How long can my regs go without rebuilding?

[M_Bipartitus]

The unfortunate thing is that many "service technicians" aren't as experienced as you describe. Some I've encountered are little more than a DM candidate who has been working part time at the shop for a couple of months to pay for classes. I'm fortunate in that I've found a few that I trust with my equipment, but I'm also aware of some I wouldn't trust. I'm not saying that I would be better off doing it myself, but rather that divers should be careful who services their gear.

For example, a co-worker brought a regulator to a shop for an annual service. Within 5 minutes of giving the tech his regulator, they handed it back and charged him $80. I find it hard to believe that a proper service can be done in 5 minutes.

Problem with people thinking they can ÅÓebuild their own regulators is a bit ambitious. One you are working on life support equipment. Two if your not using oem parts you are playing with fire. Someone on this board is wanting to make up his own kits and sell them. That to me is ridiculous. People often take their equipment apart and ÅÓeplace the parts that come in the kit. There is a LOT to be said for experience. The experienced technician sees things that you will not or do not know to look for. You can not gain that from taking a class or reading a book. Replacing parts is not overhauling the regulator. Properly lubing what needs lubed and not lubing what doesnÃÕ so it will not cake with dirt is huge. Do you have a poppet seating machine that you use before you do your final adjustment? If not are you purging it enough before adjusting? If not people wonder why they go on dive trips and after 20 dives say they have free flows. Do yourself a big favor send the regs to a certified tech for overhaul and have it check every year

 

[herman]

Problem with people thinking they can ŽÅŽÓebuild their own regulators is a bit ambitious. One you are working on life support equipment. Two if your not using oem parts you are playing with fire. Someone on this board is wanting to make up his own kits and sell them. That to me is ridiculous. People often take their equipment apart and ŽÅŽÓeplace the parts that come in the kit. There is a LOT to be said for experience. The experienced technician sees things that you will not or do not know to look for. You can not gain that from taking a class or reading a book. Replacing parts is not overhauling the regulator. Properly lubing what needs lubed and not lubing what doesnŽÃŽÕ so it will not cake with dirt is huge. Do you have a poppet seating machine that you use before you do your final adjustment? If not are you purging it enough before adjusting? If not people wonder why they go on dive trips and after 20 dives say they have free flows. Do yourself a big favor send the regs to a certified tech for overhaul and have it check every year

Let me guess, you work for a shop or own one. While a lot of what you say is true, you are also misleading. I do use OEM parts however a properly selected Oring is just as good as one that came from a service kit. If an Oring is what I need, there is no need to buy an entire kit. No doubt an experienced tech sees a lot and I am a big believer in experience but I have years of service work on a lot of different gear, regs are for the most part a lot simpler than many other pieces of equipment I have serviced. These things are not the black art that many would have you believe and are quite robust. A good tech actually can read the book and do a good service job. You also assume that the tech is experienced, some are and some are not and based on the amount of just serviced failures there are plenty of poor techs to go around. A 3 hr service seminar makes you "certified" but not necessarily "qualified". Yearly service is at best a waste of money and at worst destructive to the reg. In service failures are rare and the vast majority of failures are annoying free flows, not some life threatening event. There are great techs working in quality service centers, Phil's for one and I am lucky, I live near a very good service center but I still choose to do my own regs, not because I don't trust them - I do- but I enjoy doing it and am quite capable of doing it myself. And I know it's done right, instead of hoping I got one of the good techs.

 

[scubafanatic]

....consider this though, for anyone wanting to push the envelope and see how long they can go without a reg (or other critical scuba gear service)....are you being completely selfish by skating on the razor's edge ? hey, if you're on my 6 pack in Cozumel, have a reg fail......BC runaway-inflate......computer die...whatever, and you end up hurt/dead because of it.....well, I can 'lose' that dive and be back out on the next boat without excessive financial loss/disruption...but it's quite a different thing if we're out in the middle of nowhere, on the other side of the world, on an expensive live-aboard....and you get yourself hurt/killed, causing the trip for a couple dozen people to abort as we head back to port to medivac your *ss to the chamber/hospital...causing immense emotional/financial disruption to lots of innocent people...all because you saved yourself a few bucks scimping on gear service...if you're gonna roll the dice and up the chances of taking yourself 'out'....have the courtesy to quaranteen the impact to only yourself.....maybe this sounds 'harsh'...but I doubt you've really thought this through....don't let it always me all about 'me' !

 

[hudson]

If you are "pushing it" and are not comfortable with your inspection, the peace-of-mind solution is simple, dive with redundant regs. If for some unfathomable reason both regs fail, there are still several options including sharing air, breathing from a freeflowing reg, feathering, or free ascent.

Regs don't kill, especially in rec. OW, as long as you don't panic. If you are going to panic when your regulator craps out on you, then you shouldn't be diving anyway - yearly service or no service.

