Just serviced my NOS Reg - old parts still look good as new

[acteg]

So I just got Mares Mr12 Voltrex serviced. It's been sitting on a shelf in the box w/tags for 7 years or so. I decided to test it out on a couple of shallow water fresh water dives prior to servicing it. After 4 dives, it seemed like a great reg and I was tempted not to service it at all. So, I did some reading and it seems like everyone states that you should really get it checked out and overhauled (because of the age). The dive shop of course recommended an overhaul. So I took it into Scubaquest in Orlando, and they had it turned around in 24 hrs with a cost of $85. $40 for service, $40 for parts, and $5 for uncle sam. I thought about turning around and selling this for a good profit and then putting the money towards a nice new reg, but this one is really exactly what I want. Simple as they get, excellent build quality, all metal reg, and the price was right.

I took some pictures of the old parts that they gave me. They still look and feel new. I'm tempted to save them and use them for the next service. I say that kind of jokingly, but it is kind of tempting.

I got this regulator for basically Free.99 so, I wasn't too concerned with the price of the service, and I wanted to make sure it was good to go. Going through the process of buying used gear, I've come to the conclusion that you are better off buying new (unless the deal is crazy good ie: almost giving it away).

I am curious though. Can anyone recommend a company that makes solid, simple, bulletproof designs, that doesn't charge a bend you over the counter price for their parts kits? In many cases these are the same parts kits they have been using for years. The per unit cost should be pennies at this point.

Anyway here are the pics.

 

[acteg]

as a side note, i purchased a used aeris/oceanic regulator and decided to take it apart since it was pretty dirty. Now I feel kind of foolish for paying someone to do this. The design is so basic. The first stage reminds me of paintball guns a lot.

 

[herman]

You have one, what you need is a good service shop or better yet just learn to do it yourself.
You also need to learn to evaluate the condition of your equipment. Just because the reg had been sitting for a number of years does not mean it needed servicing. The average "needed" service interval for that reg if it's been diving is in the 4 to 5 yr range if it's not abused. Now I know there are more than one person reading this that are cringing. I did some research a while back on the life of oring and basically what I found was that for aircraft service (the only service I could find info on) the shelf life of an oring is in the 15 years range and even at 15 years it can still be used. I figure if it's good enough for an airplane, it should be fine in a dive reg. The basic design of the MR12 is the same as the USD Conshelf/Titan, a solid time proven design and it's easy to service. You can get a complete Conshelf service kit which will work fine here Conshelf XIV Service kit [Conshelf XIV Service Kit] - $30.00 : Vintage Double Hose!, Your online source for all things related to vintage diving or you can just make your own. The HP seat sells for around $15, filter is $3ish and the HP orings and back up ring are pennies each, unless your reg is in really bad shape that is all it will need. The second stage may need a LP seat but those are $3 if you buy them or you can make your own for less than a penny each, although you will need to spend $15 or so for materials and tools.

 

[acteg]

Thanks for the insight herman. I also looked up the spec you mentioned for O-rings. Depending on the material, orings can have an unlimited shelf life. I was thinking that this mares voltrex (it was new, just old) really didn't need servicing, but since it is my primary (and one I wanted to keep) I thought I would go ahead and get it looked at just to be on the safe side. Now that I have another setup that I am not attached to, I am tinkering since it needs cleaning anyway.

 

[halocline]

Assuming this is a NOS reg, not used, and then stored correctly, the one part I would think that would be in worst shape is the 2nd stage LP seat, which oddly enough I don't see in your photo of replaced parts. Go figure. The 1st stage should sit on the shelf fine because the seat is in the open position while not pressurized, but the 2nd stage seat is shut against the orifice during storage, so it would have taken an imprint. 7 years is a long time, but I suspect many of the repair kits used to rebuild older regs have that many years on the shelf themselves.

In any event, your photos should serve as a rebuttal to those who claim that an unused regulator needs service more than a used one, which is something you occasionally hear tossed around on this forum. You could save the HP seat for re-use; the o-rings are so cheap it probably doesn't make sense to use them again, if for no other reason than they've been pried out with a sharp tool by a tech that did not intend to re-use them.

