How often do you service your reg?

[Al Mialkovsky]

I use two regs and service them both twice a year.

 

[carlcz]

I do mine yearly.
Why?
When I took the written exams for tri-mix and asked my instructor "what's passing?", he said "what's your life worth?"
I got 100%. I took it to heart.
If you do deep technical diving, maybe every 50 dives or so is adequate.
If you do less, yearly, or every two years.
I have NEVER had a regulator faiure at depth, and do not intend to start a tradition...
"what's your life worth?"

 

[fireflock]

"what's your life worth?"

You're right. I'm going to buy titanium regs and have them serviced after every dive. My life is worth it.

 

[ronbeau]

I have alway heard service reg annually. Just for grins, I was looking around at Scuba Toys Forum and they had a similar thread. Some people said they service theirs when they feel they need it, if it breathes different or every couple of years. One guy claims that a friend of his services his every 7 years. I think that that guy is asking for trouble. Some people even said that annual services cause more reg problems than they solve.
I tend to believe in the annual.
Comments.................
Thanks

I depends on the regulator and how often it is used.

Consider the following example:

Daughter - ScubaPro MK25SA/S600 - Services every year (about 25 dives per year)
Wife & I - Atomic B2 - Every 2 years

The SubaPro recommende3d service interval is once per year.
The Atomic service interval is once every two years or 300 dives whichever comes first.

 

[redacted]

I depends on the regulator and how often it is used.

Consider the following example:

Daughter - ScubaPro MK25SA/S600 - Services every year (about 25 dives per year)
Wife & I - Atomic B2 - Every 2 years

The SubaPro recommende3d service interval is once per year.
The Atomic service interval is once every two years or 300 dives whichever comes first.

And the biggest difference between those two regulators that allowa such an extended service interval is not different designs, improved mfgr techniques, or a revolutionary materials breakthrough. It is simple two different manufacturers with differet philosophies and approaches on how to get the most money out of divers.

 

[paulwlee]

I do mine yearly.
Why?
--- snip ---
"what's your life worth?"

BTW, anyone in a situation where a regulator failure can be a real danger (deco diving, cave diving, etc.) should test the regulators in some easy dives after service. At the least the service should be staggered so that you're not in a situation where all your regulators are being used for the first time after service.
I've seen/heard/read of many more regulators fail the first dive after service than just at some random time during its service cycle. Any time you do something to the internals there is a potential for things to go wrong, no matter how careful the person doing that "something" is.

 

[Ironhed]

I dove my last regulator 3 full years and with close to 300 dives I just started to have issues with some free flowing at the surface. I would guess it depends on how you take care of your gear and flush the regulator. I also always dive with a pony setup. If I only had one air source I would probably service every year but I strongly reccomend diving with a pony or stay very close to a buddy after a regulator has been serviced as I hear of accidents due to a reg failure after being serviced by someone who didn't put a reg back together correctly. I now have a brand new scubapro which means from now on I plan to do the yearly service but rest assured I also will have a pony in case something isn't right after a rebuild.

 

[mahjong]

Certainly depends on what kind of diving you do, how you care for your reg, and what kind of reg you have. If one dives very infrequently then perhaps the reg might need to be serviced MORE frequently than if one dives weekly--the best way to care for a reg is to use it regularly. Generally, I think regs are serviced too frequently. I know I am only ever very cautious in thinking about the functioning of my reg on the very first dive after a servicing.

 

[craborn]

I service once a year unless I suspect a problem. I have never had a problem. But I dive lakes so most of my diving is shallow. If I was diving oceans and/or depths I would service twice a year. I agree you must stay with the warranty.
I love the comment "what is your life worth" THat was a good answer to that question. I may have to use that one.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

BTW, anyone in a situation where a regulator failure can be a real danger (deco diving, cave diving, etc.) should test the regulators in some easy dives after service. At the least the service should be staggered so that you're not in a situation where all your regulators are being used for the first time after service.
I've seen/heard/read of many more regulators fail the first dive after service than just at some random time during its service cycle. Any time you do something to the internals there is a potential for things to go wrong, no matter how careful the person doing that "something" is.

Absolutely. (Same thing applies to aircraft that have just had their annual inspection - the first flight after the annual inspection is potentially the most exciting of the whole year and warrants an extremely careful preflight inspection by the pilot.)

Parts work better together after they get to know each other and sometimes an adjustment may be needed after the new parts break in. Consequently, I hate it when customers bring regs in for service just before a big trip. That pretty much guarentees that any post service adjustment issue will occur in the middle of their yearly trip with much more negative impact and inconvenience than if they had gotten it serviced prior to a couple of quarrty dives before the big trip.

If you are the one or two trip per year type of person, it makes more sense to get it flow tested prior to the trip, then bring it in for service after the big trip. This is doubly true if you do a poor job of rinsing - a situation where the reg would otherwise have a whole year to sit and corrode prior to being serviced just before the next big trip.