Why not to buy "bootleg" gear......

[mike_s]

wooo now, hold up. Scuba Pro does not have failures.. lets set that straight, right off the bat:no. Second alot of people solo dive.. nothing to be ashamed of.

I gotta agree with Gary here..... Scuba Pro has had it's fair of failures.

There's a recall on some ScubaPro regs now for example.

see a failure of one here.
www.ndc.noaa.gov/pdfs/sb05-01.pdf

 

[Midnight Star]

I only "solo" in OW and not in the cavern of springs at a max. depth of maybe 25'. There is alot of snorkelers around and a few divers in the area. By solo, I am implying that I do not have a designated "buddy" right there with me.

I do this also ... all the time.

-----

Mike.

 

[limeyx]

Yes, my thought was to get the stuff I need as a minumum for now then up grade later, once I get the bottle and everyting together.

That way if an situation arises that i end up soloing I at least have a bottle and a reg.

What good will it do me now if I buy a $300 reg and dont have enough for the bottle now?

Or what if it takes me until March to get spare money to get a $300 reg and pony bottle at the same time, then just so happens that next month, me and my g/f go diving and she has a cold or what ever that is preventing her from diving.

I think I'm better off with a cheap reg and bottle then nothing, dont ya think?

I am a broke ***** bartender in college ya know

I actually think you are not better off with a cheap reg. I think you should get the right gear and wait until you have it to do the dives.

I dont see the tradeoff here -- buy the cheap gear and maybe drown is better than saving up for the correct gear?

 

[Stu S.]

A regulator is too complicated to make in a small garage or a grass hut, and sell that cheap. The tooling for the molded parts alone is quite expensive. That "mystery" regulator came from some facility where they make them in production quantities.

Maybe Phil can help us here. There are a lot of "look alike" regulators on the market that obviously are the same item from the same source. Sometimes the purge cover or the yoke knob are the only differences. Is there any guide to finding out who makes what?

 

[StefChri]

Just to be sure the Delta II discussion is finished.

These are real Delta IIs - both with the DX3 1st stage.

the blue one here:
http://i13.ebayimg.com/06/i/000/7e/44/eec8_1.JPG

both there:
http://i7.ebayimg.com/04/i/08/ec/da/d9_3.JPG

Easy to figure out that they look completely different...

 

[highdesert]

wooo now, hold up. Scuba Pro does not have failures.. lets set that straight, right off the bat:no. Second alot of people solo dive.. nothing to be ashamed of.

Scuba Pro does not have faileures?? Surely you jest. They have had several recalls, and have gotten themselves in hot water by trying to bury some problems. Go read the equipment notices at www.undercurrent.com. You have to pay $$ to subscribe, but worth it if you dive.

 

[dhampton82]

btw, I dont know if anyone was waiting to find out the outcome of my situation. The seller did send me a replacement, and it worked fine.

But I decided that it will be going back up on ebay and I will be getting something is sevicable outside of a "grass hut"

 

[PhilEllis]

A regulator is too complicated to make in a small garage or a grass hut, and sell that cheap. The tooling for the molded parts alone is quite expensive. That "mystery" regulator came from some facility where they make them in production quantities.

Maybe Phil can help us here. There are a lot of "look alike" regulators on the market that obviously are the same item from the same source. Sometimes the purge cover or the yoke knob are the only differences. Is there any guide to finding out who makes what?

I think it would be no surprise to anyone that in an industry as small as the diving business, rebranding is the most common method of introducing products. Careful examination of various brands of regulators will clearly show common manufacturers among brands. For years, Tabata (TUSA) and ScubPro had an alliance, each making various regulators and components for the other, especially first stages. When you find regulators by the smaller brands, very typically the technical companies, such as Dive Rite, OMS, Salvo, and companies in this same size range, they are almost always rebrands with some slight changes. Given the way things are moving from a manufacturing point of view, these rebrands are typically asian products. This is neither good or bad; i think WHERE a regulator is made gives you little insight into its quality or durabiliy.

Often times, smaller companies will retool certain parts of the regulator (such as the purge button, the 2nd stage retainer ring, etc) to give the regulator a distinctive look. On slightly rarer occasions, a company will ask for a change in something like the lever, the inhalation diaphragm, or other internal parts.

We do a considerable business with ScubaMax, a California company that has become quite famous for bringing products from Asian manufacturers to the U.S. market at very reasonable prices. We currently offer a ScubaMax regulator known as the XR2002, which is a very high-performance regulator sold to many companies by Ocean Divers Tawian. It represents a great opportunity to purchase high performance at a pretty reasonable price. In fact, one of the famous, long-time online and catalog discounters offers this same regulator under the name badge as their premier technical regulator.

Side Note: Ocean Divers Tawian is a source from MANY populator regulators sold here in the United States. Two weeks before Christmas, they experienced a fire that heavily damaged their entire distribution center. They say it will be around April or May before they are completely back up running and shipping. This will have very little impact on the U.S. market, as most importers of their materials have pretty healthy inventories due to the time from fabrication to U.S. delivery. However, we could see some "shortages" in certain things like second stage air valves and certain brands of regulators sometime next year due to this problem. Thanks.

Phil Ellis

 

[Bob3]

Might it have been Scubapro? Something like this happened to SP ...

Yah, I recall hearing about that too, that's probably the instance ams511 is thinking of.

It's good to see Scuba Max getting good press; I've had a dealership with them from when they first started selling here in the US & they're good people to work with.
We have sold their wetsuits for use in commercial seafood harvesting & most are still hanging in there after 5 - 6 years. Some of the big name wetsuits have disintegrated in less than 2 years under those conditions.

 

[travelmadness]

bootleg life support equipment? not for me