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Guest
I'm a Caribbean diver. I go down in the Caribbean 4 times a year to go diving.
18 months ago, I was due for my 1 year inspection. When I brought my regs to my LDS to be serviced, I spoke directly with the tech who services my gear and told him about a "small" problem I encounter during a dive the week before.
When I went back to pich-up my regs, the tech showed me the Q-tips he used to clean my regs !!!
I had rust debris in my first stage, all the way into both regs.
He told me I was lucky the whole thing didn't seized on me while diving !!!!
Now a days. I have my regs inspected EVERY TIME I'm back from a Caribbean trip .... that's 4 times a year. I gladly spend 25$ on an inspection for a piece of gear that is vital to my survival .
Inspection is a good way of heading off or catching problems before they effect your diving. And $25 is not an unreasonable price for a good inspection. But it must have been a really long Q-tip to clean your 7' hose. And the "He told me I was lucky the whole thing didn't seized on me while diving" sets off my BS alarm. I suspect he is not being entirely honest with you. If you are interested in doing this kind of thing yourself, tools would run about $25 and a great book on maintaining your regs would run another $50. If you would rather pay the tech to do this and are inclined to stay with the same tech, you might want to discuss with him what he found that he could fix with a Q-tip but it could have caused your reg to seize up while diving. I assume compressor maintenance in Cuba may be wanting so crud in the 1st stage filter would be expected. But your reg would progressively become harder breathing rather than suddenly seize up. I suspect he found some crap in the filter which he removed, cleaned the area a bit with a Q-tip, and replaced the filter.
He may be a good tech, but I don't like the intimidating BS.