SPG failure frequency?

[refinished]

How often do these things go belly up? I have never seen one go bad before, but I had one go from 'no-obvious-issues' to 'reads-800-too-high' to 'needle-swings-with-gravity' over the course of a couple days. The discovery of this issue was.... cause for alarm. It was a Sherwood - perhaps 9 or 10 years old.

Is this kind of thing pretty infrequent? My reg tech thinks it was sea water infiltration during a tank swap - perhaps occurring days before the failure. It was a guess... Since this is arguably the most important measurement device you take down with you, I am curious to know if this is more common than I have personally witnessed???

 

[Footslogger]

I've probably been fortunate but in over 30 years of diving I have never (knock on wood) had the actual gauge fail. I've had hose leaks but the SPG's themselves have performed admirably, especially considering some of the abuse they've suffered.

 

[Gilldiver]

I have seen the face break or leak and you get water into the face, but the needle still works. I have also seen the swivels O-rings go and leak and even seen two gage consoles blow off because the female nut on the swivel backed off of the hose thread.

When you have your reg serviced, make sure they also change you gage swivel o-rings and make sure the connection is tight. Many shops do not service a gage or console when they do the yearly. You should also get used to changing the o-rings yourself, its not hard and only takes a few minutes. Spare swivel o-rings should be in your save a dive kit.

Your problem sounds like the needle has slipped on gage shaft, I haven’t seen that before but it could happen. Anyway, you need a new gage.

 

[Peter Guy]

This is a question that has interested me -- especially the actual failure rates of SPG's vs. AI computers (and I don't consider a battery that fails AFTER WARNING a failure of the computer -- I consider that a failure of the operator).

HOWEVER, refinished wrote

Since this is arguably the most important measurement device you take down with you

which is an interesting question -- is it? It seems to me that your depth guage and watch (BT) are MUCH more important than an SPG (and those are the two guages that were available when I first started diving). Because you should have a reasonable estimate of your gas useage, by knowing depth and time, you should be able to reasonably estimate your remaining gas supply. But guestimating time or depth would be much harder to do than guestimating remaining gas (I think).

Comments?

 

[refinished]

Interesting - I was thinking that perhaps I had the luck of not having witnessed these failures despite them happening all the time. I did get a new gauge (Dive Rite) and will be put in new o-rings in the swivel as recommended. I'm going to take the thing apart when I get the reg set back from the shop before I can it. The needle appears to be firm on the shaft - it's the shaft that looks to be free to move. WIll know for sure after I dissect.

Peter - Interesting question for sure, can you start a new thread for it? I think if you remove the words 'take down with you' my intended meaning is left.

 

[robint]

My first SPG failed on me during my AOW class. It stuck at 15' deptch and wouldn't move. I ended up finishing the class but using a loaner. I took it back to the dive shop (it was only a few months old) and they tried to fix it but found it was defective and wanted to send it back to the manufacturer. Since I was doing another class in a matter of weeks I decided to skip it and trade up for a computer. Best decision I ever made. I have been diving 7+ years, 250+ dives, and no more problems with gear failure.

robint

 

[Rainer]

My first SPG failed on me during my AOW class. It stuck at 15' deptch and wouldn't move. I ended up finishing the class but using a loaner. I took it back to the dive shop (it was only a few months old) and they tried to fix it but found it was defective and wanted to send it back to the manufacturer. Since I was doing another class in a matter of weeks I decided to skip it and trade up for a computer. Best decision I ever made. I have been diving 7+ years, 250+ dives, and no more problems with gear failure.

robint

That's a pretty broken SPG if it's showing depth!

 

[robint]

duh, sorry bout that...... I meant that the depth gauge failed, I replaced the whole unit. I'm not blonde, really!!!

 

[airsix]

I've had 2 SPG failures in 20 years. I've had no other breathing-equipment failures - just SPGs. Both were maintained by a shop. First was a manufacturing defect (it flooded), the second was poor service - the spool was apparently never lubricated as part of regulator service, and it froze up. This caused it to shear when the gauge was turned on it's swivel. The first failure was non-disruptive, but the second was catastrophic.


-Ben M.

 

[spectrum]

I had a failure on a 6 month old tank checker. The case plug blew and the protective boot popped off the gauge. Scared the crap out of me but it was harmless. The leak was a small one, not a catastrophic failure.

Pete