Dive World Austin says they do not maintain rental equipment until it fails

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Moral: you are responsible for the equipment that you use when diving. Period.

I think that is a bit of an oversimplification. Hopefully it is not intended to let the "dive professionals" off the hook.

Sure, a diver is responsible for his own safety and for the reasonable precautions taken to insure that. But the dive industry still has a certain responsibility for the training it requires and the gear it presents to customers; both for profit BTW. An LDS that fails to take reasonable and recommended precaution with the equipment they rent is failing to meet the responsibility of a for profit retailer.

One additional catch is that is a Scubapro shop. Scubapro recommends annual servicing of regulators. I guess the dive shop only agrees with that recommendation to the extent it put $$ into the coffers rather than takes $$ out.
 
Moral: you are responsible for the equipment that you use when diving. Period.

No..just..no..

I'll go back to the car analogy..if I rent a car, am I then responsible if the brakes need to be repaired? I don't think so.

The SHOP is responsible for providing gear that works, is properly maintained, and safe. PERIOD

As renters, we should inspect said gear..however...renters tend to fall into the casual diving crowd and therefore wouldn't know a blown o-ring if it bit em in the arse.
 
Wow, this has been an informative thread. Thank you everyone for your comments. I wanted to clear something up that I had seen in several messages.

I did not lose all of my air in five minutes, and I never said that. From my post:

"I got down to depth and noticed something strange (and scary). "
and
"I kept track of my air but it I was pretty low after about 5 minutes or so."

So, I got down to depth (I think it was around 60ft but I can't remember and don't have my log book handy) and had about five minutes there before I had to start back up. And, I had about 1000 psi before I started back so that I had enough to compensate for the leak and still make my safety stop.

Furthermore, it was not leaking on the first dive (or at least I didn't notice it). And, I didn't notice it leaking until I got down to depth on the second dive.

I am a new diver (not brand new, but under 20 dives at the time). I had no idea what to think of the air pouring (it wasn't bubbling) out of my SPG console. It had never happened before, I never saw it before, and it was scary for me. I was probably sucking air because I was freaking out, and I wasn't having fun, that's for sure.

And, there was a dive master there who helped me to calm down because the first thing I wanted to do when I saw that was start ascending (in a safe manner of course, I wasn't going shoot to the surface or do anything drastic). But even after their efforts, I spent the next few minutes watching it like a hawk, worrying, and still not having a good time.

Now that I know that it doesn't deplete your air as quickly as it would seem from the large amount of air flowing out, I'd be less worried. But, it doesn't change the fact that it ruined that dive. And, there was a huge amount of air escaping even without my most likely increased breathing.

I'm sure looking at this from someone that has a lot more experience than me you can see the holes in what I did. Yes, I should have checked the bite grips before I left the shop the first time. Of course, the second time I exchanged the equipment I did check the bite grips (since then I knew about such issues) and I found the bite grip issue even when the shop did not check it. But, I had no idea about checking for a slow leak. Now I do. I had no idea that the SPG console could start flowing air. Now I do. Would I do all those checks before I leave a shop again with rental gear? You bet. But, the SPG console was not leaking like it was on the second dive. When I returned it, you could hear the hissing very well. It wasn't like that at first since it would have been very obvious when I hooked up my gear.

I had not been diving more than twice a year, if that. So, I rented gear. And, I thought (apparently incorrectly) that all dive shops regularly check and maintain gear (check o-rings in the SPG, or gaskets, or whatever and replace them). In fact, I saw that as a huge advantage, having gear that was checked and maintained on a regular basis from a rental shop.

As I see it, if I can't rely on a shop to maintain their equipment, or if I have to worry about it, then I might as well buy my gear. I had an incorrect impression of rental gear and Dive World has opened my eyes.

And, it was mentioned that tanks were rented there several times with no issue. I want to re-iterate, our tanks were fine, our BCD's worked fine (although not weight-integrated like the two other U.S. shops I rented from), and the weight belts and weights were fine. We just had repeated issues with the regulators.

