HOG Regs

[Teller]

I live in central texas and recently I was seeking a regulator tech that could give me a few tips on servicing my own regs. I have six HOG regs and I ended up calling four different dive shops in Austin, one of which is a HOG dealer according to the Edge HOG website and none of them even heard of HOG. I love my HOG regs and before I bought mine I read tons of reviews about them and they seemed to be very popular and well known. I was very surprised to hear that many of the dive shops in my area have not ever even heard of HOG. Has this happened to anyone else?

[Garth]

No. Have you called Chris Richardson from HOG? He is a kick ass owner and might be able to help you out. There are places you can send your regs to such as diverightinscuba.com or you can take a class on working in them yourself. With 6 sets it might work out best to take that class...

Good luck.

[Nwcid]

I get lots of blank stares when I say we (GF and I) have HOG regs.

Since they are on a 2 year cycle my plan is to just ship them back to Jim Lapenta who we bought them from. I know he is reputable and knows these regs.......

[Jim Lapenta]

I ran into a bunch of dealers and even some mfg reps at DEMA that had never heard of them. We have a few shops up this way that never saw them until I got mine 3 years ago. One of the things is that HOG does not spend a bunch of money on advertising in magazines and on websites. He prefers to invest in product development and improvement. Word of mouth and message boards like this have helped to grow the brand and awareness of it to a great degree.

But there are still those who have not gotten the word. HOG/Edge does not use reps who try to push the gear on every shop (and by the way add 20% or more to the cost). He does not go through distributors. I started selling them in my area because no one else did and even after three years using them and a year selling them they are still not well known. But I'm making inroads.

Now you also have some who don't want to hear about them or have you hear about them. I saw this at DEMA. As soon as it was mentioned that divers can be trained to service their own regs there was disbelief, confusion, and in a couple cases - barely concealed hostility. Some old school places who have been fed the kool aid of only shops can service regs can't stand that a reg mfg will allow them to be bypassed for service. They will tell you you'll die or that it takes a huge amount of money to service regs in equipment. We know it's a lie but they cannot grasp the concept or do not want to. Some of the shops may have told you that they never heard of them because they don't sell them or don't want the competition.

[mrfixitchapman]

I work on my own regulators. They've killed me several times already.

DC

[Teller]

I would like to take the HOG repair class but I cant seem to find a class here in Texas. This is why I was calling dive shops to see if I can link up with a tech and get some mentorship. Any ideas around that hurdle?

[Pedro Burrito]

...As soon as it was mentioned that divers can be trained to service their own regs there was disbelief, confusion, and in a couple cases - barely concealed hostility. Some old school places who have been fed the kool aid of only shops can service regs can't stand that a reg mfg will allow them to be bypassed for service. They will tell you you'll die or that it takes a huge amount of money to service regs in equipment. We know it's a lie but they cannot grasp the concept or do not want to. Some of the shops may have told you that they never heard of them because they don't sell them or don't want the competition.

I took my Scubapro regs to a not nearby shop last month for the annual service. The shop also sells HOG regs. The owner told me to stop diving in Lake Millbrook with my MK25/S600 because it was too cold for my regs. He recommended that I get a MK17 for cold water. I asked about the HOG and he said they're ok for staging/deco but not for diving. I asked about the servicing and he said yes, I could learn to service them myself but it would cost me over $1,000 for the "specialized tools" necessary to work on the HOG regs. I said thank you and then wrote myself a mental note to call Jim Lapenta when I'm ready to get my next sets of regulators.

By the way, they also had about a $100 markup on each first and second stage over anywhere that I've seen HOG regs listed for sale.

[richkeller]

I work on my own regulators. They've killed me several times already.

DC

I have been doing my own service for decades. Lost count of how many times I have died from doing that.

[Aqua-Andy]

I took my Scubapro regs to a not nearby shop last month for the annual service. The shop also sells HOG regs. The owner told me to stop diving in Lake Millbrook with my MK25/S600 because it was too cold for my regs. He recommended that I get a MK17 for cold water. I asked about the HOG and he said they're ok for staging/deco but not for diving. I asked about the servicing and he said yes, I could learn to service them myself but it would cost me over $1,000 for the "specialized tools" necessary to work on the HOG regs. I said thank you and then wrote myself a mental note to call Jim Lapenta when I'm ready to get my next sets of regulators.

By the way, they also had about a $100 markup on each first and second stage over anywhere that I've seen HOG regs listed for sale.

Ok for stage but not for diving? What do you do with a stage? The shop owner does not like them because he does not make $300 off selling a set of regs and he needs to sell ScubaPro regs to stay in there lowest cost bracket or SP regs will cost him more and he will make less money.

[ScubaSteve]

There are shops around my area that have never heard of HOG regs. I got into a debate with one owner over their existence and the fact that they are used by many around here ("many" really is a subjective term). I went as far as to show him the product on the web and then all he would acknowledge was that they looked like a "xxxxxx" (I do not recall specifically which model he compared them to). The only reasonably handy dive shop that I can take my regs to is one that has F'd up repairing/servicing my gear too many times and will never get to touch my gear again so service is an issue for me. But, I have a plan to get me by (albeit not conveniently) until the shop I frequent gets off their butt and takes the HOG course.

To the OP, in order to take the course, contact Chris (Cerich - That is a LINK to his ScubaBoard page) here on the board and ask for his assistance. He has been very helpful to many and I am sure you will be no different. He will be able to get you the name of some shops near you.