The problem of long-term support for boutique equipment

[michael-fisch]

It's been at least a dozen years since I've heard anything about Barry Miller, what is he now doing? I remember him as a nice guy.

Michael

 

[scubafanatic]

@BurhanMuntasser tell that to Dacor regulator owners who had no parts shortly thereafter, same with the others. A lot of parts are no longer available because the design was canned and they chose not to offer support. That vs. Apeks and Poseidon who still offer parts for everything they've ever made. Scubapro is up there too. Atomic is too young of a brand IMO to even think about not supporting anything, but Poseidon still offers parts for their 1958 regulators....

I'm beginning to question Atomic Aquatics, Wookie has commented on the service kits drying up and he's recently sold off a bunch of his Atomic regs, not good indicators for the future.

 

[lexvil]

I wouldn’t worry to much about Atomic, Huish is not easy to deal with but Atomic is a solid design and parts are universal across models. There is a lot of commonality across brands on many of the internal parts of balanced second stages.

 

[broncobowsher]

There are also the recent Hollis Explorers that were suddenly obsolete when Huish decided they didn't want anything to do with that part of Hollis, after buying up Hollis. And that is a lot more expensive then a regulator. Fixing those isn't a couple of O-rings and a new seat, usually there are electronic issues.

 

[cerich]

the

This is especially true if the owner of the company is a convicted criminal.

When the dive shop for which I worked decided to offer technical diving for the first time, and I became one of its first students, the shop needed to contract with someone for technical gear. At the insistence of its new technical instructor, it went with Salvo, whose owner was fairly recently out of jail after his contentious (and illegal) parting with Halcyon. The shop had to make a huge initial purchase as part of the agreement, and since as a new student I needed a lot of gear, my first purchase made up most of it. Salvo was not in business very long before the law caught up with them again.

If anyone wants some nice paperweights that used to be very expensive regulators, let me know.

parts to service the old Salvo's are very common and easy to get. Let me know if you want to

 

[Akimbo]

I find it helpful to think of everything that goes in the ocean as a consumable. Sadly, that includes me.

The only piece of gear I still have from my original 1962 kit is a US Divers pressure gage (a clamp-on, not an SPG). It is nearly useless and probably a little dangerous but has a some nostalgia value.

 

[boulderjohn]

the parts to service the old Salvo's are very common and easy to get. Let me know if you want to

The first time I tried to get them serviced was through Light Monkey. They said parts were not available through them, but Dive Rite should be able to do it. I called a Dive Rite shop (none near me), and they said they could give it a try. I mailed the regulators to them (at my expense, of course), and they returned them with a "sorry, not possible after all" response. My next try was Dive Right in Scuba, and they were pretty sure they could do it. I mailed them there (at my expense, of course) and they responded that the only way to do it was to use parts from two different service kits. They could do it, but given the extra cost of the kits, they said it would be smarter to get inexpensive replacement regulators at about the same level of quality as the top-of-the-line Salvo regulators and toss the Salvos.

I currently own a large supply of regulators, and I am not in a rush to fix the POS's I got from Salvo,

 

[cerich]

The first time I tried to get them serviced was through Light Monkey. They said parts were not available through them, but Dive Rite should be able to do it. I called a Dive Rite shop (none near me), and they said they could give it a try. I mailed the regulators to them (at my expense, of course), and they returned them with a "sorry, not possible after all" response. My next try was Dive Right in Scuba, and they were pretty sure they could do it. I mailed them there (at my expense, of course) and they responded that the only way to do it was to use parts from two different service kits. They could do it, but given the extra cost of the kits, they said it would be smarter to get inexpensive replacement regulators at about the same level of quality as the top-of-the-line Salvo regulators and toss the Salvos.

I currently own a large supply of regulators, and I am not in a rush to fix the POS's I got from Salvo,

ok, if/when you do I can sort ya out easily

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Sounds like keeping my old Conshelfs, MK5/109’s, MK2/R195, MK20/G250 maintained and running is about the best long term solution I can think of. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.

 

[84CJ7]

Eric beat me to it.
I switched brands when I started servicing my own stuff specifically because I could then get super easy to find name brand (grey market) or aftermarket parts.
Buying the latest greatest plastic fantastic super breather is a toss up as to what you will get in 20 years. I guarantee you will still be able to rebuild a royal aqua master or conshelf or mk5/109 in 50 years because people love them enough that the aftermarket has already picked up the slack.
I have no need of the many excellent technical oriented smaller companies because vintage stuff serves my needs better. (and metal is cool)