IP problem with brand new Poseidon Xstream

[phoque]

Ah, a firm headquartered in España -- or on the chilly Baltic perhaps? You weren't the first to fall for the lure of those cheaper prices. I had wondered why you had to purchase your hoses separately and piecemeal together a new regulator set.

Sadly, your experience reflects something else that has been lost by many if not most dive shops nowadays. The place where I once worked tested every regulator that was sold. Since I was lowest on the totem back then, that often fell to me. We'd check for leaks at high pressure and let the regulator sit; verify a stable IP and cracking pressure; and jot those baseline specs for any future repairs or adjustments. A copy of the results would also go with the customer.

When I inquired of a local dive shop, whether that practice was still done, the replay was, "Where's the time?" -- the clerk, all the while, playing "Call of Duty" behind the counter. Some of those defunct shops years ago, would probably be seen as playing fast and loose with any number of things (taking wide-eyed OW students below 20 meters immediately springs to mind), especially by the pedants on this site; but the customer service and equipment support today is sorely lacking . . .

Wow, you do know your usual suspects! Espana hoses and Baltic reg it is
I did fall for the lure of cheaper prices, but after consideration of the following facts: the dealer is an approved Poseidon dealer, purchasing overseas does not appear to violate Poseidon policy or void warranty (contrary to Apeks, Scubapro or most other brands), the price difference vs US retailers is quite massive, and no local shop to me sells Poseidon regs. So my choice was either purchase online in the USA and pay margins for both a distributor and retailer not local to me, or purchase online in Europe and pay a single margin to an approved dealer. Agreed, I rolled the dice, but on something where my perception of Poseidon reliability indicated a very low chance of problems (obviously I was wrong there, but your report of never having heard of such a failure together with your apparent level of experience with Poseidon regs seems to indicate that I must have somehow been VERY unlucky here). Perhaps this is a lesson for the future, or perhaps not, and both the dealer and Poseidon will respond adequately and provide satisfactory resolution. We will see I guess.

As far as assembling the regulator with parts from different sources, I only did this because I wanted specific hose lengths that a fully stock assembled Poseidon reg set cannot provide, plus the fact that I had a gauge to test the set myself once assembled (fortunately!). But I do concede that I really didn't envision having those issues, obviously...

 

[lexvil]

Wow, you do know your usual suspects! Espana hoses and Baltic reg it is
I did fall for the lure of cheaper prices, but after consideration of the followings facts: the dealer is an approved Poseidon dealer, purchasing overseas does not appear to violate Poseidon policy or void warranty (contrary to Apeks, Scubapro or most other brands), the price difference vs US retailers is quite massive, and no local shop to me sells Poseidon regs. So my choice was either purchase online in the USA and pay margins for both a distributor and retailer not local to me, or purchase online in Europe and pay a single margin to an approved dealer. Agreed, I rolled the dice, but on something where my perception of Poseidon reliability indicated a very low chance of problems (obviously I was wrong there, but your report of never having heard of such a failure together with your apparent level of experience with Poseidon regs seems to indicate that I must have somehow been VERY unlucky here). Perhaps this is a lesson for the future, or perhaps not, and both the dealer and Poseidon will respond adequately and provide satisfactory resolution. We will see I guess.

As far as assembling the regulator with parts from different sources, I only did this because I wanted specific hose lengths that a fully stock assembled Poseidon reg set cannot provide, plus the fact that I had a gauge to test the set myself once assembled (fortunately!). But I do concede that I really didn't envision having those issues, obviously...

Nothing wrong with finding the best deal, I just bought a regulator from the UK because a friend was coming to the US, saved hundreds, if there is a problem I’ll fix it.

 

[Bigbella]

Nothing wrong with finding the best deal, I just bought a regulator from the UK because a friend was coming to the US, saved hundreds, if there is a problem I’ll fix it.

No, there's no problem whatsoever with seeking out a good deal (I've sought them myself from time to time; but I am also capable of servicing my own gear); but, if equipment is bought on the grey market, which is frequently the case, you often won't receive manufacturer's support or actual warranty; and the store equivalent "warranties" typically aren't worth a spent snot rag.

