Regulators are all built pretty much the same.... A needle valve, a metal or heavy polymer diaphragm, a spring, and an adjusting screw. I have numerous regulators for various jobs, mostly cutting and welding, compressed air, etc. I've only once or twice ever had problems with any of them... a leaking needle and seat is the classic mode of failure and is not usually the fault of the regulator, but the result of foreign matter. A sintered metal filter on the inlet prevents this, and many quality modern regulators have one, often built right into the stem, and visible as a metallic substance "clogging" the inlet.
You can spend a lot on a regulator or a little, and the differences are trivial at best. A "quality" regulator is "rebuildable", meaning that they sell parts to rebuild one or offer an exchange program, but the exchange is not cheap..... typically more than the cost of a cheap regulator. Expensive regulators are mostly just "brewing bling"......... They look cool and costly. I personally would invest the money in hops and malt, that new brew kettle or burner you want, etc........
There are several types of regulator, ones that vent, and ones that don't, and of course in the welding world none of them vent. Venting regulators blow off CO2 as you turn the regulator down so the needle settles at the desired pressure.... a nice feature for a serving regulator, or an air pressure regulator. In my world, there are single and two stage regulators...... mostly single stage.
Regulators come with one or two gauges...... the high side gauge is utterly useless, and only provides an attractive symmetrical appearance. It tells you NOTHING useful until your bottle is virtually empty. My favorite regulator (not a CO2 regulator), has no gauges at all, but micrometer type markings showing what your pressure is by the position of the adjusting knob. I have two of them, and they are very accurate, and have nothing to break. Taprite makes some gaugeless regulators, and if I were buying a new regulator for serving, that would probably be my choice. They may not be indexed, but I don't see that as any problem at all.
H.W.
