I called Mares today. The person that answered would not give any assistance for "liability reasons". I told him that was complete BS since the manual has 6 cryptic illustrations that give you just enough info to kill yourself or destroy your gear installing the air control. He tried to get me to drive 30 minutes to pay a dealer to install it. I bought a Mares BCD and air control with the false assumption that they would not make it hard to install something this basic.
Unless anyone else has had success in installing these fool things I think it would be easier to mail them back to the sellers and go Atomic...
---------- Post added October 21st, 2014 at 07:14 AM ----------
[FONT=arial, sans-serif]Repost from another page...[/FONT]
[FONT=arial, sans-serif]I bought a Mares Air Control and Mares Hybrid Pure BCD this week. Installation of the Air Control is difficult only because of the lack of decent instructions and Mare's refusal to talk to their customers due to liability reasons.[/FONT]
If you want to avoid wasting time and money on having a "professional" do an install that should take 5 minutes here are the steps (avoiding jargon):
1 - Cut the zip tie holding on the old inflator
2 - Pull the inflator off the hose
3 - Note the cord inside the inflator (this is the tricky part). This cord is what allows you to dump air when you pull on the hose.
4 - On the inflator push in both of the plastic tabs near the end of the inflator that connect to the hose.
5 - A plastic part should slide out with the cord tied to it. Remove the spring - you don't need it unless you put the old inflator back on.
6a - Assuming that you are installing on a Mares BCD do not untie the cord. Slide the plastic part into the supplied adapter it fits into.
6b - If you have a non-Mares BCD u[FONT=arial, sans-serif]ntie the string, store the plastic piece, and use one of the small metal rods and appropriate adapter to reattach the string.[/FONT]
[FONT=arial, sans-serif]The rest is pretty straight forward - just push the Air Control onto the inflator hose and make sure to attach a new zip tie to hold it in place.[/FONT]
[FONT=arial, sans-serif]I am not a professional but this is not a hard project. I just refuse to waste an afternoon driving to a Mares Certified Shop and paying another man to do something that I can do myself in 5 minutes. I for one would prefer to understand how my gear works so I can make adjustments and basic repairs in the field. Love the equipment hate the Mares documentation, support and attitude.[/FONT]
