Question Anyone ever had an incident because they serviced their own gear?

[The Chairman]

Interesting. Do you know what was wrong and why it wasn't apparent until you were at 60ft? What tests could have been done post service to catch it?

He re-used a diaphragm that had become deformed. 20 minutes into the dive in Blue Spring (Orange City) and I was sucking in water with air. Coughing underwater is the pits! Unfortunately, I was using a Duo-Air, with a short, corrugated hose. That was uncomfortable. It was my first time as a Dive Master helping with a class. How embarrassing!

In addition, the shop had charged me a whopping $198 for the service. No estimate, just a rude surprise when I went to pick it up. So why didn't he replace the diaphragm? It would have put my bill over $200, and he didn't want to do that. No, you can't make this crap up. He sold me the diaphragm for about $15. I bought the only two books about reg repair at the time (2001), and no shop has touched my gear since. Mind you, as a lifelong auto technician, I never did read those books. Regs are dead simple. I have since taken a few manufacturer's classes on various regs, but I didn't learn much from them I didn't already know.

If it's just changing parts and testing, 30-45 minutes for a set.
Sonic bath and drying is what takes most of my time.

Yeah, finding where I stashed the parts, opening the shop, and getting all the tools out is half the time for me. That's OK, I don't mind.

 

[greeniguana]

The reg manufacturers want to keep people safe, but more importantly, the reg manufacturer's legal counsel wants to keep their client safe.

 

[formernuke]

Has anyone ever gotten hurt because they did there car maintenance?

Just like anything else if you don't pay attention you run a risk of injury.

 

[Bigbella]

The only problems that I have ever experienced, came only from cretinous service departments at local dive shops -- and never from my own efforts.

During a move, some years ago; being pressed for time and having packed away all of my service tools, I let a "well-respected" San Francisco shop work on two regulators and a full face mask.

To quote Sean Connery, "I should have mailed it to the Marx Brothers."

Nothing was to specs; a first stage diaphragm was improperly installed; the FFM free-flowed like nobody's business; and the exhalation membrane on one of my regulators was actually missing! What's more, they were even ticked off that I wanted to test everything before leaving the shop.

Their further servicing was no better; a five hundred dollar refund was eventually given after I contacted my credit card company, and a sheepish "sorry" about the missing part (which, as it turned out, had been left on a work mat and eventually returned to me in a ziplock bag).

Sadly, many manufacturer's service courses are a paltry affair themselves and usually only offer a few hours in a Marriott conference room among stale doughnuts and coffee, with pre-loosened regulators and all-too brief disassemblies and assemblies (no torque wrench use at all) -- and I hadn't even been required to actually test any finished work on a bench, in years.

What is even the point of that; and is it any wonder that the lion's share of LDS service departments are absolute crap, given the training?

 

[admikar]

What is even the point of that? Is it any wonder that the lion's share of service departments are absolute crap, given the training?

Easy to solve. Any proffesional service tech has to be diver and he/she has to dive reg set used in training.
It will sharpen the focus quite nicely.

 

[BoltSnap]

How on earth are you going to hear from somebody in public admit that they screwed up servicing their regulator and something bad happened to them? You aren't going to hear about it just like many other diving mishaps that take place and you don't hear about worldwide. I have had MANY people bringing their regulator kits either in pieces or put together with few pieces left out with them not knowing what to do with it. I have people come in complaining about how they almost died or that their regulator had extreme free flow issue underwater after their friend/spouse/father, etc. worked on it. I have worked on regulators customers brought in and found that they were put together with the wrong parts, parts that were damaged, etc. etc. There are WAY many issues than what you hear about here on SB mainly because they aren't publicized and the culprits would never admit to it.

 

[formernuke]

How on earth are you going to hear from somebody in public admit that they screwed up servicing their regulator and something bad happened to them? You aren't going to hear about it just like many other diving mishaps that take place and you don't hear about worldwide. I have had MANY people bringing their regulator kits either in pieces or put together with few pieces left out with them not knowing what to do with it. I have people come in complaining about how they almost died or that their regulator had extreme free flow issue underwater after their friend/spouse/father, etc. worked on it. I have worked on regulators customers brought in and found that they were put together with the wrong parts, parts that were damaged, etc. etc. There are WAY many issues than what you hear about here on SB mainly because they aren't publicized and the culprits would never admit to it.

Just like anything else I used cars for a example. I've seen people who it themselves mess up and I've seen professional shops mess up.

 

[Tom_Ivan]

I have had MANY people bringing their regulator kits either in pieces or put together with few pieces left out with them not knowing what to do with it.

This is not really a problem because it didn't cause an incident. Sure it costs them more money than if they'd just taken it to the shop to begin with, but its no reason not to try service your own gear.

I have people come in complaining about how they almost died or that their regulator had extreme free flow issue underwater after their friend/spouse/father, etc. worked on it.

This is what I'm interested in.



I wonder how many of these would have been resolved without issue if those customers had easy access to the service manuals to begin with...

 

[rhwestfall]

I wonder how many of these would have been resolved without issue if those customers had easy access to the service manuals to begin with...

There are a number of unofficial videos on YT of folks showing how to service a specific regulator model. Sometimes I wonder if it is actually the correct procedure....

There are also creditable sources.

You just got to figure out what is real...

 

[mr_v]

There is a difference between knowing how to put things together (know-how) and knowing why things are put together the way they are (know-why). I am not sure if many techs are reg geeks and want to know the "why" part. I fall into the second category, so while I am still learning, I tend to trust myself a bit more.

So, I haven't really faced a critical issue, yet. However, by sheer dumb luck I was able to identify a problem with a reg that I converted incorrectly. Here is the kicker - the reg passed all the tests! Including my 12 hour overnight charged/off test where I monitor HP and IP.