Dropped the regulator... will it be fine?

[Noemi]

I was trying to be really careful with my regulator, got it as a carry-on into a flight so noone drops the luggage.

Sadly my seat neighbor was too pre-occupied with his bag and dropped mine from the height of 2m. I wonder if there is something to break inside or there is a chance it'll be fine? Inspected it visually and it looks ok, but won't be able to test in a couple of weeks until I go diving again.

The regulator is HOG D3 with Zenith first stage.

 

[tbone1004]

highly unlikely that there is any real damage. Not a whole lot to go wrong if they get jarred around. If no visible damage to the outside, then I would unscrew the diaphragm cap and make sure the lever moves freely and didn't get bent. If it does, then you should be good to go. Regs are surprisingly durable.
Only real risk is if the bag fell, the regs were on the part that hit the floor, and the first stage landed on the second, or something heavy and hard hit the second stage

 

[The Chairman]

It should be fine. I take it that it was in a bag?

 

[runsongas]

grab a tank, hook it up, pressurize the reg, turn the tank valve closed and see how long it holds pressure. if it loses pressure relatively quickly, you will need to dunk the reg to look for where the leak is coming from.

 

[Noemi]

Thanks for the replies. It was in a lightly padded regulator bag, nothing else inside. Brief surface check shows first and second stages are fine on the outside.

Will try and test it next week in a dive shop, hopefully has no damage. What I don't want to happen is for it to fail at depth next time I go diving.

 

[g1138]

The drop isn't going to set a catalyst to have it pass a buddy check but then fail at depth. You'll notice something is wrong when you set up gear, if it checks out fine, you'll be good to dive.

There aren't really any parts that will shift greatly and break with a fall. All moving parts are held on a spring and move with air pressure. What a drop from that height will damage is crack or dented SPG's, crack plastic housings on your 2nd stage, or pure aesthetics.

 

[Pao]

Don't sweat it. It will be fine.

 

[lowflyer]

If you observe enough OW dive classes, you will see how much abuse the regs can take

 

[diversteve]

Don't sweat it. It will be fine.

Agreed, I had my entire rig upend off the back of a pickup truck, tank, bc, weights included. It landed on the only sizable rock in the area - pretty much right on the yoke. I dusted it off and went diving and have been ever since.

 

[ReefGuy]

You simply wouldn't believe the abuse my secondary takes.

I really like the way g1138 phrased it:

The drop isn't going to set a catalyst to have it pass a buddy check but then fail at depth. You'll notice something is wrong when you set up gear, if it checks out fine, you'll be good to dive.