How long can my regs go without rebuilding?

[slackercruster]

I dive with 3 regs (2 Sherwood Bruts and 1 Magnum) They are older models about 5 - 6 years old. Never had them rebuilt since I've read so many horror stories here about the reg going out after a rebuild.

I use them about 8-10 times a year in fresh water only, nothing over 75 feet. Figure if one goes out I can use back up or pony reg. All 3 regs should not go out at once. Should I keep going on this way or take a chance getting them rebuilt?

Sherwood has a program to encourage the diver to rebuild the regs yearly whether you use the it or not. But from my limited experience it seems more like a scheme to provide income for the dive shops. I can see their point if I dove salt water and made hundreds of dives a year. What do you think of the "rebuild the regs yearly whether you use the it or not" scheme?

Also, how did you learn to rebuild your regs yourself? I understand these to be very simple ones to rebuild if you know how.

 

[piffle]

I do about 30 dives a year and have mine rebuilt every year. Just cheap insurance and piece of mind.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Sometimes not using regs can be just as hard on them as using them alot. Seats get grooved, orings dry out, and even freshwater has minerals and things that will form crystals and cause things to seize up. ALso corrosion is not always seen. There are schools that offer reg courses, books like Regulator Savy and The Oxyhacker's book. Many manufacturers however require you to be affiliated with a shop to take their course, service their regs under warranty, or get parts(there are ways around this though). And for every horror story there are thousands where nothing happened and you don't hear about these. I do service my own regs but have the proper tools at hand or available to me. At the least you need an IP gauge, magnahelic, wrenches, lube, an ultrasonic cleaner is nice, and the service kits. I personally would never dive a reg that has not been serviced for 5-6 years regardless of usage but that's just me.

 

[redacted]

If you monitor IP and check and adjust cracking pressure, I'd be thinking 5 to 10 years at your usage rate. While problems can occur with O-rings seals, your most common failur mode it the HOP or LP seat performance. HP seats are only stressed during use and the IP gauge will detect any problem there. LP seats will set a groove during storage. If you store your regs with the purge depressed, that would reduce that problem. Plus, the groove may limit performance, but the 2nds may still perform satisfactorily with just a slight performance loss.

 

[PhilEllis]

I dive with 3 regs (2 Sherwood Bruts and 1 Magnum) They are older models about 5 - 6 years old. Never had them rebuilt since I've read so many horror stories here about the reg going out after a rebuild.

I use them about 8-10 times a year in fresh water only, nothing over 75 feet. Figure if one goes out I can use back up or pony reg. All 3 regs should not go out at once. Should I keep going on this way or take a chance getting them rebuilt?

Sherwood has a program to encourage the diver to rebuild the regs yearly whether you use the it or not. But from my limited experience it seems more like a scheme to provide income for the dive shops. I can see their point if I dove salt water and made hundreds of dives a year. What do you think of the "rebuild the regs yearly whether you use the it or not" scheme?

Also, how did you learn to rebuild your regs yourself? I understand these to be very simple ones to rebuild if you know how.

You can dive them until they break. As AWAP said, the most likely failures would be the HP seat and possibly the LP seat. In addition, the little dash-001.5 and dash-002 orings on the end of the shuttle valve in second stages almost always wears out quickly, which makes a balanced second stage basically unbalanced and can cause leaks.

Almost anyone with mechanical inclination can disassemble and reassemble a diving regulator. The real work of a regulator technician begins during inspection of parts and surfaces during cleaning and just prior to reassembly. This is where you detect faults on hard parts that might cause a problem. The real work of a regulator technician begins during run-in of the regulator prior to testing. The real work of a regulator technician is in the atmospheric pressure testing and regulator tuning.

