Bauer Utilus not building high pressure

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

Yes, the disc are retained by springs and the cost of both minimal valve kits for the 1st stage are about $30 a piece so a new kit might be a better option.
 
Aren't they disc springs? I've never seen that work, but you can give it a try. Valve kits are pretty inexpensive, IIRC.

Do you mean Belleville washers or something else?

Also, be sure the head is not cracked. (Mine did.) It sounds like it could be a bad valve, but isn't. Filter Techs had the head for my K14. Not sure whether the Utilus uses a different head or whether they are prone to crack.
 
I've done an extenstive inspection on the head and haven't seen any cracks. The bellville washers do have some wear marks which makes me believe that a replacement might a good idea.
 
As others have said, it sounds like your 3rd stage discharge valve might be toast. I have had some success getting one going again after a soak in evaporust and then a thorough cleaning (ultrasonic).

I was was able to order a replacement 7780 from Bauer through a dealer last year too.
 
I was able to replace the 1st stage valves and it still leaks out the inlet filter after shutdown, not quite as fast as it did before but I am back to square one. It still fills tanks ok and the 1st and 3rd stage head temps fluctuate between 180 to 190 degress F but the 2nd stage is up around 200 degress F.

wwunder,
What dealer did you get your 7780 through?

Thanks for all the help so far everybody!!
 
Aaron,

I was able to get the valve from jordair in Vancouver, Canada. They told me it was ordered from Germany and it took several weeks to come in. The second stage on my two compressors (U-1 and K13) is always the hottest and I think its inherent to the design being cast iron cylinders and small head. If you look at the newer versions they have increased the head size and cooling fins on the second stages. I have been debating machining some aluminum heat sinks for the heads to help.
 
Thanks for the response wwunder, I will look into getting that discharge valve replaced as I want new valves replaced together. Sounds like my head temps are right in line with what is expected.
 
Well, I finally found and replaced the 7780 discharge valve for the 3rd stage valve. It was hard and expensive little buggar that I hoped to solve my problem. And with that, my frustration, it still didn't solve the problem with all the pressure leaking out back through the 1st stage inlet filter.
I am at a loss here fellas, I replaced all the intake and discharge valves for the 1st and 3rd stages. The only one left is the 2nd stage and I hate throwing money at something in hoping to fix the problem. Any suggestions from anyone would be greatly appreciated. Too bad Bauer doesn't make a troubleshooting manual or something to diagnose difficulties.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

Back
Top Bottom