Any danger in shipping gear?

[mastakebob]

OK, so this post kinda goes for all gear, but i'm most worried about my regulator.

I recently moved to Kuwait (<sarcasm>woohoo</sarcasm>). I had all my gear mailed to me. I unpacked it today, and when I went to confirm that my light still worked, it was all screwed up. Some brown gunk all over the inside, which I'm assuming was battery acid that might have escaped during extremely high temperatures or extremely low pressures. Also, when I went to unscrew the top to clean the brown stuff out, the environmental seal around the threads turned out to be stuck to the housing threads, and the whole seal tore in half. Needless to say, the thing was totalled and I tossed it. I'm working under the assumption that this occurred because of the shipping, and that the change in altitudes and extreme temperatures (it's been about 115+ everyday here so you can imagine how hot it gets inside an unconditioned CONEX container) damaged the light.
While I'm sad about losing a perfectly good light, I'm more worried about my regulator. I looked it over and it looked fine, but I'm not regulator expert so besides saying that the hoses and the casings look good, I'm not sure what else to check for.

Has anyone ever had anything bad happen to regulators during transit? Should I get it checked out? I'm not even sure if there's an authorized Aqualung dealer here in Kuwait. I don't wanna even get into the conundrum of having to ship it somewhere to make sure that its not damaged during shipping.

Thanks in advance.

 

[ZenDiver.3D]

I live in Kuwait. I also have a dive shop here. I think I know the guy for Aqualung here. Give me a call one afternoon. 94993116.
DeeDee

 

[Akimbo]

…Has anyone ever had anything bad happen to regulators during transit? ....

Beyond stolen, lost, or crushed; no problem. It is difficult to imagine damage to the internals that would not also show significant external impact damage on the packing and regulator itself… wait a minute, did you say Kuwait? You might check for signs of melting.

 

[ZenDiver.3D]

You can't ship lights or anything else with the batteries in them. They always end up screwed here. And if you sent it APO, you were safer than regular mail. You would have lost half your gear Kuwaiti mail....

 

[Stu S.]

We had two dive lights crack after being left in the back of my truck in Florida heat. If I was to ship a light I would disassemble it first.

 

[mastakebob]

welp, I suppose I live and learn. Next time, no batteries.

What about Dive Computers? should the battery be removed from them as well? That could be a slightly more expensive lesson...

 

[mastakebob]

whew, just checked. Looks fine, and operates (ie, turns on and registers 0psi and the time and such)

 

[Hatul]

I'm not a technician but I'd be worried about heat damage to plastic parts, O rings and grease melting. It's prudent to do a checkout dive before any serious diving.

Adam

 

[knowone]

What's with the sarcasm woohoo crap. If you dive like you ship, I'd ask about that.
It would be helpful to adopt a different philosophy in relation to diving.

 

[ZenDiver.3D]

welp, I suppose I live and learn. Next time, no batteries.

What about Dive Computers? should the battery be removed from them as well? That could be a slightly more expensive lesson...

Call me overprotective, but no matter where I go, I hand carry my reg and I wear my dive computer. Carryon. I have never shipped them or even put them in checked luggage.