Comparison - Scubapro Hydros Pro Vs Aqua Lung Outlaw

hi guys welcome to simply scoober so in today's comparison video we're gonna be looking at the scubapro hydrous pro BCD and the Aqualung outlaw BCD so these are both kind of modular wing style B CDs they're both kind of designed for the modern travelling diver obviously they're quite big boys so I can't really have them both with the sort of at one time so they're gonna keep doing it individually but in the same kind of concept I'm gonna be looking at the hardware what you get with it and then sort of the pros and cons of each BCD and then right at the end are going to be coming out with a conclusion so let's take a look at the hydros Pro BCD and the Aqualung outlaw BCD okay so first of all we're gonna look at the general overview of the BCD first of all I'm looking at the outlaw so the outlaw is a very lightweight stripped-down BCD it's made for the travelling diver but one of its biggest selling points is that it's completely modular so these shoulder straps can be sort of unclips to the point where it doesn't come in the box like this it comes in pieces you have to assemble it yourself which is quite handy because you can you quickly get used to how it all works and it just means that you can pack it down really small when you're travelling so it's a real sort of custom BCD but where that really sings is in that if you're not the standard sort of body shape if your arms and a bodybuilder you've got big shoulders you can change the length and the size of your shoulder straps but leave the the back plate and the waist the same or you can have a larger waistband and a taller back you can completely customize exactly what shape the the BCD is so on the outside so all of this is quite lightweight kind of mesh material so this is quite soft against your back this does dry off quite fast which is nice and because it's made for that travelling diver they're thinking well realistically you're just going to be in a rat fest if anything so they've made this very very soft and comfortable which does definitely come across if it's a BCD made for cold water diving then they're expecting you to be in a in a thick wetsuit or even a dry suit so they tend to stin John the on the padding but this is very padded this is almost like a centimeter thick so it's soft and comfortable against your back very stripped down we don't have any sort of metal d-rings we've got a plastic carabiner on that with two sort of webbing daisy chains even more daisy chains that up around your shoulders you do have an octo clip coming off one of these little webbing loops so that's a nice little feature you don't have to sort of add in the extra clips the inflator itself I'm alright with the inflator it's not my favorite design it does the job you've got the inflate button which is quite a set of squidgy grey button deflate on the tip the corrugated hose I do quite like because it has this flare coming around it which kind of integrates that that low-pressure inflator hose so it makes it more one or item instead of two separates moving down simple pinch clip you've got a pinch clip across the chest as well big webbing will loop to were to adjust those shoulder straps and and then that attach is quite for behind you so that's quite a gun arm it gets that straps and right out the way the waist bands so these are hinged they naturally kind of fall down in the video but again a little bit of padding you've got a small amount of sort of attachment options there and then a two-way pinch clip but what you don't have is any kind of integrated weights that come as standard you can opt for optional integrated weights and they attach on here on this section so you can add integrated weights if you want but they don't come as standard with the BCD the bladder on the back so that has these retention straps little worms or a section of that elasticated webbing so that just means that when you deflate the wing it naturally scrunches down so that's quite nice so you can have all this lift or when you're on the surface but when you're under the water you want it quite compact and that really does sort of shrink it in turning it around you got to pull dump over your left hand shoulder that's always handy grab handle at the top there's no real solid backplate to this so it is completely flexible and what's really sort of holding it in position is that kanbans which is lowered down and that's a a grip lock cam banned from Aqualung I really like this so this is a two parts sort of two-stage cam band so instead of having to rethread your cam band every single time you just loop it over and then clamp it down and it's pauses so as you're clamping on your cylinder it doesn't go the full hundred percent so you don't get your fingers trapped gives you a chance to sort of wait and then whilst your fingers were all out of the way you do the final 10% so that's a real nice sort of feature on that as an overall I do like the outlaw it's a little specified it's specifically made for traveling would I use it in the UK probably not but if you already have a BCD that you use at home you can have like a heavier weight sort of tough BCD but then this one because this outer material is only about 420 Denia it might be worth just having this as a travel BCD it's lightweight it packs down really flat but it doesn't have a huge amount of lift and it doesn't have a huge amount of sort of robustness so yeah in my eyes it's more of a traveling BCD than a general all-rounder but let's take a look at the hydros Pro right so the hydros Pro so the hydros Pro is kind of similar looking it's a wing style BCD they have made it modular in that you can undo bolts it's a little bit trickier though you do need an allen key it's not quite as easy as it is on the outlaw so as far as quick customization of outlaw really sort of pegs it but this one is still a little bit Angela nowhere near the same amount of customizations you can't adjust the length of the sort of shoulder straps or the waistband as you can on the on the outlaw but if something does get damaged and you need to replace it you can swap it out so it's a good feature not quite as comprehensive as the outlaw but still it's there the main selling point of this is this monitoring material so instead of a sort of a webbing or a or that sort of mesh that you get on the outlaw it's this mono preen which is the same as their fins so it makes it really strong it makes it hydrophobic so it dries instantly and actually makes it a little bit tacky so it kind of grabs it tacky is in sticky not cheap tacky it's it means that it's not going to roll around on your body quite as much especially when it's wet so so that's quite a nice selling point in my eyes this BCD is really the the pinnacle of their BCD range at the moments so it's just chock-a-block with features all over it from metal d-rings it's got integrated weight systems it's got sort of knife grommets even got grow it some of the undersides you can get all sorts of little accessories that you can bolt onto the onto the BCD color kits as well you can swap and chop and change these color kits to your heart's content what you do get with the BCD the outlaw