DIY hose/reg replacement?

[ScubaSarus]

Change my hose by myself!! How tabooo. Didin't relize I could do it myself until I saw my buddy change his hoses out. We are just so naive about these things after OW courses.

 

[wunat]

Connecting the hose to the first stage I go finger tight and then tighten down less than 1/4 turn with a wrench.

I am also interested in learning how tight the hose should be with the second stage since I am planning to install long hoses.

I made the changes of my 7' long hose, 22" hose for backup reg., and even the spg myself. Just to say that it's not as difficult as it may look. You know the drill so there shouldn't be a problem.

 

[stevetim]

Well, let's look at it this way. How many people change their own oil in their vehicles? Come on macho guys, tells how you do your own overhauls on the whole engine. Come on, brand new car, nice and shiny, smells good...do you really want to be the to Fudge up the new engine in it by trying to "tune it up" if you've never done it before? Of course not. If someone has never changed reg hoses or seen it done and their welfare depends on these items, why try to use "common sense" to do it? Go to a LDS, have them go over replacing pieces of your equipment with you, in detail, and save yourself some labor $$$. But don't assume because some of you have been around the stuff and know it "so well" that people just out of OW training are "tards". Just out of certification is a period when people should focus on diving skills, not worry about replacing or changing themselves, along with potentially damaging, the equipment they probably just bought. Ya, I am a newb, and yes, I can do some of the simple changes on my stages because I like to "know how".

 

[wunat]

Well, let's look at it this way. How many people change their own oil in their vehicles? Come on macho guys, tells how you do your own overhauls on the whole engine. Come on, brand new car, nice and shiny, smells good...do you really want to be the to Fudge up the new engine in it by trying to "tune it up" if you've never done it before? Of course not. If someone has never changed reg hoses or seen it done and their welfare depends on these items, why try to use "common sense" to do it? Go to a LDS, have them go over replacing pieces of your equipment with you, in detail, and save yourself some labor $$$. But don't assume because some of you have been around the stuff and know it "so well" that people just out of OW training are "tards". Just out of certification is a period when people should focus on diving skills, not worry about replacing or changing themselves, along with potentially damaging, the equipment they probably just bought. Ya, I am a newb, and yes, I can do some of the simple changes on my stages because I like to "know how".

I certainly won't overhaul my cars engine but I do change my own flat tyres.

We certainly aren't expecting divers to be able to change everything himself/herself. But when ProMed knows to

"Connecting the hose to the first stage I go finger tight and then tighten down less than 1/4 turn with a wrench."

I think a few touches on his 2nd stages shouldn't be rocket science.

Understanding and dealing with my own equipments just adds more fun to diving.

 

[ProMed]

I certainly won't overhaul my cars engine but I do change my own flat tyres.

We certainly aren't expecting divers to be able to change everything himself/herself. But when ProMed knows to

"Connecting the hose to the first stage I go finger tight and then tighten down less than 1/4 turn with a wrench."

I think a few touches on his 2nd stages shouldn't be rocket science.

Understanding and dealing with my own equipments just adds more fun to diving.

I was just wanting to find out if the torque specs are the same for the second stage as they are for the first stage. Never really thought about it as "rocket science", lol, but didn't want to tell the originator of this thread how to do something I wasn't sure about myself.

btw-I race motocross and have done all of the non-warranty maintenance on my race bikes and vehicles for 12+ years. I have rebuilt the engines and transmissions on my bikes, but do not keep my cars/trucks long enough to worry about them.

 

[redacted]

I was just wanting to find out if the torque specs are the same for the second stage as they are for the first stage. Never really thought about it as "rocket science", lol, but didn't want to tell the originator of this thread how to do something I wasn't sure about myself.

A Scubapro schematic I just checked for the Mk10 shows the same 44 in-lb for both HP & LP plugs. This should not be a real sensetive torque value. The o-ring makes the seal and it is pretty much captured once the plug or hose is tightened. At just finger tight they will hold - at least until they inevitably loosen a bit more and extrude the o-ring (experience). Excess torque is first going to flatten the o-ring and shorten its service life. One would have to be abusive to actually damage metal.

It is not an application I get the torque wrench out for. I do it finger tight and a little more so I can't loosen it. I did get the torque wrench out once just to check. As I recall, 80 in-lb with a new o-ring was a little less than 1/4 turn. With a used o-ring it was less than 1/8 turn. So o-ring age and hardness will matter. I usually give it less than an 1/8 turn beyond finger tight and check that I can't loosen it by hand. Not a bad check to make occasionally during set-up also.

 

[ProMed]

Good stuff, thank you!

A Scubapro schematic I just checked for the Mk10 shows the same 44 in-lb for both HP & LP plugs. This should not be a real sensetive torque value. The o-ring makes the seal and it is pretty much captured once the plug or hose is tightened. At just finger tight they will hold - at least until they inevitably loosen a bit more and extrude the o-ring (experience). Excess torque is first going to flatten the o-ring and shorten its service life. One would have to be abusive to actually damage metal.

It is not an application I get the torque wrench out for. I do it finger tight and a little more so I can't loosen it. I did get the torque wrench out once just to check. As I recall, 80 in-lb with a new o-ring was a little less than 1/4 turn. With a used o-ring it was less than 1/8 turn. So o-ring age and hardness will matter. I usually give it less than an 1/8 turn beyond finger tight and check that I can't loosen it by hand. Not a bad check to make occasionally during set-up also.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

If you have any questions and are not comfortable with some of the gear issues take an equipment specialty course. You'll learn how to do MINOR repairs such as switching out a hose or replacing an o-ring. I've had to change my spg and hose after the hose developed a leak, luckily had another hose and guage, then replace the o-rings on the HP restrictor bullet on one of my buddies' regs and change an inflator hose on another's all within about 15 minutes. Why, because we just drove 2 1/2 hrs to dive and were not going to let a few little things ruin the day. All of our gear is regularly serviced but hey __it happens. It just happened all at once that day. What's important though with any of this minor maintenance stuff is to really make it minor you need to have the proper tools and accessories and a little knowledge. Go buy a save a dive kit but if you buy a kit yet don't have any wrenches or a little christo lube or a pick for the o-rings your little kit is worthless. And yeah finger tight and about a 1/4 turn with a wrench so that you can't unscrew it with your finger is good. Do I do the yearly maintenance on my regs my self? No, not yet, but it's being set up with our factory rep for me to get my factory cert. But in the mean time I'm not going to lose valuable dive time cause the shop is closed and I want to do a MINOR change to my gear set-up or because I'm 2 1/2 hours from the nearest shop.