Thirty Years-Out: Still Alive . . .

[Bigbella]

While recently taking an inventory of gear and service records, I realized that one of my “newer” regulators, was fast approaching thirty years of being on the job, without missing a beat.

The Poseidon Odin was 300.00, back in 1991, purchased at the late-lamented Pacific Offshore Divers, in San Jose, California. They even threw in an LP inflator hose, on the house; and the sylphs at Poseidon included a gaudy yellow regulator bag with a new regulator, back then, which has ironically out-lived several other more tasteful ones.

That regulator has been overhauled, probably some fifteen times, since then — most recently, last month, still with its original servo and guts in the second; and thanks to @rsingler and his Micromesh advice, the original piston, as well . . .

 

[Bigbella]

Always look for the most obvious issue; but, sadly, I haven't always taken my own advice . . .

Overhauling another decades-old regulator for a friend, who wished to salvage as many "decent" o-rings as possible -- regardless of my opinion, that reality is only tenuously held together with rubber bands, we ran into an unforeseen leakage issue at the first stage base, while testing the regulator before disassembly, which, stupidly, took a good while to pinpoint -- and was weirdly unnoticeable at 20 bar, but was whistling rudely at about 250.

It gave us both a new-found respect for o-rings.

We must have taken the balanced housing (the conical-shaped piece, with the piston, in the center) apart twice, looking for its source, among the various fiddly bits -- teflon washer; dinky o-ring; spacer; piston and spring. Even the seat was removed; examined under a dissecting scope, and reinstalled -- still the damn leak.

When all was said and done, we finally checked every o-ring under magnification and found the culprit -- the main seal for the balanced housing, as big as life -- all tweaked and gouged.

All that Sturm und Drang, for a rubber band -- which, under proper conditions, can withstand 300 bar (about 4350 psi).

I sold her on the idea of new parts; the prospect of an adult beverage; and the patient is resting comfortably -- "properly pumped" at about 8.6 bar . . .

 

[rsingler]

For those reading along...

classmate...who wished to salvage as many "decent" o-rings as possible -- regardless of my opinion

@Bigbella was absolutely right.
Yeah, cleaning up corrosion is one reason to service. But the real reason to service is to replace the dynamic orings! The reg is metal, the dynamic orings exposed to rubbing are obviously not. The reg pictured has two dynamic orings. Even in Viton, that's less than $0.25. Have your classmate call me next time. I'll send both for free. Reuse the static orings if you must (altho' in this case, it was a static oring that was leaking). Heck, even reuse the diapragm if you want! But save 25c? The vinegar cost that much.
I hope your classmate at least conceded the silliness of that particular "savings". My condolences.