Mares Instinct 12S Regulator

2016-05-09T05:48:49

For those with problems, more than 300 dives with it and i´m still alive!! Mediterranean sea, maldives with strong current, baja california, Atlantic ocean.... It works perfectly always, no matter how deep (at least 47m) or poor conditions, strong currents ... Breathe is easy on demand, when you need, its compact and light, perfect for travelling. i would recommend to anyone!

test t.

2016-02-02T04:19:44

Make a long story short, I bought one of these for my wife as it seemed like a perfect match...light weight, compact, budget friendly, ect. So anyway this reg had just came out. It had been out like a week when I got it for her. I was in pool with wife at local dive shop and she was a brand new diver so we were just practicing and switching regs back and forth( I had the Mares Abyss 42), well when I got her reg I went to pull on it after purging it, nothing but water, a full mouth of it! I tried purging it again, nothing but water, tried a 3rd time nothing but water. About this time I realized something wasn't right so I pulled out my octo and started breathing on that, all while my wife watching me deal with this problem first hand under water. Did I mention she was a brand new diver...? Anyway, I wrote on my under water pad that I had a problem with the reg and that we needed to surface and we did. Got to service and the first thing I did was went and grabbed a Tech at the dive shop to help me find out what was going on. As we inspected the unit, the exhaust diaphragm was hanging up on one of the 3 fins on the side exhaust allowing water to enter the unit by the mouth full. It was a straight design flaw on their behalf! Being it was a brand new design all together, the shop owner (this was in Dive Quarters in Virginia Beach by the way) called Mares to tell them about this huge problem. They apologized to me over and over and told me the regional manager(or whatever his title was) of the east coast of the USA would be calling me to get my findings on record. In the mean time Mares asked me to keep my mouth shut about this incident until they could figure out what was going on and they could get the reg back in Italy(If I'm not mistaken thats where it was sent to, the shop owner sent it off) to have it tested. Well the regional manager called me to say they found nothing but sorry for the inconvenience and made sure the shop owner took care of me, which he did. I can assure you 1000% it was a HUGE problem and I didn't take it lightly when he told me "its nothing". It WAS SOMETHING and a BIG DEAL, but at that point, it was out of my hands and what was I left to do...? Some will say its not true, or these events did not happen, or whatever but I have NO reason to make this stuff up, none whatsoever. Mares never followed up with me on how this problem was going to be addressed(even the tech at the shop said it was a design flaw) and started ignoring my phone calls and 2 email's I sent. It was very obvious they wanted to sweep my problem under the rug. I will NEVER spend another penny with Mares and I will not say which brand I switched to just because this is not my intentions of this review. Did I mention after my wife seeing that, she hasn't dove since..? It freaked her out and I could never get her past it. All she kept saying is "I could have panicked and that could have been the end of me"....and truth be told, with her being a new diver, even tho I didn't want to admit it to her, she was right. I had ALL Mares equipment, and its all been sold and gone. I will never buy another one of their products only because on how they handled this situation. I just hope someone didn't loose their life over them ignoring this serious problem.

JOHN B.

2015-11-16T08:14:03

I purchased this regular as part of a bundle, I did read the reviews and saw that one person had a similar issue. I took the chance based on the price and the other reviews. This was my first regulator and wanted to test it before my Hawaii trip.. So I took a buoyancy class. After getting in the water the front face plate popped off. Did not even get a chance to get it wet. There really is not much holding the front plate on. Working on the RMA now and hoping that they will let me trade it in for a different regulator.

Tim D.

2014-06-07T20:00:00

The Mares Instinct 12S Regulator had some breathe in problem during my first dive. It was very hard to breathe in together with some noise. I still don't know what's wrong with it but I am too far to send it back for warranty, so I just send it to a local service shop to check. I hope it is only a small problem, I am very disappointed with it.

Papa

2013-11-27T19:00:00

Using it into my dives all the time

Charles B.

2013-11-18T19:00:00

Not a bad idea for a regulator do to its innovative features although the purge button is made out of very weak plastic. This button broke off the 2nd dive after it took some light hits and bangs with the other equipment around the boat. Very fragile :S I would recommend it although users will need to be very aware of it most of the time trying to avoid it from banging around other equipment, boat, etc.

JM

2013-10-01T20:00:00

This regulator is relatively compact (though not as compact as I expected to be), the side exhaust performs very well and gets all the bubbles out of the way. It comes with a light flex hose which is personally my favorite hose preference. Pair it with a couple more such hoses, an inflator integrated alternative air source and a compact pressure gauge to build a perfect travel reg!

Ry