One firm, out of New York, offered those assurances; and they're outright crap. A friend of mine has been dealing with a co-called "covered" repair issue for months . . .

 

[lexvil]

No, there's no problem whatsoever with seeking out a good deal (I've sought them myself from time to time; but I am also capable of servicing my own gear); but, if equipment is bought on the grey market, which is often the case, you often won't receive manufacturer's support or warranty; and the store equivalent "warranties" aren't worth a spent snot rag.

One firm, out of New York, offered those assurances; and they're outright crap. A client of mine has been dealing with a co-called "covered" repair issue for months . . .

Basically true, I do my own service too so that just doesn’t factor into things to often, that NY firm was helpful to me once when SP hadn’t completely admitted to the hinge problem on Seawing Nova’s, LDS was not willing to get involved because they said SP may not take care of it (based on experience) but the Big NY outfit stepped up, the third time I broke them the LDS was right on the spot with an exchange.

 

[Bigbella]

Glad to hear of a decent experience. That same firm once sent a first stage, minus an HP blind screw and a sintered filter to a friend of mine years ago; and smugly suggested that she had removed the items herself; and couldn't or wouldn't do anything for her until after the high holidays . . .

 

[phoque]

According to the dealer, Poseidon responded the following after they contacted them with the pictures/video:

Unfortunately, at the moment we don't have the product in our stock. You can send the defective product to us and we can repair it - for a quick solution.
The product will be available again in two months. And we won’t do a warranty replacement of any regulator before we have seen it and evaluated the item.

Yeah, I guess I should expect they want to see the defective product, but 2 months for a replacement (if that actually happens) is a little annoying to say the least.

 

[buddhasummer]

As an aside, that's a very nice looking first stage.

 

[Bigbella]

As an aside, that's a very nice looking first stage.

Yeah, it's a great regulator -- and even more impressive when it's not a pricey paperweight . . .

 

[phoque]

So, thanks to all who provided feedback on this first stage issue and offered to help. I thought I should update this thread with the actual outcome as it could be useful for those who are considering purchasing a reg or other equipment from Europe but are concerned about warranty issues, etc.
So, as discussed above, I sent the first stage back to the vendor (Baltic area) who forwarded the package to Poseidon in Sweden. It was serviced there, sent back to the dealer, and then back to me. I sent the reg early March after returning from Europe myself, and received it back serviced after exactly 3 weeks total, so overall pretty quick turnaround for all this traveling, etc (I mean, there are many LDS that won't service your reg in that kind of time...) Also, this was done at no cost to me. The dealer arranged and paid for round trip DHL as well as Poseidon forwarding, so pretty nice.
The reg did come back with the DIN fitting o-ring missing, so annoyingly I had to source one to test the reg (the dealer offered to send one to me at no charge, but I mean shipping an o-ring across the atlantic doesn't make too much sense...)
Anyway, after buying the o-ring from DGX and testing it, it now locks at 128 psi on a 3200 psi tank, and 130 psi on a 2400 psi LP tank. So the values still seem a little higher than specs, but there is zero creep, it would probably be a little lower at say 4200 psi (if that's what was used to set it, seeing as Europe has 300 bar tanks), and also I can't exclude that my gauge is inaccurate by 2-3%, which would place it where it should be.
So bottom line, I'm a little disappointed that the reg was not switched for a new one since I had never even used it before the massive failure, but all in all, the seller was very responsive via email and took responsibility, Poseidon fixed it with quick turnaround time, and given the current pandemic situation, I wouldn't have been able to dive with it sooner anyway.
I still have to take it into the water for its baptism. Hopefully soon! (and without OPV action if possible...)

 

[tbone1004]

@phoque those IP's are fine, most of the IP gauges that people have are of questionable accuracy, so unless it's a large gauge 250-300psi analog, or a digital one, I'd say it's close enough.
They would also have set at 300bar, so I suspect that it is perfect at full pressure. It does emphasize the point of setting these things at the maximum pressure they'll see since they are not perfectly balanced. Since the second stages are unbalanced, it is critical that they're set properly.