And, I don't know a whole lot about the equipment. I always rented mine and so I wouldn't know if this type of reg was better than any other type of reg. I noticed that the BCD was not weight integrated, but anything after that was beyond my experience level. But, when I talked with some of the more experienced divers, I was told that the equipment I had was pretty old and low-quality.

In any case, I had issue with the fact that he was not replacing the replaceable, wearable parts in the equipment prior to failure. I would think rubber o-rings would be cheap and easy to replace on an annual basis. And, I was blaming his not replacing the parts with the cause of it failing so drastically on the second time it was used.

Now I'm being told that it is normal for some shops not to check or replace parts on a regular basis. I am also being told that having a SPG console leak a lot is not a big deal. Ok, as I said, I am a newbie so I will have to defer to those that have more experience than me. It is a learning experience for sure.

I still feel it is his responsibility and duty to regularly replace those parts that wear out on his rental equipment even if it costs him a few bucks and even if it takes a little time and even if they haven't failed yet. But, perhaps that is an unfair expectation.

In any case, I have learned that I can't rely on rental equipment in all cases. And, even doing two dives a year or every two years, I am going to get my own equipment. I understand that even my own equipment can fail, but I can be sure that it's going to be serviced regularly and I'll most likely have the parts and tools necessary to repair simple things in the field if needed.

But, thank you everyone for their input. I'm not trying to bash Dive World. I'm not out to get them. If the equipment had worked I probably would have said I would have preferred weight-integrated BCD's but everything worked fine, and I would have said Dive World was okay. But, that was not my experience, I did not like having to make repeated trips to get things replaced, I did not like being told that I should have checked this or that (by him) almost as if it was not his responsibility too to check it (like he didn't the second time on the bite guard), that he's not responsible for maintaining it, that every one works the same way, that he just waits for it to fail, etc.

I rented from two dive operators in Cozumel, a liveaboard operator in Thailand, ClearSprings (rented directly from them), and Adventure Scuba in Plano (got my cert from them and rented from them). In all cases, everything worked with no issues. So, maybe I was just lucky, maybe they maintain their equipment better, maybe they have better equipment, there's no telling. I'd imagine they struggle with the same issues that every other dive shop does. But, in their case, everything was fine.
 
I'm sure this has been a significant learning experience for you. All people should remember that there is not much profit to made in the dive industry any more, so many shops will be saving wherever they can. They won't deliberately and cynically rent out faulty equipment, but they may well extend their service inspections a bit too far.

Please also note that having your own equipment is not a panacea. The tiny O-rings in the connection of your SPG to the hose are very delicate, and if with age the rubber "grabs" at the metal you can suddenly have a severe leak, from nothing. With little use the O-ring at the connection between a second stage and the hose can similarly abruptly fail, with absolutely no warning.

And of course if a regulator has been inadequately serviced (all too common these days) you'll notice it on your first few dives post-service. Don't have your gear serviced just before a big diving holiday - get it done at least a month in advance, and take it to a swimming pool session of your local dive club (if you don't belong to one, join) and test it out.
 
The tiny O-rings in the connection of your SPG to the hose are very delicate, and if with age the rubber "grabs" at the metal you can suddenly have a severe leak, from nothing. With little use the O-ring at the connection between a second stage and the hose can similarly abruptly fail, with absolutely no warning.

Wow, since I had never encountered a problem before, I had no idea how fragile these things were.

I'll keep your advice in mind. And, the advice of "awap" about how to check for leaks.

BTW, I'm a big fan of ScubaToys and found this on their site. It's a nice link on how to replace o-rings yourself. I thought I'd provide it:

High Pressure Spool on Scuba Gauge Leaking

I will probably post a link to a video this weekend showing just how great the "stream" of air was. And, mine was a consolue unit with a compass, pressure guage, and depth meter. But I imagine it looks the same at the hose part. I was just trying to find an example of what these things look like when taken apart to figure out what would fail and if it was something I could do myself in the field if needed, since they are so fragile.
 
