advice needed for regualtor choice

[pemcve7]

Hello all,

For the last five years I have taken all my gear into a LDS for regular servicing $55 dollars for tank $80 for regulators etc. Having 3 tanks and two sets of gear makes this an expensive annual dread. I have recently found a local gas shop that inspects tanks for $22, only by accident. I had a few friends who wanted their tanks serviced before a trip so I had a total of 10 tanks to be checked and stamped. I rang the gas store to see if they could do the service. They stated they could. I found out when I went in to pick them up that they should not have really done this for private individuals (I think they assumed due to the quantity of tanks that I was a dive store operator/employee). I don’t know about the specific regulations that this sort of ‘agreement’ between dive stores and gas store broke but I am sure that it is illegal. This incident occurred 1 ½ years ago so it might have changed since then. This story might not mean much to those divers who can simply flex their consumer muscles and move to the next LSD, however there are places where the next LDS is 300km away.

When it comes to the purchasing of new gear I face the same problem. My dream kit was going to set me back around $3500AUS from the LDS. Even a quick glance at any of the online stores reveals that this is grossly over priced. I am not much of an economist but realise that this does not bode well for LDS let alone small economies.

I am aware of the debate as to service your own regulators or to leave it to professionals at your LDS. As someone who dives semi-regularly (once every 2 weeks) at local dive sites (mostly 10-15m in depth, calm water etc) my purchase choice this time around, will be heavily influenced on availability of replacement parts, freedom of information in regards to manuals, simplicity, and price.

If anyone could point me in the right direction for other threads on this topic, articles etc, it would be great. If anyone could recommend a few choices of regulators/gear that fit these specifications roughly, this would also be appreciated. Does any scuba shop sell parts kits to private buyers?

Thanks

Peter

 

[Mark Vlahos]

I am aware of the debate as to service your own regulators or to leave it to professionals at your LDS. As someone who dives semi-regularly (once every 2 weeks) at local dive sites (mostly 10-15m in depth, calm water etc) my purchase choice this time around, will be heavily influenced on availability of replacement parts, freedom of information in regards to manuals, simplicity, and price.

If anyone could point me in the right direction for other threads on this topic, articles etc, it would be great. If anyone could recommend a few choices of regulators/gear that fit these specifications roughly, this would also be appreciated. Does any scuba shop sell parts kits to private buyers?

Thanks

Peter

DiveRite Express in Florida sells replacement parts kits for the current and most recent Dive Rite regulators. The prices on the website are retail with no discounting, but free shipping with orders of $25US or more. Your profile does not indicate where in the world you are located, so the free shipping thing might not be available to you if you are located outside of the USA.

I could easily be wrong on this, but as far as I know this is the only above board factory permitted situation where the average consumer can get repair kits filled with factory parts from a factory authorized merchant. The website does include a downloadable copy of the repair manual, so if you have never done this before the instructions are right there.

I do not own any of these regulators, but I am in the early stages of making a decision about regulators for doubles and replacements for my recreational set up, so I am looking into purchasing 3 sets. I have a friend who is a big fan of apeks regs and he has an opportunity to take some of these new dive rite regs apart. Once he has done this he will let me know if the internals are comperable in quality. At this time I am waiting patiently, but should expect to know within a month or so.

I hope this helps,

Mark Vlahos

 

[rescuediver009]

although I would not recommend servicing your regulators I think that one of two solutions can help your regulator service bill:

If you buy a new regulator get one with a warranty. This would cover your parts and reduce the cost. If your price listed is the price before parts that is even worse, and you should look elsewhere to service you stuff. I would ship it the 300km.

Second solution is that since you only dive every couple weeks, I would service the regs every other year (if there is not parts warranty) This will greatly offset your costs.