Not servicing my gear EVER!

[MXGratefulDiver]

As Akimbo posted, the most likely thing to happen will be a freeflow. It probably won't be sudden or catastrophic ... but rather more like a steady dribble of air that comes out the second-stage vent even when you're not breathing out. Besides being annoying as all hell, it'll help you go through your air supply rather more quickly than you'd like to.

Inside of your first stage is this thing called a "seat" ... think of it like a brake pad on your car, in that it's designed to move against a metal part, and it's made of a softer substance than the metal "knife edge" that it seats against. The purpose of the seat is to seal off air flow when you stop inhaling. Over time, it wears out, and when you get your reg serviced it gets replaced. But if you don't replace it, the wear will eventually reach the point where it will no longer seal when it seats against the knife edge. Worse, it can wear to the point where it damages the knife edge ... just as a brake pad can wear to the point where it digs grooves into the disk on your car's wheel. When you damage the knife edge on your regulator, however, you cannot replace it ... and your first stage becomes a nice paperweight that you can put on your desk as a conversation piece.

So in the long term, it's cheaper to service your reg than to have to replace it prematurely.

Caveat ... now, before the "experts" jump in, this is a simiplified explanation intended to answer the OP's question, not provide a dissertation on how a regulator works. For the latter, I recommend the Scuba Regulator Maintenance and Repair book by Vance Harlow.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[PvtStash]

In early 2008 I bought a Titan LX Supreme.... I dove it till August of this year, it has over 300 dives on it and breathes as good as the day I bought it.

Its never been serviced. I dont intend to get it serviced.

I am of the "dont fix it if it aint broke" mentality and, from countless posts made here on the board, it seems you may be just as likely setting yourself up for an incident by getting it serviced than not...

As long as it gives me no signs of requiring service I'll be saving that not insignificant servicing money.

Especially now that I wont be using that regset anywhere near as often (if ever) as I've replaced them with an Apeks xtx50/xtx50/DS4 setup.

I think perhaps I might feel differently if I dove saltwater frequently, but I'm in the Great Lakes area and the freshwater is easier on gear.

yes... yes... I'm going to die... (but so will you)...

 

[halocline]

If you never service your reg, eventually it will fail. The failure will probably be a leak, and probably happen on land when you first pressurize it. So, you'll miss that dive. If it happens underwater while you're diving, you'll have to abort the dive and possibly get some air from your buddy. IOW, if you are following safe OW diving practices, never servicing your reg carries a very small, if any, additional risk of injury.

As far as which reg is likely to last the longest without service, my guess would be either a MK2, similar sherwood 1st, or conshelf 1st, and a 109 2nd stage. But, I bet a MK20/25 with a good duro 90 HP o-ring and the new composite piston could go several hundred dives without creeping. It's kind of an interesting questions for us regulator geeks.

I am not advocating never servicing your reg; in fact I probably service mine too often, but I do it myself, I enjoy it, and I take a bit of pride in how well they're adjusted and maintained.

 

[herman]

Not that I am recommending it but odds are a well made first stage that is taken reasonable care of will go a lot longer than you might think. I pick up vintage regs of unknown care fairly often to tinker with. I have no idea when they were last serviced but for sure it's been 20+ years simply because the company that made them has been out of business at least that long. The first thing I do is to pressure them up and test them. You would be surprised at the number of times a 30 to 40 year old reg will perform fine after who knows how long sitting in a box and 90% of them work perfect after just a cleaning and relube using the same orings and seats. The ones that don't usually just have a slight IP creep, something a lot of divers would not even notice.

A lot of the "problems" than need to be "fixed" every year or 2 by service just don't show up that much as some would have you believe. Orings that are not subjected to improper lubes will last many years (as evidenced by my inspecting and reusing them in vintage regs) and unless dove constantly the HP seats will to some extent rebound with limited use. HP sets really don't "wear" in the sense of material being removed, they deform or get hard making their sealing ability less. And when setting idle, HP seats are not under load, the springs in the reg keep the seat open unless there is sufficient air pressure to close them. Second stages are actually the biggest problem. The seats on them stay under constant pressure and are made of softer material so they do tend to deform and harden faster than the parts in a first stage. To continue with the brake analogy a little, consider the orings in your brakes. They are constantly subjected to high and low temperatures, high pressures and a dirty environment but they do 10s of thousands of cycles each year yet leaks are fairly uncommon. The vast majority of the time brakes are serviced is to restore the brake pads/shoes from wear, not because of oring failure. The life of a scuba oring is easy compared to the life of a brake oring.

Which reg would go the longest is hard to guess but one of the simple flow by piston regs like the MK-2, Sherwoods and a host of others from the past would be my first choice. Still, the diaphragm design of USD/AL is hard to beat, I have seen plenty of them 30 to 40 yo that are working fine when I get them.