It is extremely rare for me to weigh in on an issue on scubaboard; however, in this case I cannot resist...
I find it extremely disturbing to see the complacency with regard to safety (and even customer service). Divers are very quick to forget that a regulator is a piece of life support equipment. Period--end of story. If ANYONE can justify the potenetial loss of life (even from a panic induced Arterial Gas Embolism due to equipment failure (or a percieved failure) to put a shop closer to being in the black, then it is time to find a safer sport to partake in and time for that shop to close the doors. Once an incident occurs, the shop being out of business part will take care of itself through natural selection and litigation.
If a shop overlooks visual defects upon the return and the subsequent re-issue of rental equipment, then I can promise you the "guts" (important things you can't see) are suffering, as well.
The sad thing is that as dive-professionals we have an ethical obligation to insure the safety of those who place their lives in our hands. The demise of that doctrine is glaringly apparent in too many fronts -- not only in the SCUBA industry, but world at large, as well. Complacency and lack of accoutability are are not only an undesireable combination, in our business they are potentially deadly.
[Disclaimer: this post is not directed at any paricular retail entity or individual engaged in the sport of SCUBA Diving. If you fall, categorically, into any of the less-than-desireable parctices or display any of the traits described above, then fix it...]
 
O Ring Kit reviews and discounts, ScubaToys

O-ring kits are $5.00 for 40 pieces. Pretty sure that would cover more than one spg, or tank, or reg or w/e

I knew they were cheap...but daaanng

Its IN-execusable that a shop would let such simple maint fall behind. If a shop cared even a smidge about their business, they could foot the cost of something so inexpensive.

And a standard mouthpiece replacement is $3.95.

I have an idea...it could be fun...lets everyone order one of those o-ring kits and send them to the store :D
 
"I still feel it is his responsibility and duty to regularly replace those parts that wear out on his rental equipment even if it costs him a few bucks and even if it takes a little time and even if they haven't failed yet. But, perhaps that is an unfair expectation."

Well one thing is clear, good customer service in ANY field would at the bare minimum state that when a customer brings back some item sold or rented from a shop that is defected (not abused by the customer) the shop should do within reason what it takes to make it right. In this case a full refund seems appropriate. Then the message board would have read more along the lines that such and such happened but I was impressed that the scuba shop corrected the problem. Sadly good customer service is become quite hard to find in the US these days.
 
Speaking from experience I can tell you that rental gear is one of the highest profit items in the scuba shop. There is no reason why any shop, anywhere, should rent faulty equipment. I was able to rent quality gear, and a low price and then I just sold the rental gear as it started to show discoloration, fraying, scratches, etc. I even did a service kit on used gear before I sold it. It was easy to keep new gear rotating in and out frequently. I never, ever, wanted to see my scuba students in crappy falling apart gear. I think it reflects poorly on the shop as a whole. How can a new diver gain trust in their dive shop and their dive professionals while their rig is leaking air? We always brought extra sets of gear in the trailer, if anything happened, we switched it out immediately. It was tagged, brought back to the shop and serviced. Don't even get started on wetsuits. Who would want to try and struggle into a 5 mil or 7 mil that is stiff as a board in 100 degree heat? It's easy for a shop to rotate in and out old wetsuits to new. That's what sidewalk sales are for.
 
Speaking from experience I can tell you that rental gear is one of the highest profit items in the scuba shop

Also speaking from experience, I disagree. Perhaps in mainland USA that's true, but it isn't here in Belize, nor I suspect in many other resort destinations. I started out with the same policies as you, but within a short while the local market was saturated with used gear and I couldn't sell it.

Here the vast majority of dive shops give rental gear free, and if you try to charge for it your customers simply go elsewhere.
 
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