Hey everyone, I am looking at buying some new cold water regs and I have narrowed my choices down to these two. I'd like to hear any personal experience and/or advice you would care to share. Thanks!
Mares Navy/Abyss vs Scubapro Mk17/G260
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Long time user of the Mk17/g250 set-up. I dive the Great Lakes, with normal conditions being in the low 40s and below when you are below the thermocline. Solid performer. My only bad experience was due to needing a rebuild (years since previous service).
I have no opinion on the Mares reg you list, but after absolutely abysmal support from them on a PDC, I vowed to never use another of their products.
YMMV.
I have no opinion on the Mares reg you list, but after absolutely abysmal support from them on a PDC, I vowed to never use another of their products.
YMMV.
Both solid cold water performers. Both will be supported long into the future. The navy will probably cost more to service due to the silicon. If you decide to go with a mares product I would choose a first stage with a dry cold water kit.
The G260 has an adjustment knob the Abyss does not. That may or may not be important to you.
With that said choose the regulator with the best local support if you don't service yourself.
The G260 has an adjustment knob the Abyss does not. That may or may not be important to you.
With that said choose the regulator with the best local support if you don't service yourself.
attie
Registered
I love my Mares Abyss MR22 . Never missed a beat .... only thing is to have it serviced.
Been using it for about 5 years . Got about 300 dives on it.
Been using it for about 5 years . Got about 300 dives on it.
reefrat
Contributor
Both good regs! Cold water diving is not my thing and so I’m not really qualified to say- but in theory the Mares with a metal second stage should be more resistant to freeze up and free flow. In the past I have owned a SP MK20 with a G250 and still have a BA156, both excellent Regs for general diving.
Both breath well but feel quite different in the mouth- my Abyss always breathed great after being serviced by a competent tech but the cracking pressure was not so good after maybe 18 months so in my experience it needed a service every 12 or so months- the MR22 first stage, on the other hand, with the latest high pressure seat seems to be fine for several years.
It it was me I would probably go the Scubapro and learn/use the best techniques to dive cold Water without reg issues.
Both breath well but feel quite different in the mouth- my Abyss always breathed great after being serviced by a competent tech but the cracking pressure was not so good after maybe 18 months so in my experience it needed a service every 12 or so months- the MR22 first stage, on the other hand, with the latest high pressure seat seems to be fine for several years.
It it was me I would probably go the Scubapro and learn/use the best techniques to dive cold Water without reg issues.
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Hands down the ScubaPro will bring you more joy. Mares customer service is abysmal if you need it, parts are hard to come by, and it takes an extremely patient and skilled tech to put the oil back in the reg. My wife is such a tech and about 1/3 of the MR-22 Navy regs she sees don’t have the oil in them because it’s difficult to do nd hardly anyone needs it. OTOH, everyone and their brother works on Mk-17s, kits are readily available, and competitively priced. Parts are harder to get, so don’t break it.
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