Wing Quality: Zeagle v. Dive Rite

[Jarrett]

A question to you wingers out there: Does the appearance of a wing dictate quality?

What makes me ask this is the difference in appearance between the wings on the BCDs I own. My daughter has a Zeagle Brigade and I have a Dive Rite Transpac with a Travel Wing. The Travel wing seems to sit kind of low on the quality scale of Dive Rite wings being made of less expensive material. But to someone inexperienced in wing quality, even the Dive Rite Travel wing seems to be made out of much higher quality material than the Brigade bladder or any Zeagle wing I've seen for that matter.

The Brigade and other Zeagle bladders seem to be made of a thin canvas like material that sort of folds up when hanging dry. The Dive Rite Travel Wing has what appears to be a much tougher exterior to it and holds the shape of the wing even when hanging dry. My old Dive Rite Rec Wing even moreso.

Even though its dark, you can kind of see what I am talking about in this picture:

http://elliscountyequine.org/images/100_0491.jpg

The DR wing retains it shape while the Zeagle kind of sags down like a canvas bag.

Does any of this have to do with the quality of each wing or is it simply an aethetics thing that makes the Dive Rite wing appear as higher quality to me? Thanks.

 

[Jarrett]

Wow, I thought the wing folks would have some thoughts on this...

 

[Twomixdiver]

IMO... The zeagle and the dive rite address two (2) different target markets. The core market of Dive Rite is the technical diving crowd and and the designs of it's BCD's points to that.

The Zeagle , IMO, is trying to largely target recreational divers, though it has some BCD models that try to appeal to search and rescue divers.

I've had dive rite travel wing since 1999 and its still going strong after 1000+ dives in the Philippines.

 

[shark.byte.usa]

I have a Zeagle Ranger and a DR Venture wing and the outer shell material if not exact is pretty darn close, heavily reinforced 1050 denier ballistic nylon. The Brigade/Escape bladder is made of lighter weight cordura, not sure about the DR Travel wing my guess is it's made of a similar material to the Ranger/Venture.

-Garrett

 

[Bob3]

A lot of wings/BCs are all made by the same OEM manufacturer/s & the "dive gear companies" slap their own labels on them. It may surprise ya.

 

[Splitlip]

I think the Zeagle is "bladderless" while the Dive Rite has a bladder within a shell.

 

[Izu]

I bought the Brigade and really wanted to like it but it was too much like my old bcd despite the cool bungied back inflate. Returned it and got a DR plate and Venture wing. Feels like diving butt naked. Very streamlined.
When diving dry I still use my old Oceanic BCD because it easily adjusts to a larger size than my current hog.