Used vs new gear

[diver-wife]

Originally Posted by BouzoukiJoe

Everyone dives with used gear.

The real question is whether you'd rather dive with your own used gear versus someone else's used gear. With your own used gear you know the service history and you probably had some sort of initial warranty to protect you from getting bad merchandise. When you buy someone else's used gear you have more unknowns and probably no warranty of any kind.

Since you are asking this question I will assume that you are not an expert at evealuating dive gear, so it would be prudent to have someone check out any used gear that you buy.

agreed, depending on the source, make sure you can get parts still for the item. I think you are better off buying a lower end regulator (will work for the vast majority of divers) and buy it new, more piece of mind unless you personally know the seller and know they take care of their gear well.

[awap]

Originally Posted by diver-wife

agreed, depending on the source, make sure you can get parts still for the item. I think you are better off buying a lower end regulator (will work for the vast majority of divers) and buy it new, more piece of mind unless you personally know the seller and know they take care of their gear well.

If you are knowledgeable about the used gear you are buying, knowing the seller & how they cared for the gear is not very important. If you are not knowledgeable about the used gear you are buying, then knowing the seller, manufacturer or dealer is, at best, second best.

[CompuDude]

Originally Posted by pyrotech

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that the biggest depreciation in used gear would be with dive computers. We all know what a 3-4 year old PC is worth (not much), and this seems like an area where advances are occurring faster than with mechanical components. Also, w/o a personal decomp chamber, how do you test one (or even repair it)?

Factory service.

Deco theory is not changing THAT fast, although you do lose out on newer features such as deep stops and such which are included on newer computers.

Still, for pure recreational diving, people have been diving some of those older computers for a long time and are doing just fine, so it's not entirely the end of the world to dive an older computer (within reason).