Relative price of refurbishment kits for different brands.

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miketsp

Contributor
Messages
3,494
Reaction score
150
Location
São Paulo, Brazil
# of dives
500 - 999
In my family we have 4 sets of Aqualung/US Divers Micra Adj regs with Cousteau 1st stages.
These have been in use for many years and maintenance costs have been low.
About 18 months ago I was on a trip and my 1st stage started playing up with an unstable IP causing free-flow at the second stage. Since we were doing 3 or 4 dives every day and I didn't want to lose any while the reg was in for service plus I was in a place where regs were cheap compared to Brazil where I live (very high import taxes) I decided to invest in a new one. I bought a ScubaPro MK17/C300 which seemed to be comparable with what I was used to and the initial price was good. Medium performance diaphragm models.

Well I just got it back from service together with a couple of the Micra's and I was shocked by the fact that even though all 3 were rebuilt with standard refurbishment kits the bill for the ScubaPro was almost double the Micra's. Labour was a little higher but parts were much higher.

I discussed this with the tech and he confirmed that he pays much more for SP parts.

He told me it was just as well I didn't buy an APEKs, then I'd really see what high parts prices are!
I'd never really factored in spares prices before when selecting equipment but I will do in the future.

Now I'm curious, is this spares price discrepancy between brands seen in other countries outside Brazil?
 
yes and no. The old parts kits are very inexpensive in comparison, but Apeks generally run around $25-$30/stage, Scubapro $20-$25/stage I think. Not terrible though. Also depends on the shop, some shops will charge full MSRP on the parts kits, other will just charge their cost, or somewhere in between. If he does more work for Scubapro than he does for Aqualung, he might be getting a better deal on the parts.
 
There is some price variation for annual service kits among manufacturers/brands. You could take that into account when buying gear, but perhaps more important might be to see which companies offer a "parts for life" program (at least for annual service kits).
 
Problem we have in Brazil is that import costs will normally double the offshore price and it would not be unusual to see a factor around 2.6 as the limited number of suppliers play supply and demand.
(Typical import factors would be 6% International Freight, 1% International Insurance, 16% Import Tax, 4% Customs Clearance charges, 15% Industrial Tax, 18% State Tax, 10% Social Tax, many grossing up on top of each other).

So what might start as a small difference per stage for a US customer gets amplified up.
 
Can´ t you just, make them ship, inside a simple flat letter, the kits ( 1 & 2 stage )?
Same probem here, but , by "correos",no taxes...
 
Price kits are usually quite similar from manufacturer to manufacturer, so I am not sure why Scubapro would be more expensive. Sometimes their is a price differential between unbalanced regulators and balanced regulators with the unbalanced one being cheaper because of a lower parts count. Is your LDS a Scuabpro dealer? If not be may be paying retail for the kit.
 
Dealerprice US:

SP MK17/19 - 21,16 US$
SP C200/C300 - 10,36 US$

Costeau SEA - 14,00 US$
Micra Adj. - 4,50 US$


So 70% more expensive for the set of SP parts. Big difference that then gets accentuated here by the high import costs.
 
So 70% more expensive for the set of SP parts. Big difference that then gets accentuated here by the high import costs.

He is giving you the dealer price so your dive shop may be marking it up. I am really surprised at the cost difference. Usually at retail a Conshelf kit is $25 to $30 and a MK-17 kit is $30-$35.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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