We present a systematic study of the effect of the ion pairing on the
gas-liquid phase transition of hard-core 1:1 electrolyte models. We study a
class of dipolar dimer models that depend on a parameter R_c, the maximum
separation between the ions that compose the dimer. This parameter can vary
from sigma_{+/-} that corresponds to the tightly tethered dipolar dimer model,
to R_c --> infinity, that corresponds to the Stillinger-Lovett description of
the free ion system. The coexistence curve and critical point parameters are
obtained as a function of R_c by grand canonical Monte Carlo techniques. Our
results show that this dependence is smooth but non-monotonic and converges
asymptotically towards the free ion case for relatively small values of R_c.
This fact allows us to describe the gas-liquid transition in the free ion model
as a transition between two dimerized fluid phases. The role of the unpaired
ions can be considered as a perturbation of this picture.Comment: 16 pages, 13 figures, submitted to Physical Review