Teetering between the LDS and LP Dacor Regs.

[hambleto]

O.k. Before I get started I do not want to piss anyone off or start a flame war. I do have a legitimate question and need the input/advice of the knowledgeable people here. So, here I go.

I am looking at getting two sets of Décor Viper Metal and the Viper Octo for myself and the misses. I was looking at buying from my LDS and I have been also looking at buying it from LP. LP would save me 300 a set on the regs.

Normally I would not have considered buying “life support” equipment from online. I would have paid the extra 600 to the LDS because of the service and such. However, the LDS really pissed me off. I paid 400 for the misses to take a private scuba. Now to me, a private scuba means just that, it is private. Well, at the beginning of the third module in the pool, poof, a new student appears, and will be there the rest of the sessions. Now the misses who is very nervous and uncomfortable and just starts to come around (thanks to the private class) is loosing it. All of the control and comfort in the water she was building up is gone and she is about to quit the class. Needless to say I am not happy with this or the LDS. Hence the reason I am considering LP.

Now to the question. If I go with LP over the LDS besides the factory warranty being void. What else could I not be thinking about? I know I can send it back to them under warranty, and heck with the money I am saving I could take the Reg into another LDS and have their techs service it for several years and still be in the black. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your time.
Ben

 

[Greg Barlow]

The private lesson portion of your note is troubling...as it should have remained private, and not "semi-private". I believe that the shop should have refunded part of your money due to their not keeping part of the agreement.

As far as the regs go...You may want to shop around a bit on the Dacor regs. Mares and Dacor (Mares owns both) will sell at a lower price to dealers that make large purchases. Their are two different rates for Mares/Dacor dealers. You might also check eBay, as there are a number of Dacor dealers on there that sell at excellent prices. Look at the feedback rating of these dealers who sell brand new equipment. If their rating is over 95% positive, then you can rest assured that it will be a "safe" purchase. Many of these are licensed dealers, so you will get the warranty.

Leisure Pro has a very good reputation, and I have made some purchases from them without any complaints.

If you need any further information, let me know.

Greg Barlow

 

[netmage]

O.k. Before I get started I do not want to piss anyone off or start a flame war. I do have a legitimate question and need the input/advice of the knowledgeable people here. So, here I go.

I am looking at getting two sets of Décor Viper Metal and the Viper Octo for myself and the misses. I was looking at buying from my LDS and I have been also looking at buying it from LP. LP would save me 300 a set on the regs.

Normally I would not have considered buying “life support” equipment from online. I would have paid the extra 600 to the LDS because of the service and such. However, the LDS really pissed me off. I paid 400 for the misses to take a private scuba. Now to me, a private scuba means just that, it is private. Well, at the beginning of the third module in the pool, poof, a new student appears, and will be there the rest of the sessions. Now the misses who is very nervous and uncomfortable and just starts to come around (thanks to the private class) is loosing it. All of the control and comfort in the water she was building up is gone and she is about to quit the class. Needless to say I am not happy with this or the LDS. Hence the reason I am considering LP.

Now to the question. If I go with LP over the LDS besides the factory warranty being void. What else could I not be thinking about? I know I can send it back to them under warranty, and heck with the money I am saving I could take the Reg into another LDS and have their techs service it for several years and still be in the black. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your time.
Ben

Dacor is one of those manufacturers that does allow online sales..., if Warranty issues irk you - check out Scubatoys.com.

I'd ask for a refund from the LDS for the difference between a private class and open.

 

[Genesis]

I'd expect a FULL refund for the class.

They induced you to enter into an agreement with something that was CRITICAL to your purchase, and then breached it. IMHO they owe you ALL of your money back.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

I would'nt stand for the third student in the class - a deal is a deal. You have good reasons for taking a private class and paid for it, so make them stick to it.

 

[hambleto]

Thank you for your feedback. I will shop around more for the regs. I also e-mailed dacor about LP to see what they say.

I am not going to say anything to the LDS right now about the class until the misses completes it. She is already scared enough and I do not need a pissed off instructor for her. As it stands now we will not deal with this LDS again, which is a shame since the owner is very nice. I was not sure if it was common for them to bring another OW student into the pool in the middle of a private class.

Thank you all for your knowledge and time.
Ben

 

[DA Aquamaster]

I am not sure I would by a Dacor reg at the moment. I am not real clear on the status of Dacor in the Mares/Dacor scheme of things and Dacor has recently had a bad habit of discontinuing parts for relatively new regulators. If you buy a Dacor reg, you may run into parts and service issues 5 years down the road.

Both Scubapro and Aqualung have an excellent record of providing parts and service support for their older regs for decades.

 

[diver69]

Hi all,

May be someone can enlighten me on why warranties are void on purchases at LP?? I'm just curious.

I also agree with above posters that you should get a full refund on your misses' course....LDS try to pull stutns like this and then they blame us for making our purchases at places like LP.

 

[netmage]

Hi all,

May be someone can enlighten me on why warranties are void on purchases at LP?? I'm just curious.

I also agree with above posters that you should get a full refund on your misses' course....LDS try to pull stutns like this and then they blame us for making our purchases at places like LP.

Warranties in the scuba industry mostly center around your local shops providing the parts for the manufacturers recommended yearly overhaul. You still pay for labor, but the parts are typically free. Leisure Pro is not an authorized reseller/dealer for many of the products they cary, so the manufacturer does not provide them the parts. However LP does provide their own warranty for these items - so if you ship your regs to them for the yearly service they pick up the cost of parts. Plus they have been very responsive to many folks on the board when they have had problems w/ regs - often replacing them w/ new units.

 

[scubamax]

I just purchased my Reg from LP (Aqualung Legend) and have no problems with it. I have purchased a lot of stuff from them over the past year and have had no problems.

You might want to look around for alternatives to Dacor. As mentioned above there is a lot of chatter out there that Mares might be pulling the plug on the Dacor reg line.

When I was narrowing down the list of regs to buy, I asked two different persons (one my instructor with over 20 years experience, another an instructor/LDS owner from the UK), both of which had no interest whatsoever in selling me a reg of any brand, so at least that particular bias was removed) an interesting question.

Instead of asking which brand of reg they would recommend, I asked which one(s) they would AVOID. Both, independent of each other in separate conversations said one brand: Dacor. The opinion is that there are more parts in a typical Dacor reg and as such you have more failure points, more difficulty servicing, etc.

Now let me state that this was the opinion of other persons who IMHO know a thing or two about regs, and not mine. I am sure that there might be a some people who love this brand and have a different opinion and that's just fine...I am not out to bash this brand, just sharing some opinions.

A lot of people focus on the warranty issue (i.e. free annual service or repairs or whatever) if you buy from an authorized dealer vs LP or elsewhere. More important to me is the quality of the service tech working on your reg. Just because they are "authorized" does not mean they are any better at it than LP,or anyone else. Most any name brand reg out there today is of such a high quality that a warranty on repairs is not an issue (you probably will not need to repair it, but rather just get it serviced annually). The problem is finding a good reg service shop/tech that will do things right from the start, and that is done by asking around, etc.

scubamax