nereas
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With winter solstice upon the Northern Hemisphere now, it is a good time to perform all annual maintenance on all of your scuba equipment in the game of scuba toys.
I start this game each year this time by disconnecting all the hoses from my first-stage and second-stage regulators. Then I inspect the hoses to see if there are any cracks or bulges. If the hoses look okay, then I will reconnect them to the stages after also inspecting the connection ports. If the hoses look worn, then it is time to take them to the local scuba store and buy replacements.
Whenever you buy a replacement for anything anywhere in the world, it is a great idea to take the old part with you, so that the vendor can tell exactly what you need and want. Then once you find it, it is a good idea to compare the two, the old with the new, to make sure you got the right part.
Once I replace and reassemble the hoses and regs, then I will take the regs to the local store for their annual maintenance servicing. I played at not doing this with an actively used reg once, waiting just under two years to take it in, and I found out that one day the reg began to perform really poorly at 90 feet depth, a bad time to find this out. But I wanted to know if it really made sense to do this servicing annually, and I found out that it does.
I have several regs, and so I do so for each one.
If you own your tanks, and your regs have yoke mounts on them, now is also a good time to have the regs and valves converted to DIN. The store can make a DIN-yoke converter out of the spare parts for you, for your tropical trips when you do not dive with your own tanks.
Next, I will take apart my B/C, consisting of a SS plate with two flat additional weight plates attached to it, together with about 12 feet of webbing, four D-rings, keepers, a buckle, and an Oxycheq wing. Anything worn, stained, or corroded gets replaced before I put it all back together. [Most people these days do not call a BPW a B/C, but that is still what it is and always what it was.]
The power-inflator on the wing needs to be serviced annually as well, and so I will unscrew this from the wing and take it to the store for disassembly and reassembly. I have several power-inflator assemblies at home, one of which I keep in my save-a-dive kit, and so I will then replace the assembly on the wing with a newer one, and once the older one finishes its servicing, then it becomes my new backup. A lot of divers overlook this, and then when their inflator finally sticks open due to corrosion, they wonder "Why did this happen to me?"
Fins, mask, and snorkel then get the same inspections. With the fins, the spring straps need a quick look. If you have not yet converted your fins to springs, now is a good time to go to your local store and do so. Bring with you whatever boot you wear when you scuba, so that the new springs can be fitted exactly without guesswork. You will love these, because they make it so easy to get your fins on and off, and they never seem to break like straps can.
With the mask, the main thing to check is the mask skirt and the head strap. If you stretch the strap a little, it should not break. If it breaks, then better that it happened now, so then you need a new one.
The snorkel main issue will be the connection point with your mask strap. If this is getting old and brittle, it needs to be replaced. For those who dive in lakes or seas, a snorkel is an extremely good piece of gear to have. But if only going into spring ponds for cave diving, then you definitely do not need a snorkel for the latter. Do not kid yourself however about trying to look like a cave diver in the oceans and other large bodies of water.
The thermal suit(s) then deserve attention as well. For my wetsuits, I just check the seams and the zippers. For my drysuit, I will closely examine the seals, the attached boots, and the exhaust valve. Anything that looks like it needs replacing gets replaced now.
Lights and their batteries deserve a close look as well. I have two rechargers, and I run them at the same time to recharge my two batteries for my two cave lights. The recharging time should be about the same. If one of them takes longer than the other, this is a clue that either the battery or the recharger is defective. In that case, it needs to be shipped back to the OEM for inspection and replacement.
The battery in each of my two dive computers lasts about 2 years. So I like to replace these each in alternating years. Whichever one I replaced last year, I now replace the other one this year.
There is not much that can go wrong with a weight belt, but it also gets the annual once-over as well.
I hope these suggestions help out with your diving fun and your diving safety.
I start this game each year this time by disconnecting all the hoses from my first-stage and second-stage regulators. Then I inspect the hoses to see if there are any cracks or bulges. If the hoses look okay, then I will reconnect them to the stages after also inspecting the connection ports. If the hoses look worn, then it is time to take them to the local scuba store and buy replacements.
Whenever you buy a replacement for anything anywhere in the world, it is a great idea to take the old part with you, so that the vendor can tell exactly what you need and want. Then once you find it, it is a good idea to compare the two, the old with the new, to make sure you got the right part.
Once I replace and reassemble the hoses and regs, then I will take the regs to the local store for their annual maintenance servicing. I played at not doing this with an actively used reg once, waiting just under two years to take it in, and I found out that one day the reg began to perform really poorly at 90 feet depth, a bad time to find this out. But I wanted to know if it really made sense to do this servicing annually, and I found out that it does.
I have several regs, and so I do so for each one.
If you own your tanks, and your regs have yoke mounts on them, now is also a good time to have the regs and valves converted to DIN. The store can make a DIN-yoke converter out of the spare parts for you, for your tropical trips when you do not dive with your own tanks.
Next, I will take apart my B/C, consisting of a SS plate with two flat additional weight plates attached to it, together with about 12 feet of webbing, four D-rings, keepers, a buckle, and an Oxycheq wing. Anything worn, stained, or corroded gets replaced before I put it all back together. [Most people these days do not call a BPW a B/C, but that is still what it is and always what it was.]
The power-inflator on the wing needs to be serviced annually as well, and so I will unscrew this from the wing and take it to the store for disassembly and reassembly. I have several power-inflator assemblies at home, one of which I keep in my save-a-dive kit, and so I will then replace the assembly on the wing with a newer one, and once the older one finishes its servicing, then it becomes my new backup. A lot of divers overlook this, and then when their inflator finally sticks open due to corrosion, they wonder "Why did this happen to me?"
Fins, mask, and snorkel then get the same inspections. With the fins, the spring straps need a quick look. If you have not yet converted your fins to springs, now is a good time to go to your local store and do so. Bring with you whatever boot you wear when you scuba, so that the new springs can be fitted exactly without guesswork. You will love these, because they make it so easy to get your fins on and off, and they never seem to break like straps can.
With the mask, the main thing to check is the mask skirt and the head strap. If you stretch the strap a little, it should not break. If it breaks, then better that it happened now, so then you need a new one.
The snorkel main issue will be the connection point with your mask strap. If this is getting old and brittle, it needs to be replaced. For those who dive in lakes or seas, a snorkel is an extremely good piece of gear to have. But if only going into spring ponds for cave diving, then you definitely do not need a snorkel for the latter. Do not kid yourself however about trying to look like a cave diver in the oceans and other large bodies of water.
The thermal suit(s) then deserve attention as well. For my wetsuits, I just check the seams and the zippers. For my drysuit, I will closely examine the seals, the attached boots, and the exhaust valve. Anything that looks like it needs replacing gets replaced now.
Lights and their batteries deserve a close look as well. I have two rechargers, and I run them at the same time to recharge my two batteries for my two cave lights. The recharging time should be about the same. If one of them takes longer than the other, this is a clue that either the battery or the recharger is defective. In that case, it needs to be shipped back to the OEM for inspection and replacement.
The battery in each of my two dive computers lasts about 2 years. So I like to replace these each in alternating years. Whichever one I replaced last year, I now replace the other one this year.
There is not much that can go wrong with a weight belt, but it also gets the annual once-over as well.
I hope these suggestions help out with your diving fun and your diving safety.
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