First of all a quick aplogy for accusing LAdydiver/KN etc for removing my thread. I posted it in the "General scuba discussions" forum and it was moved to the regulator section....silly me. As a result i posted 2 threads for which i also apologise.
Guys im trying to findout whats wrong with the blue o rings, a few of the deep divers have had problems with them and all i can do i suppose is paste from the other DIR UK forum. The forum is very organised and alot of the divers are instructors from all kinds of agencies. Some are probably britins most active technical divers too and dive everyday subject to there ndl, if this applies. As of yet i am still waiting for Apeks to respond to my e-mail. However it looks like the blue EPDM o-rings are also in other brands of regs etc. So heres a little info on what they said. Let me stress that Apeks didnt say this themselves, these are just observations by divers which have been brought to our attention because Apeks said that they were "improving the product line".
What is the problem with these rings, which are called
EPDM ?
..appart from their lack of flexibility leading to physical
deformation after a time of use under pressure, they also
DISINTEGRATE if used in a high ppO2 environment!
This does not just affect Apeks valves, but is an issue for manifolds and pillar valves as well!!! Please beware:
I had a problem with blue o rings in my scubapro manifold at the weekend: The left tank valve could not be closed after I had blown off my gas prior to refilling. The knob would just spin round and round. With Issy's assistance (Thanks very much again!!) we took the valve to bits and found some dark powder in the valve stem where the blue O ring had been... we also checked the other valves (right
post and isolator). The right post showed a blue O ring badly deformed (i.e. flat as a pancake) in the process of disintegration. The isolator had a black shiny O ring in perfect condition (either part of an older O2 kit, or just didn't get changed..). We changed the O rings in the left
and right valve stems and I was able to go on a dive the next day.
Now I just have to check if there are blue O rings in the isolation part of the manifold and replace them asap.
The manifold was bought and O2 cleaned in April this year. The tanks had less then 10 Nitrox/timix filles in them since then. So, be WARNED: if you have any recently cleaned manifolds of any make please check that they do not use blue O rings, or if they do, get them replaced asap.
I am as sceptical as most on this ...how can a manufacturer allow this sort of thing to happen. The above may just be an isolated case. I have 3 regs all with EPDM blue o-rings so i am waiting for the word from Apeks. Of course if they tell me that they are improving the o-rings then i know i will be sending my regs off to Apeks so that they can modify
my regs free of charge. But i arnt going to rush to any conclusions and ill be diving as normal.
