My friend says Mares regulators aren't good - is this true?

[Ontwreckdiver]

I have been diving a Mares MR22 Abyss for about 16 years in the icy cold waters of the Great Lakes and it hasn't failed yet and would buy another one if this one ever wore out. I like that you don't have to fiddle around with knobs & levers, it is good to go from top to bottom. 90% of the people I dive with also dive mares cold water regs. They are in the high end reg group.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I have to ask, how did Dacor get in trouble in the first place? I remember the company and I had several pieces of their gear. At one point I was given a whole box of various Dacor regs that eventually became paper weights.
I think it was a case of just too many companies fighting for a slice of an ever shrinking pie. I see something coming up in the future that will be very similar. There are so many companies out there once again and too many mid range brands that might be perfectly fine regs, but since they don't really offer something specific like being hyped to be top of the line, or best for cold water, or best price value/ features, or end user obtainable parts etc, they become invisible.
This happens every day in all sorts of businesses. Look at Mervin's, they were neither considered top tier like Macy's or extreme value like Ross and so they were eventually forgotten about and disappeared.
So now since Dacor went out there has to be at least six more brand names that have sprouted up since. All this at a time that diving is in decline. Who will be left standing?

 

[Ouvea]

I started diving when Dacor began its slide in the mid 90s. Rodale's Scuba Diving and Diver.Net began to issue various reviews on multiple regulator models on the market. Those lovely charts on breathing resistance showed how well each regulator breathe. Several models, including Scubapro, Mares, Zeagle or Apeks performed extremely well. Dacor, unfortunately, did not fare so well.

No one in today's market would ever consider compromising on performance. Breathing from a good performing regulator simply makes for a more enjoyable diving experience and is crucial in an emergency situation, when breathing demands become extreme.

Perhaps I'm incorrect, but I see a consolidation of the SCUBA industry with larger brands absorbing smaller more specialized brands within their product lines. Aqua Lung purchased Sea Quest, Apeks, Uwatec and Whites. Huish just acquired Atomic, Zeagle and Liquivision.

Personally, I did not understand why Head purchased Dacor. The company didn't have any intellectual property or production facility that warranted any interest. Could someone within the industry chime in on this? Most of us are merely observers as consumers and can only guess at what actually transpired.

 

[mdb]

At the time that Head purchased Dacor the Dacor brand was #3 in the US market. They were purchased, IMHO, to acquire their Dealer/Consumer base. The price was right, the deal went through. Was it a good deal ?

 

[KenGordon]

I have a Mares Abyss. It is a likeable regulator. It breaths nicely without messing with a +/- knob, it is metal so when your twin set blows over in the wind and lands on the second stages you don't need to visit a shop. It does have the annoying 9/16th primary hose though. This makes it a pain on a twinset as it restricts choice of which port to use as blanking it is not as simple as you might expect. It gets used as a deco/bailout regulator now.

These days I personally just buy Apeks though. They are available at my local shop, they are relatively cheap and being a fashionable brand will be easily sold on. There is also no trouble getting them serviced anywhere.

My club just bought a bunch of Oceanic regs as they were the cheapest available. They are all perfectly fine and I'd happily use them on most dives. The Dacors they are replacing I will only use in the pool or in shallow training dives. They are quite old and have been used in the pool weekly so have had a hard life.

Personally I do not service my own regulators so the whole availability of service kits to the public thing I do not care about. I don't have stacks of spare time to spend taking regulators apart.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Look at all the brands out there.
Aqualung
Atomic
Scubapro
Apeks
Dive Rite
Zeagle
Hollis
HOG
Halcyon
Tusa
Aeris
Mares
Poseidon
IST
Beuchat
Oceanic
Genesis
Sherwood
XS Scuba
Highland Millworks
Subgear

There might be a few more, I just looked at Leisure Pro to fill the ones I couldn't think of.
So what factors would make someone pick any one of these brands?
And for the sake of discussion, what about distilling down the core factory or maker of rebranded regs and also the aquisitions of several brands under one umbrella. So for instance Halcyon and Subgear are basically Scubapro so there are three names that realistically are all one in the same.
Why should I pick Mares? what is special about them and what can they offer me that's better than any other brand?

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

... So what factors would make someone pick any one of these brands? And for the sake of discussion, what about distilling down the core factory or maker of rebranded regs and also the aquisitions of several brands under one umbrella. So for instance Halcyon and Subgear are basically Scubapro so there are three names that realistically are all one in the same. Why should I pick Mares? what is special about them and what can they offer me that's better than any other brand?

Hi Eric,

I'll bite. What I look for these days is a regulator that I can easily find service kits for, either because the manufacturer makes the kits available, or there are enough kits floating around that access is not a major problem.

HOG, Zeagle and Dive Rite are probably the easiest. Mares used to be easy, but most of my sources have dried up, and now it seems to only be Northeast Scuba Supply and ebay. Scubapro and Aqualung can be a challenge, but there are simply so many parts kits "out there" for these brands that it is usually not too hard to track down what you need.

Why would you pick Mares over any other brand?? I cannot think of a good reason, and I own and service Mares regulators, and I like them. There are just too many good regs out there for me to say "Buy this one, it is just so much better than anything else on the market". I think MOST current regs will make their owners very happy if the reg is tuned properly. My opinion tuning of the 2nd stage trumps the "brand" of the 2nd stage every time.

I do like Mares' diaphragm first stages, and I like their METAL 2nd stages; I am not excited by their plastic 2nds, but the ones I own are "fine".

The only NEW regulator I would consider buying at this point would be a Kraken.... wait, I did buy 3 new HOG Classic 2nd stages when the went on a crazy sale for $69.99 last year and think they are REALLY good (especially at that price)... but really prefer all metal 2nds like my Scubapro -109's or Mares Abyss 2nds...

Best wishes.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

It seems divers are divided into two camps, those that own multiple regs and are self sufficient with service etc. tend to go with brands known for ruggedness, simple design builds and parts availability.
The other camp tends to go more for what their LDS sells, what they can get serviced or repaired in foreign countries, and they don't really care about build or parts availability because they don't take them apart and don't care to. As long as they work and they can get them serviced is really all they care about.
Then with the two sides I suppose there is an overall economy factor also, some people have money to spend and dome don't.
So, some brands will tend to fill the needs of some people but not all, and vice versa. I guess for a reg company to survive they would need to pick which direction they want to go, then do it really well.
This is why, to me, recommending a brand like HOG to a new diver only doing light rec dives in the tropics and no LDS in their area that's even heard of HOG may not be in their best interest. They may be better suited to buy what their lds sells and if it happens to he Mares then maybe that's OK.

 

[USdiver1]

I'd agree with the two camp theory, and Mares regs clearly fall into either category as they are easy to self-service, plus are widely distributed through a large international dealer network. When recommending regulators to new divers, I advise them to check out several brands available at LDSs in their area, and that the European manufacturers (Aqualung/Apeks, ScubaPro, Mares) are the easiest brands to have serviced in exotic places like the Red Sea, Indo-Pacific, Mediterranean, etc. Mares are good regulators for the recreational diver, and some of their cold water equipment is very good indeed. Also if a diver is interested in making the transition from the LDS service to the self-service camp, an MR-22 Abyss is a good place to start.

 

[Yuri_RP]

Well I agree to that, at least in Indonesia you will have a hard time finding service center for smaller brand. Can only find AquaLung/Apeks and ScubaPro easily, Mares and Cressi too. The other brand practically don't have a significant presence here in Indonesia. HOG does not even have a Dealer here yet. (I thought of bringing them before buy I guess I will go with the new Deep Six Gear instead)