Does this really ever happen? How often has /does a regulator actually fail?

[John_B]

Never fails.

Use that four-letter word (in gray above) and the cussin' & discussin' starts.

All I said was that there was more to being a self sufficient diver than just slinging a pony bottle. Not sure how you equate that to "cussin' & discussin'"... Do you always carry on complete conversations in your head?

 

[Dr. Lecter]

All I said was that there was more to being a self sufficient diver than just slinging a pony bottle. Not sure how you equate that to "cussin' & discussin'"... Do you always carry on complete conversations in your head?

Neither LPI issues nor self-sufficiency were under discussion in this thread, and were certainly not mentioned in the post to which you felt the need to reply about how a pony tank won't handle all aspects of your dive for you. You would have been just as on topic by explaining that the pony tank wouldn't save someone's ass if their computer failed.

 

[mathauck0814]

How often has /does a regulator actually fail?

Not talking about an out of air situation.

I'm talking a situation where you have plenty of air in your tank and you simply can not breathe off your reg.

Also to expand on this, how many of these regs were actually maintained properly?

I've never had a reg fail in a few thousand dives. Some that have burped or had IP creep causing minor gas loss but nothing catastrophic that caused me to abort.

 

[Peter_C]

After service once, I found my reg breathing very wet. Took it apart and found the diaphragm was not properly seated.

I have seen and adjusted a lot of second stage free flows mostly from rental regs.

 

[Trace Malinowski]

I had the lever inside the 2nd stage of a Dive Rite RG2500 regulator get twisted up like a pretzel. According to my buddy who is an authorized Dive Rite repair tech the reg should not have worked ... but it did. Discovered the problem when I opened it for a cave student to show her how to periodically check the second stage for safety. It had been recently serviced.

I've also had water leak in through a torn mouthpiece on an Apex. To fix this on the dive I removed the mouthpiece on my wing's oral inflator hose and stuffed it into the regulator outlet to create a bite plate. Borrowed another instructor's DIR rig that was set up and whose harness also fit me to make a repet dive when my rig was low on gas.

I've had 2 diaphragms fail simultaneously in Zeagle Flathead VI's when the friend who rebuilt them put old ones back. That ended up being a controlled emergency ascent since neither buddy donated gas to me. Regs were breathing so wet I could have drown. Warped diaphragms no longer would seat once removed. Freakin' guys! One dude was filming the other was running line and neither wanted the job of donor. Those were "properly serviced" too.

 

[markmud]

What if it's your inflator that fails "open" when that IP creeps up? Can you disconnect the hose when it's under pressure? Have you tried? There are a lot of potential problems that a pony bottle won't solve.

Hi John,

Umm, ah, so I shouldn't dive with a pony? That's not what you meant, or is it?

And yes, I have had an inflator stick. I did disconnect the LP inflator hose under pressure. However, my IP was on factory spec.

I do have a contingency plan for a run-away BC inflator system.

And now, back to the OP's topic:

Catastrophic regulator failures occur enough, according to this thread, that the prudent diver should have self-reliant type contingencies planned out.

markm

---------- Post added June 21st, 2014 at 08:54 AM ----------

, in part:

I've had 2 diaphragms fail simultaneously in Zeagle Flathead VI's when the friend who rebuilt them put old ones back. That ended up being a controlled emergency ascent since neither buddy donated gas to me. Regs were breathing so wet I could have drown. Warped diaphragms no longer would seat once removed. Freakin' guys! One dude was filming the other was running line and neither wanted the job of donor. Those were "properly serviced" too.

Hey Trace,

I wouldn't refer to those two guys as my buddies! Or, are you trying to be polite?

markm

 

[flots am]

I've had 2 diaphragms fail simultaneously in Zeagle Flathead VI's when the friend who rebuilt them put old ones back. That ended up being a controlled emergency ascent since neither buddy donated gas to me. Regs were breathing so wet I could have drown. Warped diaphragms no longer would seat once removed. Freakin' guys! One dude was filming the other was running line and neither wanted the job of donor. Those were "properly serviced" too.

With any luck I'll never know if this is paranoid or prudent, but I never dive with all recently serviced regs. Whether it's my pony or sidemount, if one was just serviced , the other one has been around for a while.

flots.

 

[markmud]

With any luck I'll never know if this is paranoid or prudent, but I never dive with all recently serviced regs. Whether it's my pony or sidemount, if one was just serviced , the other one has been around for a while.

flots.

Hey Flots,

Your synaptic functions are working well. That is a good tactic with which to accomplish my goal, and it fits my diving strategy.

Not paranoid, just plain prudent.

Thanks,

markm

 

[drrich2]

At the surface back swimming out from shore while shore diving in Bonaire, my main dive buddy had the 2nd stage come off the hose, resulting in some gas lost. Since we were at the surface, not a big deal; kind of interesting watching the ocean boil for a moment there.

Underwater, could've been bad news.

I think it had just recently been serviced.

I suspect that as time goes well past skipping a recommend service interval, your risk of failure goes up. Then again, it seems like shortly after servicing, your failure risk goes up a good deal. Wonder where the sweet spot is?

Richard.

 

[Dr. Lecter]

I suspect that as time goes well past skipping a recommend service interval, your risk of failure goes up. Then again, it seems like shortly after servicing, your failure risk goes up a good deal. Wonder where the sweet spot is?

Whenever the IP starts to creep and/or the cracking pressure goes wonky. How long that will take seems to be 5+ years for a high quality piston reg with a seat-saver second stage. Otherwise, keep em clean and don't with em.