Attention new divers or divers considering purchasing your first regulator. You’ll want to read on. When I was a new diver, I wanted to purchase my own equipment. So, like many people, I went online to research what I wanted. My instructor used a Scubapro MK25 with a S600 second stage. He raved about it. So I purchased a set from Leisure Pro. The day after I got my new regs, I took them to the dive store down the street to set them up. The owner asked where I got them and I told him. He then lectured me on how bad LP was and that my regs were purchased on the gray market. Not knowing what that was, I assumed it was bad. He also told me that I would have to pay for parts for the annual service. If I purchased the reg from him, the parts would be free. So, fearing death from my LP regulators and the high cost of their service, I promptly returned them to LP and bought a lower quality set of regs from the dive store.
The following year, it was time for their annual service. So I took them to the dive store. When I picked them up, I was surprised at the high cost of the service. I asked why the price was so high. I was told that even though parts were free, I still had to pay for service. I was shocked as I wasn’t told this when I purchased the regulators. I was even more shocked to learn that my regulators didn’t need new parts every year. They only needed new parts every other year. So that first year after my purchase, they only needed a cleaning and inspection.
Being the business person that I am, I went home and analyzed the transaction. I quickly realized that buying the regulators from the dive store didn’t save me much money over time. When you consider the price of the parts is about $90 for the three stages (1st, primary 2nd and octo). Most regulators only need new parts every other year. The regulators that I bought from the dive store were $200 more than LP. I would need to own the dive store regulators for five years to start benefiting from the free parts. $90 every other year, for five years is just over $200. Now, the average diver may not keep their equipment longer than five years. Many divers want to upgrade to something new and cool. So, by eBay’ing the regulators after a couple years, you actually will lose money. We can also look at the cost of buying the regs from LP and parts every other year. If I would have bought the LP regulators and kept the them longer than 5 years, I wouldn’t be saving money. Buying the parts every other year, in 5 years I would have erased the savings from buying online.
The myth of the free parts is that they really aren’t free. You will still pay for servicing your regulators and you would need to own your regulators for quite some time in order to compensate for the savings from buying online. So when you are in your favorite dive store researching your first regulator purchase, make sure you ask all of the questions up front about servicing costs, how often the regulators need new parts, and how much those parts cost. Don’t be bullied into purchasing a higher priced, lower quality regulator as I was. Do your homework and become an educated consumer.
I welcome your questions and comments.
Dive Safe,
Duane Johnson
Precision Diving
