Scubapro S550/600 vs Apeks TX 100

[WetDane]

Hi,

Does anyone have comments about the differences between the Scubapro top of the line and the Apeks - pro's/con's.

I'll assume the Mk20 for a Scubapro 1st stage and TX 100 from Apeks.

I'm interested in 1st sage environmental sealing and deep performance of both reg's.

Thanks,
Terkel

 

[Iguana Don]

WD,

Since I am the first to reply to your question, I'll get the most flack, so what's new?

Both regs you mentioned are excellent. I am not sure about the MK20 in cold water. But on the other hand the TX100 is an excellent cold water reg. But IMHO you could save yurself some bucks or marks or whatever you save over there and buy the Apeks DS4. It's at home in the cold water.
Dry Sealed with 4 low pressure ports and no swivel to ice up.

OK guys and gals, I've opened myself up, come and get it.

ID

 

[ericfine50]

I like the Apex Tx-50s for doubles. They are bulletproof and last for ever. The Tx-100 has a smaller second stage and that anvil looking first stage. Which ever you choose, plug the 1/2 hose port and switch to a standard reg hose. It will be cheaper to replace a standard hose and you are more likely to find someone in the field with a standard than a 1/2 inch.

Just my 2 cents
Eric

 

[detroit diver]

Is the TX50 set up for cold water, or do you have to add a cold water adapter to it?

 

[Heads Up]

Its not environmentally sealed however the components are teflon coated to minimise the possibility of ice build up. Check this section on Scubapro's UK website :

http://www.scubapro.co.uk/news.html

I use a MK20 R380 1st/2nd stage in the UK and have had no problems to date.

 

[WetDane]

I think I have come to the conclusion that these regs are comparable, except for the fact that a lot of deep divers prefer the us4/tx100 over the scuba pro - it is possible that they are pulling on info from the older Mk20 - I'm not sure when the teflon stuff came around, but I have heard of a number of these things freezing up deep and cold.

What I am now wondering about is the "warranty" sales pitch given by Scuba Pro, they give free parts for life as long as you keep up the annual maintenace -
How is Apeks on that one? Any experiences on the maintenance?

my final issue is that I will most likely want to have this reg setup with a long hose config as I'm seeing some wreck diving on this and the scuba pro shop is not familiar with this approach and have expressed that this is uncalled for - I'm planning to go with the shorter 5 foot hose rather than the 7 and *maybe* have a 7 foot for when I go in overhead environments.

Ericfine - I would like to hear you comments on that.
I'll be taking the DIR rec class in a couple of months as well.

Thanks,
Terkel

 

[Heads Up]

Originally posted by Heads Up
Its not environmentally sealed however the components are teflon coated to minimise the possibility of ice build up. Check this section on Scubapro's UK website :

http://www.scubapro.co.uk/news.html

I use a MK20 R380 1st/2nd stage in the UK and have had no problems to date.

Well, having suffered a horrendous freeflow with my (now ex) Scubapro kit in 9c water, I have returned it and swapped it for a Apeks TX100 / TX40 kit. Don't believe the hype!!

 

[WetDane]

Heads up -

don't forget that you are talking about the R380 - which is not really comparable to a TX100/TX50 or a G250 for that matter - you made a major upgrade as far as I'm concerned - and had you done the research you would know that - I have never had a Scuba Pro reg freeflow - besides, the fact that you only put 5 dives on it makes me think that you may not have had it correctly adjusted -
If you were to go get a G250 - you would have the same performance as with the TX50/100 - they are the same design.

Anyway - I don't think the R380 belongs in here as it is not a high performance reg - the price alone should tell you that - not to mention your instructor - and it was not on the list of regs compared.

Terkel

 

[Heads Up]

... my concern with the scubapro reg setup is with the fact that the FIRST stage (ie mk20) is NOT environmentally sealed (which I understood you to have been talking about??). And yes, we did set the reg up for 'optimum' performance (also had an ex scubapro engineer look at the reg after the freeflow and he confirmed that the most likely cause was a 1st stage malfunction caused by freezing).

Why do you feel that only 5 dives makes a difference? In my view, if a reg is prone to problems, it is as likely to malfunction after 1 dive as it is after 100.

Must agree with you though that the Apeks TX100 is in a different league.

 

[turnerjd]

Originally posted by Heads Up
... my concern with the scubapro reg setup is with the fact that the FIRST stage (ie mk20) is NOT environmentally sealed (which I understood you to have been talking about??). And yes, we did set the reg up for 'optimum' performance (also had an ex scubapro engineer look at the reg after the freeflow and he confirmed that the most likely cause was a 1st stage malfunction caused by freezing).

Heads up has it correct on this one.

The largest pressure change (and hence the most cooling) happens in the first stage - hence this is where any freezing will occur. Things like heat exchange fins etc.. on the second stage, whilst all well and good, and probably reasonably effective, are not major factors in preventing freezing.

If you look at a frozen reg it is always the first stage that is covered in ice not the second stage.

There are two schools of thought (scubapro and the rest) on stopping freezing. Scubapro want as much water in there as possible to allow conduction (and then convection currents to move the cooled water) to dissipate the coldness. The rest of the diving world go for dry sealing - if there is no water in there it can't freeze!

Scubapro recently complained about an article in a UK dive magasine and they responded with quite a nice article describing what happens, and from MY experience, scubapro regs ARE more prone to freezing than equivalent competition.

As for the R380 this will have made no difference to wether the first stage freezes up or not. I have three different Apex regs, TX50, 40, and 20. The 20 is a 40 without the heat exchanger, and is very much the competitor for the R380. I have used this in 1-2 degree C water just to reassure myself that the theory (above) about reg freezing is true. Again, from MY experience it is true, and my TX20 has never frozen on me (it is now on my pony reg), neither has it resulted in the first stage freezing up when I have changed from my TX50 to it.

Unfortunately, IMO Scubapro have a good marketing department, good product immage etc.. (and nice breathing regs), but they are not quite up there in cold water performance. I think that in the next few years we will see a scubapro environmentally sealed first stage appear (NOT one of their cold water first stages with water passing through as they all are at the moment) too keep their market position.

Jon T