Ranking of Regulators

[Vie]

any others? any disputes as to which category these belong to?

You put TUSA in the middle tier, and yet some of their regs (such as the RS-460 X-Pert) are basically rebranded Scubapros. I agree with others who have suggested that ranking based on the manufacturer is rather misleading as some brands make a whole range of regulators, some great, some not so.

 

[scubapro50]

I think the problem will be that each manufacturer makes a range of products, so listing their desireability solely by manufacturer is someone problematic. There are very few manufacturers who make only regs in one class. The entire line of current Apeks and Atomics seem to be in the top class..., but that seems an anomoly.

If that is the case about a manfacture making only one "class" of regulator then DACOR must rank "dead" last now. I would rank it behind IDI, IST, SCUBAMAX AND APOLLO just on the facts of the problems with DACOR in the past may continue into the future.

 

[RoadWarrior]

Atomic #1

 

[WarmWaterDiver]

I saw a brand on ebay yesterday that isn't listed....Pro-Sub.

I don't think Pro Sub is in business any more. Like others who have passed to the wayside (Abyss, IDI, Parkway, etc.). If some other company purchased the rights to Pro Sub, I haven't heard of it.

Hey, H2Andy - how about the Promate balanced diaphragm first stage, and range of second stage regulators - do you see similarity with the Sea Elite, Dive Rite, Scubamax, etc.? They have a wide range of colors available for the second stages I see - something the rest of the industry has somewhat moved away from in recent years.

http://www.promateusa.com/main.asp?cate=regulators

 

[Rick Murchison]

Your list is interesting, though it's difficult to figure out how you reached your conclusions.
In the last "great regulator test" (about two years ago) that actually tested all the then current regs in head-to-head competition, the only scientific, measurable test (the machine tests) ranked the Aqualung Legend and the Aqualung Titan above all others in WOB.
I'm not associated with any regulator company, and when asked I will tell folks that "Any of the modern high-performance regs are excellent" and that they should "pick the one you like" after trying them out - because that's the truth, supported by both scientific testing and user subjective testing. The only other caveat I add is that if diving extremely cold water you should make sure you get the cold water model.
But when someone comes out with a list that fails to reflect the reality of the only actual measurement of regulator performance in favor of a popularity contest I have to speak up. Leaving Aqualung off the "top-of-the-line" list is just simply inaccurate.
Rick

 

[redrover]

Well, maybe anyway.

When I first did research (primarily word of mouth), as a noob looking for a broad category direction to reduce my choices to decide from; I came to the same conclusions as H2Andy. (And, did not interpret them in a specific order of rank but within a category.)

 

[WarmWaterDiver]

Your list is interesting, though it's difficult to figure out how you reached your conclusions.
In the last "great regulator test" (about two years ago) that actually tested all the then current regs in head-to-head competition, the only scientific, measurable test (the machine tests) ranked the Aqualung Legend and the Aqualung Titan above all others in WOB.
I'm not associated with any regulator company, and when asked I will tell folks that "Any of the modern high-performance regs are excellent" and that they should "pick the one you like" after trying them out - because that's the truth, supported by both scientific testing and user subjective testing. The only other caveat I add is that if diving extremely cold water you should make sure you get the cold water model.
But when someone comes out with a list that fails to reflect the reality of the only actual measurement of regulator performance in favor of a popularity contest I have to speak up. Leaving Aqualung off the "top-of-the-line" list is just simply inaccurate.
Rick

Rick,

I'm not associated with any regulator company either.

Can you post a link to that data? I don't ever remeber seeing this. I have seen Aqualung as well as other brands rated with 'perfect simulator scores', but not such a review where the Aqualung Titan nor the Aqualung Legend ranked 'above all others' in WOB.