I am not suggesting that never servicing a reg is a good idea, far from it but the idea that they are in bad shape and need service after a year or 2 does not hold true either. The vintage regs I restore and reuse the orings in I don't intend to dive other than maybe fun pool dives. I do it just for fun and to study the old designs. If I intend to dive it on a regular basis or in OW, I will replace the internal orings and seats, although you can bet it's not every year. 90% of my dives are made on 30+ yo restored regs.

 

[BoltSnap]

If you won't service your regulators and intend to dive regularly, I would use the Atomic factory sealed FS B2 regulator or the T2. You'll probably have much higher chances of nothing going wrong if you don't service them for a very long time.

This is what I am using now while living/diving in Libya since access to a regulator service center here is not available. I haven't serviced my regulators in about 5 years without any problems. I'd have them serviced when I go back to Boston and plan to stay there long enough to be able to pick them up and take them back to Libya on the same trip.

Maybe it would be a good idea to start a small regulator service center here in Libya since they don't exist now. I see Mares, Seacsub regulators sold but no one offers service/repairs.

 

[BoltSnap]

Duplicate posting, sorry.

 

[Evie G]

I had my gear serviced just before i went on a dive trip. & I specifically told the technician my inflator button is sticking a bit, as it happened on a day trip i did, a few days before in preparation for my sardine run in Pescador Island.

During my very first dive on said trip. The button stuck while im at depth, it wouldnt budge, pumping air sooo fast into my wing, i went up! Good, I didnt panic.. dumped air, swam down & disengaged the hose fr the inflator.

Back at the dive shop, the manager/technician took apart my inflator & saw dirt inside & a part of the o-ring out of its groove! I took a picture of it as evidence before he fixed it for me.

Im sooo disappointed w/ the shop who serviced my gears. When i told them what happened & showed them the pics, all they can say is sorry. & they returned the service fee they charged me.

Now Im scared to have my dive gears serviced. What if something more like this happen? Or God forbid, anything worse?? Can i learn how to clean & service my own gears?

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I had my gear serviced just before i went on a dive trip. & I specifically told the technician my inflator button is sticking a bit, as it happened on a day trip i did, a few days before in preparation for my sardine run in Pescador Island.

During my very first dive on said trip. The button stuck while im at depth, it wouldnt budge, pumping air sooo fast into my wing, i went up! Good, I didnt panic.. dumped air, swam down & disengaged the hose fr the inflator.

Back at the dive shop, the manager/technician took apart my inflator & saw dirt inside & a part of the o-ring out of its groove! I took a picture of it as evidence before he fixed it for me.

Im sooo disappointed w/ the shop who serviced my gears. When i told them what happened & showed them the pics, all they can say is sorry. & they returned the service fee they charged me.

Now Im scared to have my dive gears serviced. What if something more like this happen? Or God forbid, anything worse?? Can i learn how to clean & service my own gears?

BCD inflator valves are actually pretty simple to service. The service kit consists of a few o-rings, and costs around $5. Deep Sea Supply builds a tool that makes taking them apart and putting back together again a snap. It helps to have an ultrasonic cleaner (I got mine from Harbor Freight for around $80) ... but it's not mandatory.

Might be a good idea to have someone walk you through it the first time, but it's not rocket surgery ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Fishpie]

In the 20 years that I've been putting on a wetsuit for a living there have been a couple of stand-out reliable regulators.

2nd stage.......I have never seen a 14, 21, SE or SE2 that ever had to have a new LP seat (the red ones seem particularly good)

I have an Apeks DST that I bought directly from a Zeagle rep in 1991. It was a used demo.......I have never changed a seat or o ring in nearly 20 years of continuous use (it been cleaned, lubed and adjusted about 6 or 7 times) It's first 5 years it was my primary use reg......the last 10 years it has been my pool reg.

 

[diverrex]

As a side view, has anyone considered the economics of this attitude?

I do not mean a saving money, but more of a break even idea.

How much does it cost to service your reg each year?

I know I have paid the cost of a new reg many times over in yearly service costs.

Maybe I should just toss my reg and buy a new every 3 (4 ?) years. Not sure I want to go that long with an unserviced reg. But something to consider?

I know someone who has been doing just that. He buys a new reg every 3-4 years, never gets it serviced then sells it on ebay after 3-4 years figuring the added cost for the next new reg is not much more than the cumulative annual service he has skipped but at least he is always diving a fairly new reg. Considering the costs of annual service it's an interesting way to go. I get my SCUBAPRO reg serviced every year, to each their own I guess.

Taking the car analogy further I'm not sure many of us would be happy to buy a $30,000 new car and then spend $4,000 or so on service the very first year and every year thereafter.