How old is Your Regulator & Oldest lasting Regulator ??

[damage]

1) Brand: Scubapro

2) Model:Mk25 - S600

3) Year Bought:2004

4) Religious Maintenance Chores:Each year with an authorized dealer, rinse every dive with fresh water and in warm water after the dive trip.

Is relative new and has very few dives (43) but I really love it.

 

[DoubleHoseDiver]

Oldest is a 1958-59 Mistral and newest is a Conshelf XIV that is 27 years old. Tim

 

[bentman]

my oldest regs are both US divers 1 is a conshelf 14 and the other a conshelf 20 I bought the later in 1983,the conshelf 14 used to be used in the kirby morgan band mask in the 80's in offshore diving industry,I replaced the low pressure hose on the 14,I took the whole reg into the shop and the guy said i will give you the tools and you remove the old one so I did after replacing the hose he looked at it and said that will last you another 25 years and its still going strong both of them.US DIVERS were my first regs I swear by them so robust and excellent quality anf both in service,look after them and service them then you will never have a problem

 

[Lone Frogman]

My DA Aqua Master is around 50 years old. Still working like a new one. My single hose reg's are Conshelf's XIV & XII's bullet proof. Do they make other regulators?

 

[scubadada]

Wow, 7 1/2 year old thread, guess that explains why the poll is no longer active, I'm in the 30+ year category. Of course, when discussing 30-50 year old regs, that is nothing. I use a 1972 Scubapro MK 5 1st stage with 1 HP port and 2 LP ports and a 109 Adjustable 2nd stage on my pony bottle. Both work flawlessly and I rely on them with my life.

Good diving, Craig

 

[mksmith713]

The other reason that SPs are so long lived is that SP traditionally had great support, so you never heard "Gee I don't think there are any parts for that anymore" from the dealer like you did with other brands. You can take a 30 year old flea market MkV/109 and update it with a new multiport swivel, heavy duty yoke, spec kit, and balance the 2nd (which uses the same valve parts as the G200/250) and have an almost current regulator.

Alas this is changing. SP today is not the same company it was 10 years ago, and I don't think the new SP is very interested in supporting 30 year old regs, no matter how much life is left in them.

Sad but true.
I had 2 MkV's, 2 R-109's and an R-108 rebuilt not too long ago and I'm hoping parts will still be available to service them again when the time comes.
The MkV I'm not too worried about as there are so many MkV clones out there.
I guess I shouldn't worry too much about the R-109's either since they use a G-200/G-250 kit but you never know.
When a company decides to make one of their products obsolete in order to force sales of a new product, there's not much you can do about it.

 

[scubapro50]

I have had several old Voit/Swimaster regulators rebuilt in the last few years. The hardest part is finding someone who wants to look and find the parts. So many dive shops only want to install parts kits from the manfucturer. I knew one shop owner that was still rebuilding old Dacor regulators and he had a lot of business. Old parts kits and a few using generic parts show up on ebay from time to time. About a year ago a shop went out of business and auctioned off 100 rebuild kits ............. the guy got $500 for them .... that's only $5 a piece. Sorry to say I was outbid.

 

[rcolsen]

1) Brand: Scubapro

2) Model: MK200/G200B w/US Divers Octo

3) Year Bought: Was told they were new in 1998 but I got at divorce sale in 2010

4) Religious Maintenance Chores: had total rebuild done this year with any updates.


Set-up 2
1) Brand: APEX

2) Model: APX50 and Aqualung Octo

3) Year Bought: brother bought in 2003 new

4) Religious Maintenance Chores: every other year.


I do like the Scubapro a little better at this time, it just seems to breath easier for me. I'm going to find another G200B as for my Octo on Scubapro set up the US Divers is hard to breath even shallow.

 

[AGoodStart]

First and only reg set I have ever owned - had to look at the Scubaro museum site to identify the models. Looks to be a Mark 10 first stage and a D300 second. Purchased for me new in 1988, same year I got my PADI junior open water cert at age 12. Air II and SP jacket BC are of same vintage. Had them serviced last year without issue at LDS (SP dealer) though he definitely commented on the age of the gear and encouraged me to buy some newer "better" regs. I have many dives on the rig without a single failure or issue. I recently did my advanced training (better late than never). The instructor was doing some basic O.W. check-out dives at the same time and was running low on air. I offered to swap tanks but, in the interest of time, he decided to take my whole rig instead. He laughed and talked about how it would be fun to dive some "vintage" gear. When he surfaced, he wasn't laughing; he commented on how nicely the regs breathed and how streamlined the whole setup was :mooner:. He suggested that I look into a backplate and wing configuration if I enjoyed how streamlined my present gear is, which I do (former college swimmer so I am pretty sensitive to resistance and tuned into body position in the water).

I just bought a BP&W from another Scubaboard member so we'll see how that goes. I'll probably pick up a more modern reg set for progressing into tech diving training but I'll hang on to what I have for stage bottles and as a backup. I actually have two complete sets - the other was my father's (22 years later the Alzheimer's precludes his diving) but my fiance is likely to do her OW cert dives in the same gear and probably take it for diving on our honeymoon. I have had it to 120+ ft upside down and right side up and it breathes just as nicely as it does at 20 feet. I question my sanity in spending money to replace it.

I have read several comments about the Mark 10 being one of the best 1st stages that SP ever made. Even SP labeled it their most popular 1st stage ever. What makes it so great? Can anyone educate me on the specs or the elegance of the technology?

 

[Trimix2dive]

I had poseidon track it is was between 1 to 3 months before my birth in 1967. Still works dove it two months ago.