Beauchat
Dacor
Seac-Sub
Sea Elite
Seaquest
Sherwood

Dangerous at Any Price

IST

any others? any disputes as to which category these belong to?

waiting to be ranked: ScubaMax

rescuediver009 · May 27, 2005

Although it is kinda cheesy and you will forever be rearanging your list because I am first I will say that although sherwood can be economy class the Maximus would be in the mid range I think.
secondly, I think that Mares and Aqualung make regs that will fit into every category (abyss/legend, voltrex/titan, and MR12/calypso respectively)

H2Andy · May 27, 2005

yes, i am hoping people will disagree with the list, and hopefully i can figure
out what the consensus is on the rankings

PerroneFord · May 27, 2005

I think the problem will be that each manufacturer makes a range of products, so listing their desireability solely by manufacturer is someone problematic. There are very few manufacturers who make only regs in one class. The entire line of current Apeks and Atomics seem to be in the top class..., but that seems an anomoly.

H2Andy · May 27, 2005

hmmm... the real world intrudes

Lightning Fish · May 27, 2005

H2Andy:
hmmm... the real world intrudes

poke poke....

I think some of the Aqualung regs should be in the "top of the line" class, such as the Legend. The Titan is a great reg as well, but that's what I use so I won't comment on where I think it should go.

Cheers,
Bill.

diversteve · May 27, 2005

Apollo
Beuchat
IDI
IST

(i'm bored)

H2Andy · May 27, 2005

sjspeck:
Apollo and Beuchat

thanks

i haven't heard much about these. where would you rank them?

How about IDI and IST? i have no clue where to put them either

diversteve · May 28, 2005

H2Andy:
thanks
i haven't heard much about these. where would you rank them?
How about IDI and IST? i have no clue where to put them either

Beuchat is probably upper middle range, I think they're sold in Canada and by Cochran here. Apollo is solidly middle range imho. Apollo makes the Bio-Filter and incorporates it into the only reg. they sell.

http://www.beuchatdiving.com/regulators1.htm
http://www.apollosportsusa.com/Products/Regulators/

Here's what scubadiving.com had to say about IST, so I'm guessing Economy, unless you want to add another lower class...

These two IST regulators should not be used for scuba diving. Not only did. they both fail every breathing simulator test, neither of them even ...

All I know about IDI is from Divebooty's website. And they're selling them so this might be slightly biased...Scubadiving listed all their models in "16 Budget Regulators"

The IDI Seaira Titanium Airtec Regulator is a top rated, high performace model loaded with features...

pdoege · May 28, 2005

My Dive Rite RG2500 regs breathe as well as my ScubaPro Mk25/S600 regs.

The scubapro Mk25s have a lot of plastic parts in them, and the dive rite seems to be a simpler design. Parts kits for the Dive Rite regs are readily available as well.

I'd move them up a notch personally, they are phenomenal regs for the money.

One problem that I think this ranking will run into is that 1) All of the high end regs breathe about the same at any realistic depth 2) Most of the really high end, pricey regs are full of marketing gimmicks that make them troublesome to service or get parts for 3) There are only so many reg factories in the world and a lot of cheaper regs are actually clones of more expensive regs.

My advice would be to go for a solid mid-range reg that has good support in your area or that you can get parts for. There really doesn't seem to be a clear cut "best" at the moment.

Peter Doege

Ranking of Regulators

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H2Andy

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rescuediver009

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H2Andy

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PerroneFord

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H2Andy

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Lightning Fish

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diversteve

always tired

H2Andy

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diversteve

always tired

pdoege

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