Comparison - DIR Zone Spool Vs Apeks Lifeline

hi guys welcome to simply scoober so in today's comparison video this is a bit of a heated topic at the moment it's whether we go for a traditional inexpensive dare I say cheap spool or a more expensive spool with some nicer features now there's sort of pros and cons on both sides of the argument and this video is basically I'll make it a little bit easier so with me today I've got the dir zone 33 meter spool which is about a hundred feet and then we've got the apex lifeline 30 meter sport so they're both 30 meter spools one's more expensive ones less expensive but we're just going to go over the little differences and the pros and cons and kind of which is better for what type of diver let's take a closer look okay so we're starting off with the cheapest fool so this is the dir zone 33 meter spool the the spool itself is made out of del R in a sort of a plastic material it's very square as you can see all of the line is a bright white color this is a very traditional gauge sort of line very white and it's kind of round in in cross-section they have given it a really big leader which is quite nice so that's particularly useful for Sandra attaching attaching it to a DSMB or a set of length guidelines if you need to but what they have done is they've over spun it so you do have 30 meters on it but it's very hard to access any of these holes so if you want to sort of tie off it's kind of hard to physically get that line especially if you're wearing clunky gloves through that so that's a bit of a pain so what I do as soon as I get this home is I take a whole load of line off keep that as spare but the that unlimited downs or maybe a 20 or 15 meter line the bolt snap that they've given you a stainless steel double end a nice action on it it's pretty smooth that one's a little bit sort of Scratchy that one's really nice decent size if you're wearing gloves that will be fine yeah a decent size leader on that the finger hole on it is quite small so you wouldn't be able to get a gloved finger through it but a lot of versiv divers just tend to pinch that hole while they're paying out line so it's not a deal breaker for me but it's something worth considering I never put my finger all the way through and let it run like that just in case something bad happens but overall it's a good reel or spool I should say it's nice and compact it's pretty tiny it's pretty strong as well the only thing that I don't really like about it is that it's a little bit over spun so you're losing that sort of functionality you'd have to do what they've done here and just kind of move some of that line away just so you can get a bolt snap sewed onto it then we move on to the the more expensive one the apex lifeline so so this is different in a few ways the first thing is that the the spool itself is made out of metals this is an our minium it's anodized it's not over spun as you can see they have per 30 metres onto it but they've kind of oversized the the spool to allow for it so you can still really easily get to those a-holes to where to tie things off onto its flared out either side as well instead of being just straight it kind of curls away so it's a lot easier to sort of wrap line back on into it and as you can see the line itself is brightly coloured and it has two different colors I'll show you the yellow in a second the main section of the line is this bright orange tape it's it's kind of flat in cross-section and and that just makes it a little bit easier to untangle I actually have one of these myself when I go diving I've got a cup of their lifeline spools and if they have a tangle they're quite easy to unpick because instead of a round line the flats for some reason it just makes it that much easier to untangle orange quite easy to see in both blue and green waters it stands out quite nicely so it's really obvious to see and then it runs to a small little swivel so that just again it just allows your DSMB if you're sending a dsm-v up it just allows that to turn and it's not going to tangle up the line or twist the line and then we get to the leader at the front which is yellow again makes it really easy to sort of distinguish between the main line and the leader decent-size as well so you can fit your hand you can fit the spool through it and they also give you this little tag which I usually create manually with this type of with the cheaper type of spool but they've given you this which is really handy makes it very easy to feed it through even if you've got big clunky dry gloves very quick and easy to feed through sort of anywhere so that's really useful I do make a small adjustment when I'm when I'm using them but but as an overall that makes your life a lot lot easier bolt snap double ender is a little bit bigger this is like a 90 worse this is about hundreds so it's a little bit longer for a sort of bigger gloves it makes it a lot easier to sort of clip things off onto actions are fine nice and smooth and a decent solid build and finish to them the finger hole is really big so if you do have gloved hands it's very big and its rounded as well which is quite nice so if you're a bit more of a pinch grip you can still pay out but you know your fingers and actually go all the way through it so they're the big difference