Due to being out of the sport for several years and losing a good bit of my gear to a divorce and a couple of moves, I find myself being faced with not only outfitting myself, but also my newly-certified husband. Yesterday as we were looking for his fins, the dive shop manager mentions that they are replacing rental gear and selling off the old rental regs. Those turned out to be Sherwood Brut firsts, seconds, and octos for $125 each. They are the new version and were serviced 15 days ago. The Brut was actually on my short list, so I jumped on the deal. Now I just have to pick up a couple of gauges. I'm liking some of the Black Friday advance sales I'm seeing.
Did I do okay?
- Thread starter Sugaree
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fmerkel
Contributor
Brut should be OK for recreational diving. I have a friend that has used one for 15+ years.
But.....Sherwoods have a dry bleed system. There is supposed to be a small stream of bubbles coming out of the main body when pressurized. This is ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY.
Demand to see that it is functional and do not accept it if it does not bubble out of the small black port. It will not function properly at depth without this, even if it breathes fine on the surface and shallow depths.
But.....Sherwoods have a dry bleed system. There is supposed to be a small stream of bubbles coming out of the main body when pressurized. This is ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY.
Demand to see that it is functional and do not accept it if it does not bubble out of the small black port. It will not function properly at depth without this, even if it breathes fine on the surface and shallow depths.
R
redacted
Guest
You picked up a couple good basic reg sets for what amounts to thhe price of a service. Hardb to beat that.
The dry bleed thing is something I missed in my research. To be honest, I wasn't planning on buying regs until early next season. I'm hoping that the recent service would have caught that. Any idea how often they fail and/or how easily they can be fixed?
K
KeithG
Guest
i claim you are over exaggerating the issue a bit. They work fine at depth even if the dry bleed is not working.
Eventually... you may get some internal corrosion IF you dive salt water and never ever have the reg serviced. My divebuddies reg went several years with a nonfunctional dry bleed due to our ignorance and our continued LDS incompetence.
fmerkel
Contributor
Maybe. Not about to personally test it. Have experience (my wife actually) to think it could be a problem. She changed regs because of the incident. I JUST replaced the damaged piston and took it on a rigorous current dive. It was fine. She may not have needed to buy a new reg had we known about this.
Back to the question.
Absolutely, it should have been checked and addressed at the overhaul. There is a mechanism that can get 'plugged'. Saltwater intrusion or a tech that doesn't know what they are doing can damage it. Once it's plugged it's shot. You can replace it, at some cost.
You paid for an overhauled reg. I'm saying you should get a fully functioning reg for that.
It's easy to check. Put it on a tank, pressurize, and stick the first stage underwater. A bucket will do. Look for the small stream of bubbles out of the black plug. (NOT a leak from the tank connection).
As long as the dry bleed system is not damaged it can function happily for years.
halocline
Contributor
I suspect you got an excellent deal on a reliable set of regulators. You can ask the shop to check the dry bleed if you're worried about it, but these types of sherwoods have been around for decades and are proven to be very reliable. That's one reason they are very popular as rental regs; they can take a lot of abuse.
Since you bought them from the shop, they will almost certainly be happy to service them for you. Thankfully, these regs are very simple and easy to service.
Since you bought them from the shop, they will almost certainly be happy to service them for you. Thankfully, these regs are very simple and easy to service.
That takes me back. The Sherwood brut was what I used for my open water cert. decent regulators. I only had two complaints.
1. Dive boat comrades get concerned about the drybleed if they're ignorant. Swimming up to you pointing at the stream etc.
2. I got sick of the old "sure would be nice to have better regulators" pun.
1. Dive boat comrades get concerned about the drybleed if they're ignorant. Swimming up to you pointing at the stream etc.
2. I got sick of the old "sure would be nice to have better regulators" pun.
Thanks for all thee info guys! I figure these will do until we get to a point where we know exactly what we want and will probably pay for themselves within the year based on local rental prices. And I'm not going to lie; I'm totally going to use the savings as a justification to get that customized Zena BC that I've had my eye on.
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