Apeks Body cracks

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Jonno

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Location
Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
# of dives
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Has anyone come across cracks in the body of Apeks XTX 2nd stage near the venturi ring?

I was having a bit of a wet breathe and on checking my xtx 200 there was a crack, the wetness was minor and I dabbed a bit of epoxy on it. Then I got a set of xtx 200/100 in for a service. They are of an age but have only been used on about 60 dives. These are both pre facelift early models, am just a bit surprised as older Apeks just go on and on.
 
Do you have a picture?

If it is what I am thinking this happens when you are connecting the LP hose to it and only put one wrench on the LP hose and tighten it. This can cause the entire spindle will spin and over tighten then plastic threads causing it to crack.
whenever you tighten LP hoses to the reg you should always have two wrenches on it, one on the second stage venturi nut to hold it in place so it does not spin and then tighten the hose with the second wrench
 
I will try to sort a picture. Always use 2 spanners otherwise the lever goes off square. I have never seen this before despite servicing probably 100 Apeks regs only on the XTX which has a slightly different 2nd stage body design as it is designed to change orientation of the hose.
 
Have to see a respective picture.

Overtighten the locking nut after inserting the heat exchanger of the spindle is probably one of the reason.
The final LP hose attachment need not to be too tight.

My ancient T20, TX40 and TX50 are tough.
ATX not much so.
But nothing crack so far.
 
Seems to be specific to the XTX range though, I have not seen it on ATX which has a different body design. The LP hose attachment needs to be tight against the locking nut or the hose can loosen, I have seen this on a dive! I torque both to 5nM.
 
The spec I have for TX50:
Locking nut: 50 inch-lbs (5.6 nM)
LP hose: 40 inch-lbs (4.5 nM)
 
The spec I have for TX50:
Locking nut: 50 inch-lbs (5.6 nM)
LP hose: 40 inch-lbs (4.5 nM)

Heat Exchanger to regulator body - 27 inch-pounds (3Nm).
LP Hose to Heath Exchanger - 45 inch-pounds (5Nm)


Technical Bulletin #34

SUBJECT: Change in torque specification for the heat exchanger on Apeks XTX, ATX and TX second stages.

PRODUCTS AFFECTED: The regulators in question are all models of Apeks XTX, ATX and TX second stages.

This bulletin is being issued to pass on information with regard to assisting the servicing of the Apeks regulator range.

To avoid causing damage to the 2nd stage case, we have decreased the torque specification for the heat exchanger from 45 in-lbs (5Nm) to 27 in-lbs (3Nm).

This change covers all ranges of regulator, XTX, ATX and TX.
 
When would you ever torque your hose tighter than the heat exchanger? Someone forgot the other half of the problem when correcting for over-torquing on the case.

With a higher torque on the hose nut, any time someone with only one wrench (What?! How could that happen?) goes to change hoses, the heat exchanger loosens, the barrel comes out of alignment (I'm looking at you, MTX-R) but the hose doesn't come off.

For the same reason that environmental diaphragms are always torqued more lightly than the critical main diaphragm clamp beneath it, the removable part should have a lower torque than the fixed part.

Me, I don't torque hoses beyond 25 in-lb, and in many cases just finger tight.
 
Went would you ever torque your hose tighter than the heat exchanger? Someone forgot the other half of the problem when correcting for over-torquing on the case.

With a higher torque on the hose nut, any time someone with only one wrench (What?! How could that happen?) goes to change hoses, the heat exchanger loosens, the barrel comes out of alignment (I'm looking at you, MTX-R) but the hose doesn't come off.

For the same reason that environmental diaphragms are always torqued more lightly than the critical main diaphragm clamp beneath it, the removable part should have a lower torque than the fixed part.

Me, I don't torque hoses beyond 25 in-lb, and in many cases just finger tight.
In the electrical world we call this coordination, you wouldn't have a smaller fuse up front of a larger one.
 
Went would you ever torque your hose tighter than the heat exchanger? Someone forgot the other half of the problem when correcting for over-torquing on the case.

With a higher torque on the hose nut, any time someone with only one wrench (What?! How could that happen?) goes to change hoses, the heat exchanger loosens, the barrel comes out of alignment (I'm looking at you, MTX-R) but the hose doesn't come off.

For the same reason that environmental diaphragms are always torqued more lightly than the critical main diaphragm clamp beneath it, the removable part should have a lower torque than the fixed part.

Me, I don't torque hoses beyond 25 in-lb, and in many cases just finger tight.
If you torqued the environmental end cap higher than the diaphragm clamp there is a very good chance that you will disturb the clamp ie. affect the IP setting. I have experiment this before. It has to be lower and I won't change this practice except to a slightly lower torque.
Same applied to the LP hose. It will affect the spindle.
Very strange indeed.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

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