just comes as it is in a box with a box of instructions the hydrous comes with a backpack that you can kind of put it in it also comes with a sort of replacement waistband which is if you don't want integrated weights you can actually disassemble this and then just fit a basic webbing waistband so if you really want a lighter weight to the BCD then you can go down that route so other than that very similar features to to the outlaw I do like the inflator skin pros New Balance powering inflator he's got a hinged button so that's quite nice big grey button and pull that down for pull dump as I said earlier d-rings all over the place so you've always got somewhere to clip it off you do get a bungie retention system similar to the one with the with the outlaw but what you do gets on the hydros pros that you don't get with the outlaw the main bladder itself is kind of similar material as far as thickness but you do get this protective shroud on the outside so if you're going in and out of wrecks or arms that are too close to reefs then that's going to protect that bladder just on that size from sort of bumps and scrapes on the back side we have quite high pressure sorry high profile dumps compared to the low-profile ones on the outlaw we do have a rigid back plate so that's going to be quite nice that really holds your cylinder in position stops it from wiggling and moving around so you're not going to feel quite as much roll compared to the outlaw and we also have a cinch cam bands which is similar to the to the cam band that you get on the outlaw but it doesn't have the finger saver feature so when you're clamping it down is all or nothing so just make sure that you get your we're sort of fingers free and then either side of that we have trim white pockets so it is a smart BCD it's wing style I wouldn't call it lightweight though because of all this mono preen it's quite heavy especially compared to the outlaw but this can be a good sort of all-rounder so you can travel with it but you can dive in the UK with it because it's got a bit of added protection it's got those integrated weights and the trim pockets as well is that good sort of all-rounder okay so now on to the specs of the outlaw so the outlaw has 11 liters or 25 pounds of lifts it does come in two different bladder options elsewhere around the world but here in the UK sadly we only get the 11 litre option it does come in a 5 liter or 12 pound option and that's a real stripped down sort of compact little wing so that is really if you know your buoyancy and you don't sort of have sort of too much you're not diving down too deep you just want a real stripped-down BCD then that's an option that you can go down as at this point we're only having the the 25 pound wing here in the UK as far as weight incredibly light this only weighs about 1.8 kilograms so that's really not going to put a dent in your in your traveling so that's a fantastic spec for it the mod lock is this sort of mechanism and it's basically how all the different straps attach and kind of bring it all together it's universal across the outlaw and the the sort of new rogue and all you need is basically the back end of a teaspoon or a flathead screwdriver just to undo it so it's real quick and easy to adjust and then reassembly you don't need any tools whatsoever other than that very lightweight stripped down BCD it has an RRP at the moment of 355 pounds so we're seeing it's quite a stripped down BCD it doesn't have those integrated weights it doesn't have sort of all the other like big metal d-rings and things so if that does make it a lot cheaper but bear in mind that yes it doesn't have those integrated weights it doesn't have trim white pockets as standards but let's take a look at hydros Pro right now for the specs on the hydros Pro so as far as lift you do get two different lift specs but that's because it comes in both a men's and a women's version this is the women's version so it's ever so slightly smaller it has sixteen point three liters or kilos of lift compared to the 11 liters of the as the largest bladder on the outlaw so it's got more little you can just sort of hold up more weight 36 pounds or the the men's versions 18 point 3 kilos forty point five pounds so a little bit bigger bladder and as you can see it's all kind of lowered down so it's made to keep you in a nice position the weight is the real big difference so the outlaw was one point eight this is three point seven so a lot heavier almost twice as heavy so that really comes down to this monitoring material it's not really trying too hard to be just a travel BCD the outlaw really is specializing just in traveling the hydrous is a bit more of your all-rounder RRP a bit more expensive but you do have all these other features that I mentioned earlier 609 pounds are RP so it is more expensive but you're getting your integrated weights you're getting all the d-rings you're getting all these sort of extra bits you've got the bag and all that kind of stuff so more expensive but nice and materials a bit more robust and all those sort of extra mounting options and features a couple other things worth noting neutrally buoyant thanks to this this mana preen so that's quite handy you don't have to worry too much about adjusting your buoyancy because the BCD is designed itself to be quite neutrally buoyant and an underneath here the shoulder straps have a clever system which actually holds open the the strap they call it a kiss-up assist so instead of just a normal strap that just kind of gets out the way and you have to try and get your weight into it this one actually holds that strap up whilst you're getting in so it actually makes it a lot easy to get kitted up [Music] okay so to bring it all together in a summary in a conclusion so the hydros pro is an expensive BCD it's got all the features that you can physically put onto a BCD and is fairly heavy especially when compared to the lightweight outlaw BCD so as far as winners I'm kind of giving it to the hydros Pro because it's more of an all-rounder but if looking for a lightweight travel BCD just to sort of go abroad with and the outlaw wins hands down it's kind of horses for courses depending on to what you need your beasty to do if you know that you're never going to be diving in sort of colder waters and you just want a very lightweight BCD then the outlaw is definitely the way to go but if you want a slightly more robust BCD and with more features that comes kind of fully specs when you first get it and the hydrophone is the way to go so there's no real overall winner but as far as kind of what you need it for just make your decision based on what kind of diver you are but of course in the comments below let us know which species was your favorite and why and of course if you don't use either those two which BCD you use and why thanks for watching guys and safe diving we are an online dive store serving the UK and the world for all your diving equipment needs so why not visit us at simply scuba comm or click the Box on your screen

Channel: Simply Scuba

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Id: OqtygxX5dX4

Length: 16min 9sec (969 seconds)

Published: Wed May 08 2019