Stop steering new divers in North America towards DIN regulators

[Eric Sedletzky]

I started out with used yoke regs that I had serviced....breathing was still like sucking an egg through a straw.

So I bought new regs and went with DIN HOG's. I loved my HOG's, the DIN to yoke adapter....not so much. In fact, I disliked it enough that I finally bought an EDGE first stage instead of messing with the adapter all the time. I am a travel rec diver and I think I was able to use my HOG's without the adapter once or twice in about 250 dives.

Sooooo I have been from YOKE to DIN and back again I would never advise anyone to start out DIN.
But then, that's just me.

If you had yolk regs that breathed as bad as sucking an egg through a straw then it was something to do with how the reg was tuned, not with it being a yolk reg. You can make a DIN reg breath just as bad by detuning it to the point of being unusable. The air connection has nothing to do with performance.

 

[DMDavid]

Personally I've always thought of DIN valves and regs as an upgrade that you get when you go from being a noob diver to a more seasoned diver that starts replacing your original Wally-World dive gear.
But to each his own, get what best works for you and don't sweat the small stuff that doesn't really affect you until you decide otherwise.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

LOL!!!!!
"Wally World dive gear"
LMAO!!
So a MK25/ A700 yolk is wally world (another term for WalMart),
But a MK25/A700 in DIN becomes "professional" gear?

 

[cbm32]

If you had yolk regs that breathed as bad as sucking an egg through a straw then it was something to do with how the reg was tuned, not with it being a yolk reg. You can make a DIN reg breath just as bad by detuning it to the point of being unusable. The air connection has nothing to do with performance.

I am well aware of that, and didnt mean to imply any such thing. The first regs were Sherwoods and I dont think all Sherwoods are like sucking an egg through a straw either. Of course I wouldnt have that shop work on regs again no matter what

 

[Caveeagle]

I started out with used yoke regs that I had serviced....breathing was still like sucking an egg through a straw.

So I bought new regs and went with DIN HOG's. I loved my HOG's, the DIN to yoke adapter....not so much. In fact, I disliked it enough that I finally bought an EDGE first stage instead of messing with the adapter all the time. I am a travel rec diver and I think I was able to use my HOG's without the adapter once or twice in about 250 dives.

Sooooo I have been from YOKE to DIN and back again I would never advise anyone to start out DIN.
But then, that's just me.

I would be willing to help you out and take the useless HOG/DIN 1st stage off your hands! I'm sure its just taking up space and a sad reminder of all your DIN/Yoke struggles.

 

[outofofficebrb]

So.....should I buy DIN or yoke? *runs* okay but seriously, I'm buying a reg in July. Super excited and not sure if it's silly to just go DIN and carry a conversion piece everywhere I go since as of right now, I only really dive while on vacation and dive ops all easily have yokes. No local diving or my own tanks until I figure out the dry suit thing. 45-55F...BRRR!!!! No plans to go into tech diving either..at least as of right now. Thanks.

 

[cbm32]

I would be willing to help you out and take the useless HOG/DIN 1st stage off your hands! I'm sure its just taking up space and a sad reminder of all your DIN/Yoke struggles.

Let me find it and see what kind of condition it is in...it has been riding around in my "extra" dive bag for a while unused. I really did like my HOG's and the breathed as well as anything I have used since..EDGE too for that matter. The only regs I have EVER used that really "SUCKED" (pun intended) were the used Sherwoods that I had "serviced" before I used them....not sure if all of the dive shops in HI are lax, but that one sure was in this case. If they couldnt tune them better than that they should have told me to trash them, or just done it and told me they did like onebubbleoff did recently to one of my first stages...actually I think he has it for sale on craigslist

 

[drrich2]

DIN often seems to be proposed as a fine solution for problems most rec. divers don't have much of (e.g.: less likely to be knocked loose if struck, capable of higher pressure connections). I dive yoke and my personal tank is a 130 cf HP steel tank; the reg. seems to handle up close to 3,400 PSI fine. I don't do cave diving.

Is knocking a yoke connection loose during a swim through on a coral reef dive, for example, at all common? Is anyone aware of people getting tanks filled to pressures yoke reg.s can't handle, for standard recreational diving?

The one irritating lack-of-a-good-seal-issue I've run across is typified by diving the rental tanks in Bonaire; a small hissing indicative of a very small gas escape. But I haven't seen it prove to be much of a practical issue.

For a U.S. & Caribbean diver remaining in recreational limits, considering that diving DIN with a DIN-to-Yoke adapter seems to offer no evident advantage over Yoke, is there any significant practical advantage?

Richard.

 

[Got2Go]

 

[dberry]

I asked for advice on SB about 18 months ago and thought I was given honest pros and cons of both yoke and DIN. I went with DIN (and an adapter), and haven't had many problems finding DIN (or convertible) tanks in the FL keys, Cozumel, SoCal, and Bonaire. Maybe I've been lucky, but I've needed the yoke adapter fewer times than I've seen other divers need to replace blown O-rings on their yoke tanks. In short, DIN it hasn't been a problem for me; give new divers both sides and let them choose. Neither choice will be terrible.

(I did feel a bit silly in Bonaire last month when I didn't notice the face O-ring on my DIN reg had gone missing. The dive op didn't have the right size O-ring handy, but I found one in my save-a-dive kit. Phew...)