How often to replace hp seat?

[divad]

I love reading this stuff....... It's sad really....

 

[mbs]

I would express your concerns to the LDS and ask to purchase a HP seat before your trip to Bonaire or buy one from NESS. BTW, the Aqualung seat is less than half the price of the Mares seat.

Excellent idea!! It makes a lot of sense to have a spare on hand when traveling. The first time it failed I was in Roatan and couldn't find a shop with the seat. I had my handy dandy bag of parts from last service, but of course there was no hp seat since it had not been changed! Upcoming trip is to bonaire so no problems getting anything serviced NESS looks like a great resource for stuff like this. I'm slowly accumulating spares and tools. Maybe pick up a spare 1st stage.

 

[flots am]

Actually, Mares doesn't include the HP seat in their annual kit: it's a separate order/extra cost item. See here. The kit contains a snap ring, a backup ring, a filter and some o-rings, that's it. I guess the packaging costs as much as the content.

I'm impressed. I was think it was in the $2 range.

flots.

 

[c5diver]

to the op, I am guessing that you have a v32 first stage that had the scs that had the 2 fails then you had it "upgraded" to the newer tri-material valve. I have several mares regs one being the v32 dove it for a year had it serviced 6mos in ip creep until a slow free flow. it is in being changed to the newer valve now which is the same as the mr22. I have an mr42 with a tri material valve and follow the every other year replacement and have had no problems in the 5 years I have owned them.

 

[halocline]

History: I have had my mares proton for about 8 years and have had 2 hp seats fail (major creep) in that time.

I'm afraid this would mean the end of my relationship with that regulator. There are lots and lots of good choices out there, and HP seat failure 'should' be almost non existent.

 

[elan]

Nope Mares does not include the HP seat in the kit.

Regardless of any technical details regarding the exact state of your existing HP seat, you paid for service and you paid for a service kit and they should have done a proper job which includes complete disassembly, cleaning and replacement of everything in the parts kit, as well as everything else that needs replacing.

While I have no direct experience with Mares, I would expect the HP seat to be included with the first stage service kit and should have been replaced at service time. Even if it wasn't included with the kit, the parts cost for a new seat is insignificant when compared to the cost of service, so they should have replaced it anyway.

If they didn't change the seat, I'd want to know what they did change. Did you get back a bag containing your old o-rings, etc.?

flots.

---------- Post added April 17th, 2013 at 06:27 PM ----------

As the valve in the first stage is normally open id does not get bad when laying on the shelf so the time is rather meaningless it makes sense to look at how many dives were made on the reg. I have one zeagle reg which has around 100 dives on it an its 5 years old and it still has the original seat. And like others pounted out it could also be the o ring in the chamber - i personally had them fail twice and once replaced the creep was gone

 

[Nemrod]

As has been mentioned, I would suspect the O ring in the balance chamber before the seat.

N

 

[mbs]

Model is the proton v16. The last failure was 2 years ago in Bonaire. I had checked the ip before the trip - no creep. The 2nd stage started to bubble on me during the week, I checked the ip and sure enough it was creeping. I took it to Bruce Bowker and he replaced only the hp seat with the new design and told me the new design corrects the problem. I'm told he knows what he's doing So I'm 2 years into this seat and no reocurrence - yet. If it happens again I'll certainly ask the tech to check the oring as well as for any scratches in the chamber itself. Great tips,thanks!

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

The Mares repair manual specifies inspecting the HP seat at "annual" service, but if it looks "ok" it is to be reused (the manual says to scribe a "1" on the back of the seat, to indicate it was reused once, and should be replaced at the next service). In practice, as others have already mentioned, the new seats will/should last for quite awhile. More than two years... mine are going on 5 years with no creep. I service my own Mares regs (two MR-22's and four MR-12's) and have found the new HP seats last for far longer than the recommended two year interval. The advice to check the balance chamber o-ring during service is spot on.

 

[herman]

Not only the Oring but the inner walls of the chamber itself. A scratch there can be covered by lube for some time before it eventually is forced out, allowing the reg to creep. The problem is, it is very easy to damage it but difficult to see the damage. Most of the time, if it actually is the HP seat leaking, you can see the cause if you use enough magnification. A defective HP orifice can also cause similar problems, the new seat covers for the flaw in the orifce but as it hardens and takes a set, the creep returns. Luckily because Mares uses removable seats, that damage can usually be seen easily if the tech is interested in finding the problem rather than thowing parts in and going on.