New Gear Advice Please!!!.......

[Hazel W]

Originally Posted by Woz

The inside of an apeks 1st stage is identical across the range as is the inside of the 2nd.

Hmmmm ... well the primary difference on the atx 100 and 200s is the volume of gas supplied by the 1st stage according to apex.
ah well

I have a tx 40 .. tx 50.. atx 50..and atx 100 all on various pieces of kit you breath out of and there are noticable differences between them all.
I do prefer the atx 100s as primaries but you are absolutly right that the 1st stage is a PITA for hose routing.

horses for courses and as I said a great deal of it is personal preference

Hazel

[Woz]

If you are deep enough to have to worry about the amount of gas coming through the 1st stage then you need to stick some He in the mix and you may as well use a bottom of the range piston reg for that.

Apeks have done a brilliant marketing job. You can tune their regs to do just about anything- a £125 TX40 out of the box will be middling to breathe but wind out the cracking resistance a bit and hey presto! A top-whack reg.

[David D]

Originally Posted by Titanic

As a novice diver who has recently bought a fair bit of kit can I support the oft made suggestion to go and see your local dive store?

While things may appear cheaper on the web (and it is fun browsing when you maybe should be doing other things ) it is not always as advantageous as it appears.

It's a view. There's another.

Research the topic (just as you're doing now), then research the price on the web. Compare the price with your LDS and if there's not a lot in it (or they're prepared to discount), buy locally for the reasons given by Titanic. Otherwise, buy off the web.

Your LDS will charge you no more or less for servicing your equipment based on where you bought it.

Of course, if money is not an issue, the LDS is the way to go.

Most important is the research, then you're not paying silly money for poor kit.

[swissdave]

Originally Posted by TOBERMOREY

if I someday want to cold water dive will the Apeks regs serve both waters??
Tobermorey.

Apex will do uk waters no prob as they are designed and built in the uk, plus its not that cold really

[Woz]

I'd certainly buy from my LDS and pay the premium if I knew that I was:

1. being sold the kit I wanted
2. would get good backup if anything went wrong
3. they could service them properly

However none of my LDS round here can do that. I am better off buying off the interweb and getting it serviced by a local service tech who is 1. cheap 2. extremely good.

However if you have a good, reliable LDS that you know you can trust then use them. It's worth paying a bit to keep them in business.

There are quite a few LDS that really can't service regs or send them off to someone else anyway to get it done. I don't want that. I want a shop who can do the whole thing so I can talk to someone who is knowledgeable about a freeflowing reg rather than someone who has absolutely no idea and just puts it in a box and sends it off. Ask to see the service room in your LDS. If it looks as shabby as my office, then walk away.

[EdHornby]

I'd agree with the posts above really - yes get DIN every time (and an aclamp adaptor so that you can take it on holiday and not need it, rather than not have one and let sods law make the wrong choice)

I have apeks regs and the basic models do the job fine

I also have an ND BC and they are good, If you can bargain the price down a bit more all well and good

however Woz's point about Buddy stuff is salient - if you are feeling a bit adventurous have you thought about a Buddy tekwing? Kent Diving have the (soon to be discontinued because the new ones are different colours, logos etc) but very good Tekwing for 150 quid
Or you could go for a second hand Buddy BC, they are indestructable and a 2nd hand one will be fine

the BC isn't the bit of kit that you need to spend top money on, the cash should be saved for your drysuit which you'll need for UK diving ooh thread drift... my apologies....

If you decide to go to your LDS, ask them for a TX40 reg set and the ND bc and bargain hard - they will do the job great

[IanRMartin]

Northern Diver guardian TOP CHOICE!
I had one for 4 years never had a problem really tough and stands up to being abused.
Plus there are LOADS of D-Rings a few to many IMHO but i loved mine.
Only got rid of it as i lost a couple of stone and it no longer fitted very well (It was an XL)
It sold on ebay for approx £45 so keep an eye out there, as i'm sure others have told you a BC is not the thing to spend huge amounts on and as this type is well made there is nothing wrong with a 2nd hand one!

Ian

**EDIT**
One on ebay size medium

[e14724]

Ive just bought a new set of ATX200 with octo (200 only because of the price deal not on any others)
£280 from my LDS!!

[Woz]

Originally Posted by e14724

Ive just bought a new set of ATX200 with octo (200 only because of the price deal not on any others)
£280 from my LDS!!

Or £120 more than you needed to pay

Sucker.

[EDIT]
Actually if you are after an ATX200 that's not a bad deal. Comes with the T20 warm water reg octo as standard IIRC...

[Bantam]

Originally Posted by Woz

Not nececelery H. The inside of an apeks 1st stage is identical across the range as is the inside of the 2nd. The only difference is the 40 has no external adjuster (you can Araldite a bit of stainless bar into it if you want) and the 200 has a replaceable HP seat rather than having it integral with the body. Apart from that, there's bugger all in them. Apart from marketing blurb and bling.

The TX is the toughest of the lot, the ATX is the smallest (great for a necklaced backup) and the XTX is the newest and I have no idea how they breathe. I do know, though, that the 100 and 200 1sts are a PITA for twinsets as the port angles are all wrong.

If I make a few, anyone else fancy a stainless doohicky you can Araldite into your ?X40 2nd stage?

Yep, I have to second that. The guts of these Apeks regs are all identical - barring the controls on the second stage. The only one that has a bit of 'wierdness' is the new Sensor which has a bloody computer in the 1st stage.

In fact the DS-4 I got with my T40 wayyy back in 1990 is identical to the one I got with my ATX50 in 2003, apart from the fact that the port rebates are slightly deeper machined into the chassis meaning that the long hose adaptor won't fit.

DS-4 First stage on with an ATX40 with an ATX40 (or TX40) octopus.

And now my ATX50 (got it for the same price as the 40 a while back) has had the CE adjustment nipple removed it's lovely