Scuba Tech Tips: Buying A Regulator, $300 or $800? - S05E09

[Music] hey divers Ali Pierce Ali pier scuba deck it's a game I hope you've been enjoying this I got lots and lots of comments and questions and suggestions or more tech tips keep them coming that's a great idea now this particular one to gain it's a suggestion from one of the viewers I love it it reaches new ideas and these are things like and talk about some people will say you give me the topic I could talk forever honest true but anyways hopefully these are useful to you not just a bunch of words what we want to talk about today is buying a regulator now that's a big big topic we got brands and models and fishing all kinds of things I want to narrow it down what I'd like to do is address the question of how much should you spend should you buy a $300 regulator or an $800 regulator and that roughly guys is the range you can buy a decent brand-name full performance regularly give you a good service for many many many years for 300 bucks they did bit less you can also pay five hundred seven hundred eight hundred nine hundred thousand if you want to have their rings up there for almost two thousand dollars now when I talk about the regulator by the way I'm just talking the personal second see this is it technically a regulator all that other stuff they know that you have on your regulator system note the shape second pressure gauge LP hole all that stuff that's not your regulator as part of their regular system your off iterator so three so I've chosen for this is $300 a an adult how much should you spend well first of all it depends on awful lot on your daughter almost died in do you do if you make you know you go to the cottage two weekends of the year and do two dives and you go down to Cozumel or Florida and yet for one a week and you do six dives right down there she to less than ten times a year you really don't need to spend $800 on a regulator a $300 regular we do everything you want to do you're not diving deep and not diving in caves you're not diving on the ice the range though is what we would call extreme dives where a little bit more high performance might be might be worthwhile sure it almost will do a really really good job explain the difference between a $300 regular and an $100 right okay first of all in explain that this is a first stage this is a second she's like most you guys in many ladies and divers know it hopefully you remember this is your first stage goes on the tank called the first stage because this gets air first and that air is reduced in the first stage to a workable pressure 150 and then the second stage she gets to the second stage and is reduced to your to your breathing that's a technical thing which we'll talk about this is a first station Sac State now I can take another first stage second stage same brand different model okay and there's a there's another first stage there are some differences which will get you but let me explain that there's not much difference in what these two devices do three dollars $100 there's not much difference in what they do the first stage only does one thing it takes air from 3000 psi you're dying and it deliver it drops that pressure down to a hundred and fifty psi these are relative pressures roughly 3,000 the tank is pretty constant with a full aluminum 83,000 is about like a 150 is a pretty average 135 to 150 is a pretty average what's called intermediate pressure the pressure after the first stage before the second stage so they do the same thing three thousand to one took it to the grave yeah three thousand to one tug it does a great job I just sit there waiting for you to suck on the second stage so bottom line there's not much difference on what they actually do so what's a difference well here's a good solid quality brand name you might recognize this brand name one of the biggest and oldest companies in existence today first stage a good solid basic unbell system first stage real simple the knob on it is a dust cap filter and everything else they bring it neat and this first stage will take pressure from 150 or from 3000 psi down to 150 perfectly well all day long as much as you breathe on it now here's a first stage on this model same brand same a major brand name and this first stage does insanely put a knob on it you get a dust cap goes onto the tank and it takes 3,000 psi down to intermediate pressure roughly 150 plus as I rank what's the difference well there are some differences first of all you might notice that this first HSS wimple goes back and forth what's that for well is for your comfort and convenience this is like leather seats in your car you don't need them but gosh they feel good now this might be a little more useful than leather seats because when this is in your mouth and you're turning your head I have to add I often have this but you turn your head you see the swivel return to if you turn to the right they stare to the hose yanking if you turn to the to the left that's still left isn't it turn to the left you see how the swivel moves so the hose is less likely to pull on it but you don't need that nice but you don't need it three hundred eight hundred okay now the other thing is that this particular first stage is a balanced first stage if your dive star says to you you have to have a balance regulator or you're not going to die safely find another dime-store not true lots and lots of regulars motional rentals and most entry level basic regulators those used on pony bottles by tech divers and so on many of those the majority of those are unbalanced or what we call standard whereas your letters there's our cells what's that mean while balancing isn't a big deal so it's got no logical term that explains