Unfortunately, many regulator "technicians" only know how to disassemble and reassemble. They know nothing about proper testing, nor do they have the equipment to complete those tests. They don't do proper pre-adjustment cycling of the set before final adjustment. They don't do proper vacuum testing of the cases after re-assembly. They don't know where to use lubricant and when not to use it. They don't have a clue about dynamic flow testing to determine if the result of their work will be correct when the diver goes diving....and if they found problems during any of this testing, they have no clue how to diagnose the cause. When you find a real regulator technician, you have next to no worries about the performance of your regulator after a rebuild. Our complaints for free-flows, hard breathing, squeaking, honking, and all of the other stuff that goes wrong with regulators after "rebuild" are well below 1 in 100 rebuilds. Every week, we get dozens of them here in the mail and we properly fix them and return them all over the country. I don't think we have had one sent back in well over 6 months for any of the variety of complaints I hear about here on the boards. We send them back with a note to GO DIVING. Your regulator is not a worry.

Note: The MOST common complaint we get, when we get complaints after rebuild, is the result of complete, absolute, and instant failure of the high-pressure seats. This is the result of lack of proper process control in the manufacture of the seats and is out of the control of even the best of regulator technicians. This almost never happened 10 years ago, but has become more common of late. One thing a regular technician cannot predict is catastrophic failure of an improperly made seat. Proper testing and long run-in has the potential to detect some of this. We use about 12 HP seats for every 10 regulators we rebuild.

Phil Ellis
www.divesports.com

 

[Hatul]

I've tried to extend the service interval on my Oceanic Delta2s and have had trouble with leakage from 1st stage. So I have mine serviced yearly.

I also believe that having a regulator sit unused for a long time is not good, and after it's been sitting like this you're more likely to have problems. Like any mechanical device it's best if it's used. IMO.

Adam

 

[slackercruster]

Since getting the regs serviced is hit or miss depending on the technician. Is there a mail order source that is reputable?

Also does the 1st stage need servicing as regular as the 2nd stage need servicing? There is no corrosion in my first stage inlet and it has been used in spring water only.

 

[RJP]

Since getting the regs serviced is hit or miss depending on the technician. Is there a mail order source that is reputable?

Also does the 1st stage need servicing as regular as the 2nd stage need servicing? There is no corrosion in my first stage inlet and it has been used in spring water only.

You know, I'm guessing you should just keep diving them until they fail.

You really seem dead-set against having your regs serviced for some reason. Not sure whether it's the few dollars it costs to have them serviced or the fear that you'll encounter the one in a thousand chance that you'll have a problem after the service or maybe it's something else altogether.

Good luck - hopefully we won't be seeing a future post from you on the topic of infrequent reg servicing in the "Near Misses and Lessons Learned" forum.

 

[herman]

I personally don't service a reg until it shows me me some sign it needs it but I have the tools and do the work myself. I am careful with my regs and rinse them carefully. I also check the IP and cracking pressures fairly often and always before a trip. You can service them seperately but I can't imagine a good tech who would be happy servicing only part of the reg, I wouldn't. If one needs it, IMO all the stages should at least be dissambled, cleaned and checked.

If you want a good reliable repair shop you can mail your regs to, these guy are as good as you will find. They are local to me and I know all of them personally. They do a lot of work for smaller shops all over the country and are the goto shop for LDS's around here when they have problem regs. AirTech Scuba Services: Your life support equipment is our priority.

 

[redacted]

You know, I'm guessing you should just keep diving them until they fail.

You really seem dead-set against having your regs serviced for some reason. Not sure whether it's the few dollars it costs to have them serviced or the fear that you'll encounter the one in a thousand chance that you'll have a problem after the service or maybe it's something else altogether.

Good luck - hopefully we won't be seeing a future post from you on the topic of infrequent reg servicing in the "Near Misses and Lessons Learned" forum.

Your 1 in 1000 statistic is quite different than my personal experience of 4 in 5. On the bright side, all of my bad experiences were relatively minor inconveniences rather than anything that could reasonably be considered hazardous.

I guess you continue to practice your profile occupation even though you are semi-retired. You sound like you work for a dive shop.

EDIT so you don't have to look at RJPs profile:

Occupation
Making consumers buy stuff they didn't even know they wanted. (Currently "semi" retired.)