is the sort of pros from me are the fact that it's not over spun the metal is a little bit stronger I mean touchwood I've never had a plastic spool break on me but I know others have out there but is it worth the the main expense so what we're going to do is we're going to look at the specifications as and what metal and little weight and all that kind of stuff and then we'll look at a conclusion okay so now we're getting down to the nitty-gritty so this one is about 28 pounds so that's pretty cheap you can pick these up anywhere yeah they do come in different lengths on what my budgets from went for the 30 meter range 28 pounds versus 69 pounds so it's about wow it's at least twice as expensive but you're getting those better materials and sort of better features so then we're sort of weighing things up the spool so this is Dyneema which is based of thermoplastic I believe it's pretty tough it's pretty rigid it's quite a lightweight as well as far as weight goes there's not that much in it okay it's made out of metal but it's anodized aluminium which is very light and corrosion resistant there's not much in it as far as weight buoyancy yeah much the same they're both going to sink probably the apex or sink a little bit faster but as long as it's clipped off you should be fine the line is one sort of different thing so this is two mil poly amide in white on the on the dir zone which is your pretty standard sort of line it's got a decent sand thickness to it but it's not too thick or clunky the the life line has two different lines on it so the leader the the yellow bits so this is Dyneema which is very strong and abrasion resistance so if you're tying this off onto things and sort of answer to sharp objects it's not going to sort of wear through quite as quickly the main line itself is is Elda rids again is abrasion resistance it's it's about two mil thick but it's thin it's that kind of tape which I which I now prefer and the bright color just makes it a lot easier in my eyes it really really stands out in the water so so that you can see it and that's kind of it as far as specs as far as size goes the the lifeline spool is that little bit bigger that's probably about half a centimeter probably getting on to one centimeter but as far as thickness goes it's it's not as thick so it's a little bit wider but it's a little bit shorter so it's it's still gonna take up space in a pocket or some hanging off a d-ring but if it's off a d-ring and it's out of the way you can you're not going to notice either of them okay so bringing it down boiling it down which I prefer as I've said I've used both of them in the water not these ones in particular my ones are a bit more beaten up than this and if I'm just going on a nice chilled out recreational dive I use my lifeline I just it's it's nicer and it's bright and colorful so it stands out it's really easy to see the sort of the plastic ones they definitely have there their place they do their job and okay there they're cheaper but I I don't really see them as disposable I've touched wood I've never been an experience where I've had to ditch a spool for whatever reason I have had it where I've I've sort of I've dropped one of my lifeline spools luckily it was only my 15 meter but I just wound that back up because they are tied on at the other end which is always good to know I I always go towards the the lifeline it's just it's got more features it's is just that little step up okay is much more expensive but in the long run it's it looks nicer it feels nicer it just works out a little bit better you don't have to put quite so much customizing time into it I do a little bit to the leader so that you get a little a little section of line here that you can pull off if you're using clunky gloves with with these of the style you've got to unwind a lot okay you do get spare line which is always useful for arms and tying on bolt snaps and whatnot but then your 30 meter spool isn't a 30 meter spool it's a 20 or 15 so I'm leaning towards the apex lifeline yes it's more expensive but it's got all those extra features but of course it's down you guys which is your favorite and what type of spool do you use or do you use real I prefer spools they're they're neat and tiny I don't need a handle or a kind of ratchet mechanism it's just something else to go wrong and it's just bigger and clunkier but of course what you died will let us know and so that other people can make more informed decisions do you prefer sort of cheaper plastic reels or do you invest in a more sort of feature-rich spool made out of metal let us know in the comments below thanks for watching and safe 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Channel: Simply Scuba

Views: 21,194

Keywords: simplyscuba, simply scuba, Simply, Scuba, #simplyscuba, scuba diving, scuba, diving, #scubadiving, gadgets, tech, unboxing, unbox, products, product review, scuba review, #productreview, the simply group, Comparison, DIR Zone, DIR, Zone, Spool, Vs, Apeks, Lifeline, life, line, Comparison - DIR Zone Spool Vs Apeks Lifeline, DIR Zone spool, Apeks Lifeline spool, scuba diving reel, scuba diving spool, Mark Newman, scuba diving (interest), scuba diving - topic

Id: OAWfLmK-pzw

Length: 12min 19sec (739 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 12 2019