Cold Water Reg recommendations?

[dmentia]

Hello,
I am in the process of checking out some cold water regs. Anybody got suggestions for what to start with?

I was looking first at the Sherwood Blizzard, but a couple of people have said that Sherwood is topsy-turvy as far as a company goes, and no one seems to know what is going to happen to them. Any info on that?

I was also going to look at the Genesis GS 2000, the AquaLung Titan and the Cressi Sub XS Plus. (These are the ones my local Dive Shop carries.) Thoughts?
Thanks,
dmentia

EDIT: Having done some reading of some threads after posting this, I am gonna go out on a limb and say that most people are going to recommend the Apeks line. If that is the case, what have people done to handle the service issue etc.? I was just on the seaquest web site, and they explicitly say no mail order or web order if you want the warranty, so I am stuck having to find a DS that is pretty far away and not convenient. Is the Apeks worth that much hassle vs. the ones above?
Thanks again,
Dmetia

 

[Tavi]

Apeks would be a good choice. They have a reputation for being an exellent cold water reg.
You can check them out here, or here.
I have aTx-50, My wife has the Tx-100. We both like what we have.

 

[GP]

If you want to wait until spring before you make your purchase, Aqualung will be releasing the "Legend LX" series regs. They are on their website and in the 2002 catalog. I was thinking about waiting til' they came out myself but I was too impatient and just bought a Apeks TX-50 instead. The Legend LX Supreme is the coldwater spec. reg. Here's a link.

http://www.aqualung.com/catalog/prodpage/regulate/legendlx.htm

 

[Divesherpa]

Apeks 100 and 200 are the regs of choice.

 

[Heads Up]

Apeks TX100 & TX40 octo with a TX40 on my 7l stage bottle for good measure. Love them to bits - you won't need the warranty!!

 

[Warhammer]

Originally posted by Heads Up
Apeks TX100 & TX40 octo with a TX40 on my 7l stage bottle for good measure. Love them to bits - you won't need the warranty!!

True, you may not need the warranty, but you'll be glad you have it when you take the reg in for it's annual service. Last time I checked the parts for the annual service were running around $50, if you buy it from an authorized dealer, you get the parts for free for life. If you don't then you pay for the parts + labor. So at that rate if you pay an extra $100-150 through an authorized dealer, the extra $100-150 will come back to you in just 2-3 years. If you don't then you'll end up paying for the reg time and time again over the course of several years. Just a thought.

dmentia, if you're truely interested in an Apeks, I can give the contact info of an authorized dealer (in the US) that will ship it to you tax free. You can send it back to him each year for service. No, he can't match DiveInn's price on the regs, but he can get within a $100 or so.

 

[Scubaroo]

What happens in terms of annual servicing when you move overseas?!? I bought my Apeks regs here in the US, and will be taking them back to Australia in a year or so - will I have to start paying for servicing?

 

[Lost Yooper]

Another vote for Apeks. My recommendation is either the TX50, TX100, or ATX200 on a DS4 first stage with an TX40 as a backup. I've been hearing that Apeks is going to discontinue the TX regs and commit to their ATX regs, so you might want to go with an ATX reg to keep up to date. I don't care for the swivals on the DST firsts. Just make sure you get a sealed first stage no matter what.

As far as the warranty issues, I don't personally worry about it. There are ways around it if you know who to buy from. I'll e-mail ya with a guy who can beat (or come close) DiveINN most of the time, and you'll still get a warranty.

Mike

 

[SpyderTek]

Originally posted by Warhammer


[Snip]... So at that rate if you pay an extra $100-150 through an authorized dealer, the extra $100-150 will come back to you in just 2-3 years. If you don't then you'll end up paying for the reg time and time again over the course of several years. Just a thought.
[snip]

$100-150?? I saved over 50% (over $300) by buying my Apeks online from Diveinn than from my LDS AND it came with a warrenty card. Also, if a manufacturer wont warrent their product if you bought it online - DiveInn states they will assume the warrenty themselves.

So, at $50 a year servicing (assuming my LDS wont honor my warrenty card) That will still take 6 years before I make up the difference in price and by then I would suspect that I'd be ready to buy a new improved reg anyway.

This "well it wont be under warrenty if you don't pay our inflated prices" is nothing less than extortionate and has got to stop.

 

[Warhammer]

You may have saved $300 off the retail price, but I wasn't talking about the retail price. Most shops will bargin on prices. While most won't/can't match a 50% discount, they can get close. I was simply pointing out that sometimes service after the sell is more important than saving a few hundred dollars, at least to me it is. But this topic wasn't about the online vs LDS issue, so I'll stop there.