I'm interested in acquiring 4 Scubapro MK19 1st Stages
These were only released for the EU market for a brief time.
Any help would be great.
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I'm interested in acquiring 4 Scubapro MK19 1st Stages
These were only released for the EU market for a brief time.
Any help would be great.
I've never seen one and may not ever. As you said, Europe-only, and they've never covered them at the Continuing Education I am required to attend every two years.
Are these the Mk17 with the swivel turret? I have heard of them but I haven't seen one either.
Yes. I was told service kits aren't available, but heck, it supposedly uses the same turret o-ring, so adding that one o-ring to a Mark 17 kit will do.
I've seen a mk14. Can you make that into a mk19?
I can see the advantage for hose routing for someone wanting a diaphragm first stage. Seems like a good idea to me but I guess it didn't sale that well. If you can get the Germans to quit arguing with each other about whether to place a line arrow or not they might be able to find some for you.
I asked about the Mk 19 again at DEMA this year, and the answer I got was that it was not marketed in the US as it is too heavy. Really? Ever heard of the Scubapro Mk VII - the worlds first weight integrated reg?
I suspect the major issue with the Mk 19 and it's swivel turret was the perceived competition with the flagship Mk 25 - Scubapro is still very much a piston reg company.
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The Mk 14 was an interim non Scubapro design. Scubapro sold the Mk 14 for a few years to meet customer and dealer demand for diaphragm forst stage while they developed their own design - the Mk 16. As soon as the Mk16 was available the Mk 14 was dropped as it was being sold through other brands as well. In any event it has almost no parts commonality with the other Scubapro first stages and retrofitting a Scubapro turret isn't really an option.
The Mk 16 also had a swivel turret counterpart - the Mk 18 - which was once again intended for the European market. The basic design suffered from poor seat life, so Scubapro redesigned the seat and orifice and after making a few other improvements such as an additional HP port, and a sealed ambient chamber, introduced the redesigned first stage as the Mk 17 (along with the unsealed ambient chamber Mk 11, and the Mk 19 with the turret).
Scubapro is getting close to the release of an updated and slightly improved Mk 17. It will flow a bit more gas (247 SCFM) and all 4 LP ports are "high flow" ports. There are some minor detail changes as well, but nothing earth shattering.
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Some Mk 18 and Mk 19 regs did find their way to the US via the grey market with US shops buying them directly from European dealers and then importing and selling them here in the US, but the number imported that way were limited.
If you're looking for a way to put an end port on a Mk 17 rather than strictly a turret, and you're not married to a diaphragm reg, but want to spend less than you'd have to pay for a Mk 25, you might consider the Mk 21. It's a piston reg with 4 LP ports and no swivel turret, but it can be purchased with an end port option.
In essence, the Mk 21 is an updated analogy to the Mk 9 (which was a Mk 10 without a swivel turret), and it's a bit of a cross between the basic Mk 10 design (ambient chamber located in the main reg body, smaller diameter piston) and the Mk 25 (same seat and piston bushing parts). The reg body is cold forged rather than milled entirely from a billet, so Scubapro is able to sell them at a very decent price.
:rollguyQuote:
Originally Posted by DA Aquamaster
I remember the "Honker" quite well, the double piston reg??????Quote:
Originally Posted by FW
Thanks for the info all.
JonT
Got a hands on during my class this year. Agreed, nothing earth shattering, but nice to see some improvements. Our dive team uses the MK17 with our AGA's.Quote:
Originally Posted by DA Aquamaster
I've used the Mk 17 for well over a decade now for technical and cave diving. I gave up on the Mk 25 in cold water, as it just operated too close to the edge and had to be babied in water temps below 40 degrees F.Quote:
Originally Posted by DeputyTom
I've never had a problem with them in technical diving, and o converted 2 this afternoon to a non depth compensating configuration for use on rebreathers, as I see no reason to move away from something that works so well.
The Mk17 is one of the best sealed diaphragms ever made, its a shame that Scubapro released it because it never really got its due, Scubapro is such a pro piston company these were "shut up" regs and never really a focus of Scubapro.Quote:
Originally Posted by DA Aquamaster
That's the truth.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jont
I had to sit through yet another reg course to stay current on SP regs and listen to Rene Dupre talk about how great the Mk 25 is, at the expense of the Mark 17.
Once again they've improved the Mk 25's cold water performance to where they claim it is equal to the Mk 17 in cold water freeze resistance. Then he qualified it by saying that's in the lab - they can't control things like poor diver technique.
We've heard something along those lines before - every time the Mk 25 gets "improved". It begs the question why it still keeps needing to be further "improved" after all these years, and why it is still sensitive to poor diver technique in extremely cold water, while then Mk 17 is still, as always, virtually bullet proof even in extremely cold water.
We must've been in the same class. Where were you sitting?Quote:
Originally Posted by DA Aquamaster
In the Saturday class - second table from the front on the left hand side.Quote:
Originally Posted by DeputyTom
I was in the Thursday class. Too bad we didn't meet. I always like meeting other forum members.Quote:
Originally Posted by DA Aquamaster
I was planning on attending the Thursday class originally, but we opted for an extra day cave diving prior to DEMA and arrived Thursday afternoon rather than Wednesday evening, so I moved it to Saturday.Quote:
Originally Posted by DeputyTom