 

[cbmech2]

As a part time regulator tech out of a dive shop, I can say that I see many regulators and I have rebuilt hundreds of them. I can tell immediately who has their gear serviced and those who do not. As I have seen from the other posts, a good majority of the pros for annual service have been mentioned (piece of mind, etc.). I guess the answer to your question depends on your comfort level and confidence in your gear. At the same time, I personally wouldn't exceed the 2 year threshold for service, but then again that is just me. In all actuality, paying 65 bucks as we do for the labor of performing a comprehensive service (that is if you are indeed getting that) is a bargain if you compare it to other labor rates that do not relate to the servicing of "life support equipment". The folks that don't take care of their gear, wait 5 years to get their gear serviced and only do so after a malfunction is just inviting trouble. These are also normally the folks that complain when pistons and caps are scored or other internals are just so pitted that it doesn't take a trained and competent tech to figure out that it needs to be replaced driving up the costs. The adage I use all of the time with students (Take care of your gear and it will take care of you), that includes servicing as per the schedule established by the manufacturer. I for one am not going to second guess the folks that engineered it. My two cents.

 

[hudson]

It's not that regulator servicing is expensive - sure, if I have one or two regs with 50+ dives on them every year, yearly servicing is no big deal...assuming you find someone competent.

The issue specifically concerns divers who have too many regs that individually don't see much use. Therefore the standard guideline of service every year becomes unfeasible. It makes a lot more sense to keep the purges depressed, clean and store appropriately, keep tabs on the number of dives on each reg and inspect regularly for problems.

 

[herman]

Just curious, how many of you replace the brakes on your car every year or 2? They are life support equipment and based on regulator maintenance logic, should be changed on a regular basis reguardless of condition, use or driving conditions.

 

[Geoff_H]

.are you being completely selfish by skating on the razor's edge ? hey, if you're on my 6 pack in Cozumel, have a reg fail......BC runaway-inflate......computer die...whatever

None of those events should cause a competent diver any problems. I suggest if anyone is worried about any of those things, they need more training or practice drills on how to handle problems.

Computer failure - either continue your dive or surface safely, depending on your profile.
Auto-inflate BCD - disconnect the LP hose, if that is stuck simply vent through whichever value takes your fancy and surface safely
1st stage failure - use your buddies regulator or breathe from the freeflow and surface safely
2nd stage failure - switch to your backup 2nd stage and surface safely.

 

[slackercruster]

As a part time regulator tech out of a dive shop, I can say that I see many regulators and I have rebuilt hundreds of them. I can tell immediately who has their gear serviced and those who do not. As I have seen from the other posts, a good majority of the pros for annual service have been mentioned (piece of mind, etc.). I guess the answer to your question depends on your comfort level and confidence in your gear. At the same time, I personally wouldn't exceed the 2 year threshold for service, but then again that is just me. In all actuality, paying 65 bucks as we do for the labor of performing a comprehensive service (that is if you are indeed getting that) is a bargain if you compare it to other labor rates that do not relate to the servicing of "life support equipment". The folks that don't take care of their gear, wait 5 years to get their gear serviced and only do so after a malfunction is just inviting trouble. These are also normally the folks that complain when pistons and caps are scored or other internals are just so pitted that it doesn't take a trained and competent tech to figure out that it needs to be replaced driving up the costs. The adage I use all of the time with students (Take care of your gear and it will take care of you), that includes servicing as per the schedule established by the manufacturer. I for one am not going to second guess the folks that engineered it. My two cents.

That guy wasn't kidding that it is cheaper to throw his reg away when it breaks. My regs cost $150 to $200 except for my Magnum which was in the high $200's. If I spent $65 a year I'd be pushing $300 to $400 in servicing for my regs. But I understand shops have to stay in biz and someday the regs WILL need service.

Do the high priced regs I see selling for $500 plus hold up better and need less servicing?

I found a few reference books on regs. Can you give me some feedback as to which are worthwhile for the diver that wishes to learn a little more about his equipment?

SCUBA INDUSTRY SERVICE, REPAIR & MAINTENANCE MANUALS - eBay (item 160325231467 end time Apr-06-09 21:31:31 PDT)

SCUBA REGULATOR MAINTENANCE AND REPAIR by Vance Harlow

Regulator Savvy (Spiral Bound)

 

[herman]

Nope, if anything the high priced regs are less robust than you Sherwood. They might not be fancy but the Sherwood designs are tough.

I have all 3 of the items you list above. The Ebay one is nothing more than some manuals compiled from various sources, you can find most of them on line for free.
The 2 books are both excellent material. I find Vances's book a little lighter on the theory and more into the hands on than Wolfinger's book. Wolfinger's book goes deeper into the theory and less on the hands on. Personally, I think the 2 compliment each other and both are worth reading and should be read by anyone repairing regs...several times. Every so often I drag out both copies and reread them.