Apeks HP Seat failure: rumor or fact?

[rddvet]

To confirm, several I've had a couple Apeks HP seat failures as well in the recent past (3yrs). Never had one until recently so something has changed.

The most recent one was on my blocked DS4 which runs at about 115psi IP because my Kiss MAV has a rather oversized orifice. I.e. its not 0.035" like its supposed to be so I had to turn down the IP to keep my O2 rate at 0.7 LPM. So its not like I was working it hard.

Why is your orifice not standard? Was that a Kiss error or did you make a change?

Rumor has it that Apeks recalled all of the service kits in 2021 and has a new seat now.

That's got to be more than a rumor, because it sure is funny that since being rebuilt mid-2021, all of your regs have been fine (until now since I opened my big mouth).
We have one set of Apeks regs that have been sitting unused for about a year since Chelsea moved to the tech rig. She's only using the halcyon reg currently. I'm about to out those two unused regs back into service for my second canister, so we will see if we get any problems.
Sadly I absolutely don't trust any of the apeks regs anymore. I had hoped I'd love them because they're so easy to get parts for, especially when travelling outside of the US. With my scubapro regs, I could be s.o.l if one goes down in a place like France where it's hard in that part of the country to find sp stuff.

I have the same problem screwing my din Apeks DSTs (4-5 years old) into my valves every single time. Major PITA. Never knew anyone else had the same issue. Almost tempted to go with my Dive Rite regs just for that issue and sell the Apeks.

It's very annoying. It's not just you. I've told a couple people about it and quite a few said they have the same issue, and it just thought it was them.

I’m at 2, third one has held without problems for 14months

Ken had more than I realized and now with you and rjack having a couple that puts my count closer to 20

 

[flymolo]

Probably a thread hijack, but..

Is there a way to tell the good HP seats apart from the bad?

I haven't had any failures on any of my apeks regs, although I'm a bit lax about servicing (I went about 4 years in between service on my backgas regs). I probably have about 5 that I dive regularly between backgas regs, stages, etc.

 

[rddvet]

Probably a thread hijack, but..

Is there a way to tell the good HP seats apart from the bad?

I haven't had any failures on any of my apeks regs, although I'm a bit lax about servicing (I went about 4 years in between service on my backgas regs). I probably have about 5 that I dive regularly between backgas regs, stages, etc.

No one I know has been able to tell any difference. Especially since apeks’ acknowledgement of the problem publicly has been zero and the changes in the service kit have been hush hush. The assumed changes to the service kits is just an assumption based off the fact that no reg tech has been able to give an exact reason it was bappening or has an explanation of how the problem seems to have disappeared for the most part in 2021 after servicing

 

[tmassey]

Probably a thread hijack, but..

Is there a way to tell the good HP seats apart from the bad?

I haven't had any failures on any of my apeks regs, although I'm a bit lax about servicing (I went about 4 years in between service on my backgas regs). I probably have about 5 that I dive regularly between backgas regs, stages, etc.

to hijack the hijack: were you guys getting any clues to the HP seat failure? Like IP creep?

Since I started servicing my own regs, I do IP checks frequently. The regulator I just rebuilt I did because I was getting some IP creep I didn’t have before, and it is an Apeis-based design, and given what I knew about HP seat failures, I thought it was a good idea.

I do hope you guys are right and we can begin to put this behind us. My problem is: I buy my next service kit when I schedule rebuilding a regulator, so I have it on-hand as a spare in case something goes wrong. That means it takes me some time to be able to work through my inventory…

 

[rddvet]

to hijack the hijack: were you guys getting any clues to the HP seat failure? Like IP creep?

Zero clue. I check the IP on my oxygen regs on the ccr everytime I set it up as part of the build checklist. I would never get any creep at all. I'd build the unit and then go dive the next day, pull it out the car and turn on the gases and it immediately was blown. I only had one that happened on the dive. Luckily it was at the very end of a 4 hour dive and didn't affect me.

 

[rjack321]

No creep on mine. Fine today, blown tomorrow. Being dependent on DS4s is sucktastic

 

[rsingler]

No creep on mine. Fine today, blown tomorrow. Being dependent on DS4s is sucktastic

Switch to XStreams. That's what I did with the US4's on my JJ.

 

[Tracy]

There was a huge issue that they have denied all along. I have probably seen 20 or so fail in the last 5 years including three or four of my own. They changed the kit and the problem went away. They have still refused to acknowledge the issue.
If you still have blue first stage kits, those are the ones with failures. They changed to the white cards early last year and the issue mysteriously went away. There was no recall or buy back as that would be admitting an issue. You were stuck with the junk you bought.

 

[rjack321]

Switch to XStreams. That's what I did with the US4's on my JJ.

Well it's resolved now with the "new" seats so I'm not going to mess with them

 

[nwbrewer]

Just out of curiosity, does anyone have a picture of what the blown seats look like? I'm trying to understand the failure mechanism.

I haven't been diving that much lately, and the kits that I recently rebuilt with were pretty old and I haven't bought replacements yet. Sounds like I need to look for ones with the white card.