the sophistication level and the fact that this particular regulator is designed so that the breathing the flow of air never changes so whether you're deep or shallow what your tank is full or almost empty or whether your head is down on the bottom digging in the sand or up like this looking at the boat doesn't matter the flow of air from this first stage will always be the same and it gives a little larger volume of air as well so consistent high volume air is what you get from a balanced regular nothing else okay little extra chrome just about happy you get it three hundred versus a hundred swivel maybe a little higher performance Ferrari okay don't be insulted Chevy okay Ferrari Shetty UNITA Ferrari four six seven eight nine ten dodgy I would say no the maintenance costs will be higher your initial costs higher just like a Ferrari but that's the basic different sure there are the little things but nothing too terribly important okay like this one 300 versus 800 is more than twice as much let's score in the second stage on these regulators and maybe I can help you understand some differences it the second stage on this $300 regulator I don't want to call it cheap or inexpensive anything else integral 2/4 300 of them the second stage looks like this it's lightweight made of cyclic I'll use the word plastic everything you own is plastic so it is it's a form of plastic but it's a better form of plastic than what your toothbrush although toothbrushes your money - I don't like - made a plastic toys I've made of plastic but you can't do this that's why this is brand new I need to leave a mark on there they're very very tough this is near the same stuff that you're steering wheel is made from the ones the last time you saw a broken steering wheel your grab your steam doesn't break I see what it's called del rim often they use Delrin type of plastic very tough it also makes it lightweight light weights important because you goes in your mouth it doesn't you don't get Java Teague that's a technical term Java T from hanging on to the regulator a lot and is very heavy now between you and I Java fatigue is more commonly a problem for divers you're nervous under water another hour to retake the show by the end of the day is sore because these things don't weigh anything a lot of it anyway this is light so it's easy on your mouth and so on it has a perch button on the front and and in a nice mouthpiece and you put in your mouth it you're sucking you get it you blow it into so you're sucking I mean when you want that's what you want the rig to do right every time you're sucking it you get it so it's simple black and 300 off a hundred Oz where you get whoa I'm not gonna bang this one ah yeah exactly you get looks very often when you pay extra for a regulator you're buying style you're buying looks very very often a shame okay so identical most piece exactly the same and so what's the difference nice perch button on the phone well here are the differences first of all small things small things this mouthpiece has a clamp on it instead of the typical wire ties that almost all brands use this particular brand uses a clamp Pacific yeah well you can use a poppet lamp optic not these up with a new one on anything quickly and easily not a big deal you don't really need that but that's one of the reasons across more money obviously the metal the crumb cakes fast more this is brass chrome plated shined up really nicely to make it make it appeal to you but it costs more money downside is it's quite a bit heavier again underwater is not a big deal although this will feel this will weigh more underwater but anyway that's not a big deal the weight what else do you get well over in the left hand side over here you can see that given but over here there at the right here on the left hand side where your left hand reach it there are two things by the 300 other regulator won't have first of all in the end this is quite common once you get above we triggered all the regulator mark up on to five and above mark you'll find on some very big enough that turns on there look at that turns again and in and we'll talk about that man and there's another leader here look at this is lever here can you see that get it goes back and forth push it forward and pull it back push it forward and pull it back and you see that okay what do we have it we have extra features extra features so with this particular regular you got leather seats and your power in house extra features you don't need them are the useful well let's find out you died a great deal having the adjustable second state this is adjusting the breathing effort on the second stage could turn out to be useful and that's exactly what this does when you're breathing for this regulator a hundred regulator you turn this knob all the way out that's counter clockwise all the way out it's breathing as easily as it can if it breathes any easier it actually free flowing air coming out of it that's good right it would get start to free flow or for some reason you didn't want to be quite that easily and that's possible sometimes you can just turn it in a little bit and the free flow will stop machines you turn it in clockwise it gets a little harder to breathe touching the second stage only alright so breathing effort adjustment okay also this other little leader is called a venturi assist venturi assist now venturi assist is a little different if you know any of our new DS law you can search venturi on Google final all about you you know to know that a venturi assist is something that depends on a floor there if there's a flow there you can make that airflow do neat things when it's towards you I'm sorry when it's away from less away from you it brings like a