Here's some examples of such studies and ratings I'm familiar with.

http://www.scubadiving.com/gear/regulators/the_best_of_everything_gear_guide_2003%3a_regulators/0/

That article had numerous brands and models written up as 'perfect simulator performance', including the two you mentioned (if Titan LX with the balanced second stage is considered instead of Titan). But not that two Aqualung products were superior in WOB to all others tested.

http://www.scubadiving.com/gear/regulators/the_mother_of_all_reg_reviews/

This review listed the Titan as 'Very Good' on the simulator for WOB, the Titan LX was rated as 'Excellent" on the same basis, and the Legend LX was also rated 'Excellent', but other brands and models earned the same rating of 'Excellent' on the simulator. In this chart, every regulator whose total rank on the simulator is '20' is a 'perfect score' on the simulator.

http://dive.scubadiving.com/html/200210regs_charts.html

I note the Dive Rite reg was only rated about halfway to '20' in the 2002 test above - and the most recent test I read, just this month, Dive Rite rated 18 out of 25. There were other regs that scored higher than 18 out of 25 on the simulator in the most recent test - one of which was the TUSA RS-460 mentioned earlier, another was the Mares MR12 Rebel.

This UK article showed the Legend LX Supreme to have the lowest overall WOB in that test, but doesn't mention the Titan nor Titan LX. There were several other brands and models rated at < 1 J/l WOB though.

http://www.divernet.com/equipment/1202regtest2.htm

Similar comments on this article.

http://www.divernet.com/equipment/0302regtest2.htm

Thanks in advance for the link - I'm always interested in data.

The latest such round of testing I'm familiar with now has a simulator score of 25 as a 'perfect score', where previously it was 20 (5 max rating times 4 categories), by now assigning a weighting factor of times 2 to the 'Category A' performance - which is the least severe test criteria of the 4 categories on the simulator test.

Of course, there were other Aqualung models that didn't achieve 'perfect simulator scores' (i.e. AL Calypso), underscoring the fact that many manufacturers market different models for different price ranges under the same overall brand name - mentioned previously.

 

[H2Andy]

Your list is interesting, though it's difficult to figure out how you reached your conclusions.

just by reading a bunch of threads on here, as i explained in the first post

more than anything, i was looking for opinions (which i am working with) to
"refine" the list to reflect people's opinions as much as possible

needless to say, since i haven't used 90% of the regs listed, it's nothing to do
with my personal preferences

by the way, it's seriously looking like the only "real" way to rank regs is going
to be by model, not just by brand

 

[scubapro50]

my personal regulator tests of all the different brands and models I own : NUMBER #1 SCUBAPRO MK10 with a balanced 109 second stage ... NUMBER #2 DACOR 760 PACER XLT .... NUMBER #3 VOIT TITAN II J .... NUMBER #4 DACOR PACER 360 ... NUMBER #5 DACOR R4 doublehose ................. I do not work for any diving manfucturer and this is based on my personal experience with each model after 30 years of diving ......

 

[LavaSurfer]

Hmmmm

IST seems to get a bad rap here
Maybe thier older regs were bad I saw some nasty reviews on teh 600 and 700 while shopping around, I wouldn't know but for economy the newer regs get great reviews on scubadiving.com and was a Scuba Labs Testers Choice.

IST SPORTS PROLINE R10 & R20
IST Sports' brand-new R10 adjustable and R20 nonadjustable regulators dominated breathing simulator tests in this price group. The R20 not only earned a perfect score, it was able to exceed 300 feet at the maximum breathing rate while maintaining a work of breathing of only 1.0 joule per liter--an outstanding achievement for a budget regulator. In-water tests show the R20 to breathe dry in all positions. The R10, while delivering fair breathing performance in the swimming position, has a tendency to breathe wet in a heads-down or face-up position.

Performance Data

• Inhale Pressure: 12.86mbar
• Inhale Pos Pressure: 4.91
• Exhale Pressure: 10.11mbar
• Ext Work of Breath: 0.72 J/I
• Inhale work: 0.22
• Pos Inhale Work: 0.10
• Exhale Work: 0.65

I thought the review of the R10 was interesting since the R20 and R10 have the same first and the R10 is an adjustable second. thats the only diff.

I have several friends that dive the R10 and love them. I bought one. Maybe I am justifying my purchase but so far the only flaw I have found is the mouthpiece is a bit small. It breaths easy, I guess thats what really matters.

Ford or Chevy
No its not a Bently!