 

[Paladin]

Assuming this is a NOS reg, not used, and then stored correctly, the one part I would think that would be in worst shape is the 2nd stage LP seat, which oddly enough I don't see in your photo of replaced parts. Go figure. The 1st stage should sit on the shelf fine because the seat is in the open position while not pressurized, but the 2nd stage seat is shut against the orifice during storage, so it would have taken an imprint. 7 years is a long time, but I suspect many of the repair kits used to rebuild older regs have that many years on the shelf themselves.

In any event, your photos should serve as a rebuttal to those who claim that an unused regulator needs service more than a used one, which is something you occasionally hear tossed around on this forum. You could save the HP seat for re-use; the o-rings are so cheap it probably doesn't make sense to use them again, if for no other reason than they've been pried out with a sharp tool by a tech that did not intend to re-use them.

The LP seat may be absent because, since the reg was never used, the service tech probably just flipped it and used the undamaged back side.

 

[acteg]

Are the O-rings a standard size/material across the board? Is it possible to just order a stack of O-rings for this particular regulator?

 

[halocline]

The LP seat may be absent because, since the reg was never used, the service tech probably just flipped it and used the undamaged back side.

If you paid for a 2nd stage rebuild kit (I assume $40 was for 1st and 2nd stage kits) wouldn't you want the one part that actually wears in storage to be replaced? It doesn't make any sense to replace everything else but not the seat. Especially considering the tech replaced all those o-rings for the sole reason that the reg sat for 7 years.

In reference to the OP's question about o-rings, yes they are standard sizes and materials. You can buy them in small quantities at places like oringsusa.com. A good resource for you, if you're interested in DIY service, would be the Vance Harlow book on regulator repair. There's a good chapter in that book on o-ring sizes and materials.

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

The LP seat may be absent because, since the reg was never used, the service tech probably just flipped it and used the undamaged back side.

.

Yes. That is what I do with most of my Mares 2nds, so I'd bet you are right. I'll bet the seat had a slight seating groove from years of storage, but if it was still in overall good shape and the tech just flipped the seat and tuned it.... But if I was paying for a service, I'd want it changed since I was charged for that!

acteg: I have that exact regulator (older-version MR-12 first, Voltrex 2nd). That version of the MR-12 has the volcano-type orifice machined into the body of the first stage, the newer models have a removable (and thus replaceable) orifice.

A benefit I can see to having your new "old" MR-12 serviced is that the new Trimaterial HP poppet was used to replace the old discontinued HP poppet (the piston-looking thing in your photos), which sometimes had durability issues (it would wear out far faster than it should have, causing the intermediate pressure to creep, and requiring an overhaul to fix).... the new Mares Trimaterial poppet introduced a few years ago seems to have solved that problem, so that is a good "upgrade".

The Voltrex is basically an Abyss 2nd stage with a different front cover. Great-breathing 2nd when properly tuned.

Overall, this is a bullet-proof regulator. I partial to metal 2nd stages, so I think you got a great deal.

It is also a super-easy regulator to service yourself if you decide you want to. All of the parts needed to service the 2nd stage can be found as "generics", and the first stage can use the Aqualung Titan / Conshelf high pressure poppet.

Best wishes.

 

[herman]

All the orings in USD/Al and Voit/AMF/Mares are standard orings. The size depends on which oring you are talking about but the HP balance chamber is a 006 (the white thing in the photos is a distroyed backup ring for the 006- you need it as well) ,other sizes you will need are 011s and 012s. Other regs will require different sizes and possibly different durometers (stiffness). Nitrile (aka Burna-N) are fine or viton if you are using high O2 mixes, viton is OK for air as well but not worth the expence if you never go above 40% O2.
Bags of 100 nitrile cost around $2, so for less than $10 you can have more Mares/USD orings than you and a dozen of your friends will ever use.