normal regulator and this breeze like a 300 all regulator what did you is something in the strong current or if you were working very hard or you were very deep and working shouldn't do that if you were and you find it's getting hard to break particularly you're a big guy a big guy use more air than off and with the venturi assist you can just flip that lever toward you and all of a sudden you'll find that you'll get more air but then Turia sister comes from the air flowing that you've got coming we'll all of a sudden it'll actually breathe for you so you start to breathe and it fills your lungs up now just like that there's your lungs I like drinking from a from a garden hose you know you get lots of water sometimes too much so I can help and you're going to just a little bit so it's quite easy to get a full lung or there these are my future head don't need it that's a nice feature so that helps to explain why this regulator is a hundred dollars beauty chrome stainless steel clamp on the mouthpiece and curious is breathing effort balance first-aid swivel it all adds up if you need or want those items you got a performs like by your card simple let's take another example this is another manufacturer another big brand name been around for a long time to first age very very simple this one's not even chrome-plated okay it's sat in the finish you see they wouldn't say it's not home but did they say its satin finish to imply the day that is not deficient but nothing wrong with this it's like the satin finish doesn't scratch that the chrome does this is a straightforward standard good solid first stage not dust cap breeze every time you suck on it delivers air remember again the first stage all that does is take three thousand 150 over work now let's go to the second what's this ah this regulator comes with a flex hose look at that like the rubber hoses boy oh boy if used to have rubber hoses on your regulator and we've had some tech tips about this you can't do that with your rubber hose I don't suggest you do it I don't suggest you do it with the flex hose but the point is you can and so the beauty of flex hose is is not only are they tough and very very light but you can fold this regulator up under very very small package you can put your whole lake system into your glove compartment but you can't do that if you have rubber hoses but let's go straight to the second stage here's the second station is very straightforward $300 regular black cyclic simple as possible both these good and a push button on the front don't you get the trainer box every time you put this in your mouth and suck on it you'll get it exactly I know this will shoot the amount of diving is a type of diving you do chip goodbye it's a good buy nothing wrong with that same brand different model we're not sure hey I'm a hundred dollar regulators - of course they do so here's that same brand different model you can already see some of the differences on here they got color white so your regulator is now distinctive in fact the whole second stage is what you can get at different colors but I've chosen this to make it where you stand out flex hose white second stage white is look at the first stage first and this first stage is simply a bounce a very high performance first stage just does not have a swivel I mentioned earlier swivel can be nice not necessary this particular company does not have a swivel on their first stage but it's a high performance first stage also happens to be white which is distinctive flex hose now let's go on the second stage here's the center stage several things about it first of all little small it is very small very very light you don't get java geek beautiful mouthpiece matching white about that and even other set it also has the full front purge a little bit of chrome for looks cut out chrome even on it aren't cheap chevy put on nice chrome wheels rex little chrome / looks that's one reason why you're pink and it has on the end you see in right there breathing adjustment and it also has a venturi this one has a little clicks on it she can shut it the different levels of venturi assist which we talked about earlier beautiful oh one more thing look this has a swivel a special swivel in the second stage so this second stage flops all around like that makes it very very easy to get any amount that makes it very very easy to move your head around what's just easy maybe that's why they don't have a swivel on the first stage they have on the second stage so great features beautiful regulator easy to breathe ease it is a hundred dollars you have to decide if you need those features and your dime-store can explain all this to you I'm just sort of giving you a precursor showing I walked into the dye store you have a little bit of knowledge in event ok twenty dollars and it really is up to you they will both give you air all the air that you will need for a normal recreational dive I hope that's been of some interest to you at least and you got some ideas now what the differences are going but anybody say oh they are right there's what you need there if you go over here you can't die without one not true it's not true again hope that's helped a little bit maybe you have some questions for me about this take care Alex Pearce tech tips

Channel: Alec Peirce Scuba

Views: 112,278

Rating: 4.9459701 out of 5

Keywords: underwater, scuba, diving, scuba 2000, buy, purchase, expensive, second stage, alec, peirce, pierce, tech, tip, tips, dive, safe, safety, vintage, sea, hunt, remembered, skin, first, second, stage, regulator, buying, selection, model, chrome, feature, colour, color, profile, look, reg, nitrox

Id: ityNZO2hR5s

Length: 16min 42sec (1002 seconds)

Published: Tue May 09 2017