I occasionally see threads on SB and other sites asking about regulator reliability. My first response to most of the questions is we have no idea what the reliability of various regulators are because there is no published data. There is a corresponding question in my mind though and that is how are regulator maintenance schedules determined?
Part of my background is in equipment maintenance management. My organization uses Reliability Centered Maintenance as a foundation. Without a too-long explanation RCM starts in equipment design, calculating the probability of failure of individual parts and then prescribing a service schedule to prevent most failure based on accepted risk of failure. Equipment is then monitored throughout its life to determine if predicated failure data matches real world observed data and when they don't match service intervals are adjusted accordingly.
RCM is in a 3rd generation of the development of maintenance models. 1st generation was fix it when it breaks. 2nd generation of periodic overhaul of equipment. 3rd generation is service and replacement based on predicted failures. 4th generation is Conditions Based Maintenance enabled with monitoring using onboard sensors that can warn of impending failure.
From a laymans perspective it appears that the SCUBA industry is using a 2nd generation maintenance concept, but I am not an insider.
Was hoping some industry insiders like
@LandonL and
@cerich, and hopefully others, could provide some insight as to how service intervals are determined within the industry now and whether any maintenance data is collected and available for analysis.