FATHOM Dive Systems Q&A

[rddvet]

I have 2 questions that are not really technical.

• Do you foresee european instructors in the future?
• Is it necessary to send the rebreather to Florida for service?

Thank you very much for the informations

I won't directly answer your questions since I don't work for fathom. But I will say comnpared to other units they're pretty easy to work on on your own. The only thing that would likely ever need to go back to florida is the head. My wife and I have units 18 and 19 and they're about 5ish years old. Only failure that we've had that had to go fathom was my wife's hud died. It was the narked at 90 hud, not the fathom one. Replaced in a couple days. We're local to Florida, so its obviously easy for us. Pretty much everything else is user-repairable because there's very little proprietary parts such as in units like the revo.
Hell we haven't even replaced any of the o-rings yet and we have 100s of hours on them.
Only part of the fathom that I will say sucks is the apeks regs. I have never had apeks regs prior to this unit. We've had about 8-10 hp seat failures. We had one two days ago while on Bonaire. Luckily we always carry spare regs (thank god not apeks). Its not limited to the blocked 1st stages either. Its occurred on both our oxygen and inflation regs. I 100% hate apeks regs.

 

[berndo]

Is it necessary to send the rebreather to Florida for service?

I wouldn't worry about that. It can be really annoying and a huge PITA is when you have an issue with the shearwater handset though, as there is nobody in the EU that can fix them (and apparently buttons aren't very reliable). That's a shearwater issue and not a rebreather issue though.

The issues rddvet had with the Apeks regs are not very common. I've used Apeks regs for over 20 years and know countless people who have used them for many years as well and the only time I ever heard about these issues was from rddvet and his friend group on another forum. IMHO, they must have had a batch of faulty or weird aftermarket service kits in the past.

 

[kensuf]

I wouldn't worry about that. It can be really annoying and a huge PITA is when you have an issue with the shearwater handset though, as there is nobody in the EU that can fix them (and apparently buttons aren't very reliable). That's a shearwater issue and not a rebreather issue though.

The issues rddvet had with the Apeks regs are not very common. I've used Apeks regs for over 20 years and know countless people who have used them for many years as well and the only time I ever heard about these issues was from rddvet and his friend group on another forum. IMHO, they must have had a batch of faulty or weird aftermarket service kits in the past.

I've been diving Apeks and re-branded Apeks (old Beauchat/Zeagle) for a long time and had no problems before, but there was a run of HP seats that started around 2017 that were not as reliable as the old ones. I believe there was finally a recall on the rebuild kits last year.

 

[rddvet]

I've been diving Apeks and re-branded Apeks (old Beauchat/Zeagle) for a long time and had no problems before, but there was a run of HP seats that started around 2017 that were not as reliable as the old ones. I believe there was finally a recall on the rebuild kits last year.

Mine that blew two days ago was serviced right about 18 months ago. So hopefully it'll get a new rebuild kit. But I've had 2 major failures on scubapro regs in 30 years. 10ish on apeks in 5 years. Apeks can suck it imo. I know all the euros have had good success with them and berndo gets upset when I bring it up and tries to make it sound like its just you and me with issues. But I hear more and more people from places like the great lakes and canada with similar issues the past few years. Its just not alot of those people are on the boards to discuss it. A new york diver I know has had about 4 or 5 in the past few years. Maybe it was just a North America parts issue and the european divers didn't have to deal with it.

 

[Tracy]

I've been diving Apeks and re-branded Apeks (old Beauchat/Zeagle) for a long time and had no problems before, but there was a run of HP seats that started around 2017 that were not as reliable as the old ones. I believe there was finally a recall on the rebuild kits last year.

If there was finally a recall, it is news to me. Last I heard, they are still denying the issue and refusing to buy back the bad service kits. That means the known bad kits are still being installed in regs during service to this day.

 

[berndo]

... berndo gets upset when I bring it up and tries to make it sound like its just you and me with issues.

It doesn't upset me and never has, I'm just reporting what my experience was. I'm not even a big fan of Apeks, I just have a bunch of them because are cheap and easy to get parts for.
Apparently, you Ken, Jon Kieren and some more people in 'Fathom group' had issues... I'm not doubting what you say it but doesn't seem to have been a wide spread issue. It must have been a **** batch that was shipped to some FL or US dealers, I can't think of any other reason.
I reckon there would be more people complaining about Apeks if this was more common.

 

[rddvet]

It doesn't upset me and never has, I'm just reporting what my experience was. I'm not even a big fan of Apeks, I just have a bunch of them because are cheap and easy to get parts for.
Apparently, you Ken, Jon Kieren and some more people in 'Fathom group' had issues... I'm not doubting what you say it but doesn't seem to have been a wide spread issue. It must have been a **** batch that was shipped to some FL or US dealers, I can't think of any other reason.
I reckon there would be more people complaining about Apeks if this was more common.

Got it. Your fervent response whenever I’ve posted about it made it seem youre an apeks fan who was annoyed by it.
I’ve had quite a few convos with people not on the boards

 

[divingx]

Not just US. I’ve seen the same problem in Canada too. The problem seems to go away with the new service kit.

 

[Kodee]

Thank you, and what about instructors in EU?

 

[rddvet]

Thank you, and what about instructors in EU?

None as of now and not so sure about the future. That’s a fathom question. You can email them from the site