Apeks HP Seat failure: rumor or fact?

[buddhasummer]

I've never seen a blue card service kit. I've been selling kits for many years.

Does anyone know year of manufacture of those blue card kits? IME IIRC they switched from white card/plastic bag kits to the white envelope kits sometime end of 2019.

Many years ago I used to get green card kits but that's got to be at least 5 years ago, maybe even closer to 10. Perhaps blue was a regional kit but that seems unlikely.

I'm curious now, I'll see if I can find out more but I suspect seeing as no one else has been able to my chances are slim. I'll make some phone calls for sh*ts and giggles.

 

[buddhasummer]

"RT" by the way is the new part numbers, that for reasons beyond comprehension, Apeks changed to from "AP" when they changed all part numbers just over a year ago. So if the kit is labeled 'RT...' it's newer stock and if RT and in white envelopes, the latest.

 

[buddhasummer]

I did have a latest model FSR fail out of the box but it was a nick in the hp crown not the seat.

 

[Centrals]

I am still using the "yellow" card service kit which I bought yrs ago.

 

[Underwater Tourist]

Wanted to revive this

So what exactly happens underwater when the seat blows up?
If someone has some pics of how the reg looks after the fact, it would be nice to see.

And is there any info (at least anecdotal) if the bad seats only come from the blue service kits or they were also installed during manufacturing?

 

[admikar]

Reg can't lock pressure anymore, so your second stage/s will start to freeflow. A lot.
There is not much to see. Regulator body itself is intact, plastic poppet that closes the flow tears apart, not sealing anymore
OK, that might be too strong of a word. While I haven't seen it so far, if I have to guess, there is some abrasion from high pressure flow preventing the seal.

 

[Tracy]

Reg can't lock pressure anymore, so your second stage/s will start to freeflow. A lot.
There is not much to see. Regulator body itself is intact, plastic poppet that closes the flow tears apart, not sealing anymore
OK, that might be too strong of a word. While I haven't seen it so far, if I have to guess, there is some abrasion from high pressure flow preventing the seal.

Honestly, you can't even really see the issue on the HP seat. Nothing tears, it is just the wrong material. You can pop out the seat, give it a quick wipe across some micro mesh and stick it back in to finish a weekend if you don't have a seat with you.
I sent a bag of them out to @rsingler to play with.

 

[rsingler]

Yeah, it would be nice to be able to have a definitive answer on this, but I don't. The issue is/was real, and among the bad poppets that @Tracy kindly sent, there appears to be some distortion in some poppets, and the plastic hardness may have been slightly softer durometer than later versions.
But there's no one defect I could identify in the failures.
What I'd REALLY like to know is if any of you have had a failure with a recent (white) kit.

 

[macado]

What I'd REALLY like to know is if any of you have had a failure with a recent (white) kit.

I'm obviously a small sample size but I rebuilt 2 DS4s a few months ago with the newer white service kits. So far, so good but maybe I just got lucky.

I have also been using third-party HP seats from ScubaGaskets. I'm not sure who produces them or if they have the same issue.

H.P seat for APEKS 1st stage as SGAP 1419 - Scuba Gaskets

Scuba Gaskets - H.P seat for APEKS 1st stage as SGAP 1419. AP1419, high pressure seat, hp seat apeks, scuba orings service kit, service kit for APEKS first stages.

scubagaskets.com

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Removed