how often should i service ?

[SDAnderson]

Yes, but a true professional has to be profitable, so he/she does it in half an hour. I take half a day (or more) to do the same thing, but it's my own time.

If you're able to do the work properly in a half hour, you're using six hands. If it takes half a day, you've got one hand in your lap.

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

If you're able to do the work properly in a half hour, you're using six hands. If it takes half a day, you've got one hand in your lap.

A 3rd Possibility (me): All thumbs--->

I take a few hours to rebuild and tune a reg, because I can, and am off doing other chores while it soaks, parts are drying, etc., and I'm almost certainly moving at a slower pace than a busy tech who services 10 regs a day versus 10 regs a year (me).

Best wishes.

 

[Mr Carcharodon]

And one of the things about getting your reg serviced by a pro is they do that work often and we humans actually get better doing a task over and over.

Oddly I get consistently bad results from the professionals but good result from myself. But then I actually follow the manufacturer's procedures, which they do not, and I likely spend more time.

It's not about saving money, its about getting it done right. Of course if I did 10x more regulators I would get faster, but then I just have three I want to get right.

 

[knowone]

Takes me half a day just to get them ready for reassembly with someone else giving me a hand.

Maybe it's because I've got half a dozen going with one vibrator.

 

[k374]

Mares told me that to maintain warranty on my regs I need a complete overhaul every year!

 

[Plumb bob]

Mares told me that to maintain warranty on my regs I need a complete overhaul every year!

That's an entirely true statement on their part.. But of course warranty upkeep has nothing to do with safety, value or enhanced diving experience.

 

[Zung]

If you're able to do the work properly in a half hour, you're using six hands. If it takes half a day, you've got one hand in your lap.

Here's a clip from my favorite LDS who does it in 25 min.

Me, I'm exactly like LeadTurn_SD said. Without time constraint, I can do a few exra's such as doing 2 ultrasonic runs, 1 for the metal parts and 1 for the plastics and the more critical stuff such as the piston; I also finish the parts with a toothbrush after the US runs, examin the piston stem and the orifice with a loupe for defects, and so forth. I ever test dive the regs before handing them over to the family members, so you can actually call it a full day.

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

Mares told me that to maintain warranty on my regs I need a complete overhaul every year!

k374;

If you work on that bike in your avatar, you can easily service your Mares regs (my family owned a Yamaha shop here in Hilo for years, in High School I spun wrenches in the back of the shop for my Dad).

Mares regs are among the simplest balanced diaphragm 1st's / classic downstream 2nd's to overhaul.... Although the factory manual calls for "special" Mares tools, you can easily improvise....

If you are just maintaining a single reg set, you will lose money the 1st time you overhaul it (due to having to buy some tools).... but after that, you can service "as needed", which I've found is more like 150 - 200 dives, or 2-3 years, which ever comes first.... or maybe a lot longer with some luck....

Best wishes.

 

[Zung]

... If your regulator is lubricated with Christo-Lube, we can pretty well date how long it has been since the last overhaul by the condition of the lubricant. After one year there are barely any changes, after two years the Christo-Lube starts to clump into a ricotta-like consistency, after three years it looks like cottage cheese and after four years it can actually dry so much that it starts to flake...

Steven Anderson
Chief Repair Geek
The Best Little Dive Shop on the Internet

That's most informative.

Does anyone know if the Tribolube ages in a similar way?

OTOH, regular silicon grease seems to last much longer: I have 1 tube that's 15 years old, and another one that's soon to be 40, and the content still looks like new. Or it is the contact with salt water that does them in?

 

[Marek K]

you can service "as needed", which I've found is more like 150 - 200 dives, or 2-3 years, which ever comes first.... or maybe a lot longer with some luck....

What would you say for someone like me? Basically a summertime vacation diver, with three other family member divers. Which means our regs (two Sherwoods and two unbalanced piston Mares) are sitting coiled up for most of the year.

Warranty isn't an issue with any of them.

I'm tempted to just buy an IP gauge; and only having "annual" services done every two years, as long as the IP and the other easy checks come up good...