Expiration date on service kits?

[afdgf]

I have run into the problem of taking my Aqualung regulators in for servicing and having the shop be out of the service kits for the regulators. I am thinking of just purchasing a bunch of service kits myself and having them at home to take with me to the shop in the future (assuming I purchase the correct kits). My question is do the service kits expire? That is, is there either a stated or de facto date beyond which the kit should no longer be used? TIA

 

[runsongas]

technically yes as the soft parts don't last forever. kits are generally stamped with a use by date that is 3 to 5 years from manufacture.

 

[Bigbella]

Storage methods also play a big role -- keep them out of the light; sealed, and, well, away from stove tops.

I bought a cache of older service kits a while back, from yet another shop going under, and there were a few over a decade old; but they were all in fine shape.

As always, your mileage may vary . . .

 

[Slotus2005]

Viton 90 durometer O-rings are common in oilfield completion equipment. For oilfield downhole completion equipment the general rules are that O-rings more than five years old are not installed in equipment to be run in the well. Granted, service conditions are a lot more severe (temperature, pressure, and other substances a scuba diver is not going to encounter. These completion tools are meant to last for the "life of the well" which could be a good number of years. It is common for equipment that has been assembled, tested, and stored for a few years to be disassembled, O-rings replaced, and retested prior to being installed in the well. O-rings are also shipped in UV protective plastic bags to a climate controlled facility where possible for long term storage. Because of this, I am wary of O-rings older than five years, and I try my best to cycle through my scuba o-rings as much as possible.

 

[happy-diver]

and considering stated lifespan of an oring in a cars engine is 7 years and I have a few of them older than that
and I think the lifespan of a scuba kit is based on items other than the orings and poorer quality rubber things

So I don't buy kits


and because I check and keep all my good orings with some in service for decades I replace as few as possible

unless it's an overhaul as opposed to a service

Like when I cut these gaskets for my K-14 comp because Bauer was too slow, I replaced all the orings

Better than a bought one!

 

[emoreira]

Service kits are composed basically with o-rings, plastic parts and metal parts.
O-rings are primarily the parts that age.
O-ring are standard, so you can buy o-rings apart from the service kit. However those plastic and metalic parts are specific and cannot be bought elsewhere. Maybe diafragms for first stages can be cut from an EPDM rubber sheet.
O-rings have a shelf live from 5 to 15 years, depending on the material (Buna, EPDM, Viton).
So, service kits are required, but beware with o-rings in old service kits.

 

[happy-diver]

Yes only purchase quality orings, many more than you need, and their condition will be the same
when you pull them out of your storage as when you put them in, like mine from thirty years ago

So you think about it if you're going to swap all the parts in the service kit that you don't need to
as yours are fine but the reg is apart, every two years how good a quality do the parts need to be

At the same time there is nothing to gain, not providing us kits full of 100% greatest quality stuff
but when you get a dud batch that's what you got


unless you are talking about this new or old failure just too much sinister sauce in the rubber mix

All the rest is stories to make you go buy more stuff, more stuff than you need, like all the stories

 

[Tanks A Lot]

Most industries refer to DIN 9088 2002-11 or a derivative thereof, which specifies the storage life of several rubber products.

NBR, which a majority of O-Rings are made of, is a class 2 product, EDPM and FKM class 3 products. Seals, regardless of class, should be received by a customer 3 years after vulcanization. Class 2 and class 3 seals should be installed within 10 years.

O-Rings generally do not go bad after a few years, but external factors and storage conditions are extremely important and shorten the life of your service kits considerably.

The life of rubber products is reduced by the influence of environmental factors; e.g. oxygen, ozone, heat, moisture, sunlight and solvent vapours.
These factors restrict the service life of rubber products.

DIN 9088 lays this out quite nicely and may be of interest to you.

 

[afdgf]

Most industries refer to DIN 9088 2002-11 or a derivative thereof, which specifies the storage life of several rubber products.

NBR, which a majority of O-Rings are made of, is a class 2 product, EDPM and FKM class 3 products. Seals, regardless of class, should be received by a customer 3 years after vulcanization. Class 2 and class 3 seals should be installed within 10 years.

O-Rings generally do not go bad after a few years, but external factors and storage conditions are extremely important and shorten the life of your service kits considerably.


DIN 9088 lays this out quite nicely and may be of interest to you.

It looks like the attachment has every other page or is it normal for this document to only have odd page numbers?

 

[Tanks A Lot]

The German only pages are deleted, so it is normal, yes.

It was a German page, followed by the English translation.