LOUD high pitched noise comming from my reg!

[itch808]

Ok within the past couple dives or so I noticed my reg makes this extremely high pitched noise while breathing. It's usually only at the end of my inhale and lasts for about 1-2seconds. The weird thing is I noticed it goes away at about 2,500psi and doesn't come back. This is on a Tusa RS-130 reg I just bought brand new from Scubatoys with ONLY 7-8 dives so far.

Should I be worried?!? What could be the problem?!? The thing that bothers me the most (besides being brand spankin new) is that I deligently clean my reg after each use. I would seriously be dissapointed if this points to some kind of problem.

:shakehead

 

[JahJahwarrior]

I've got a buddy with a reg that does that. He hasn't had his serviced in four years supposedly.

I'v eheard it has to do with all of the parts happening to have harmonic motion at the same frequency. I'mt old you can open it up, turn a spring or two around and it'll likely go away. Then again, I've also been told I evolved from a monkey. Are you going to trust someone who evolved from a monkey?

I don't know if that's true about the harmonic motion/flip a spring around thing, but I read that somewhere. So if someone knows it defintely isn't true, please educate us!

 

[hlsooner]

My reg started making that type of noise a few weeks ago. I took it in for a full servicing, and the noise disappeared. May be a sign of corrosion or worn seals.

 

[Wayward Son]

Some of them are noisy & we don't know why. The best theory I've heard is that it's harmonics thing. Change or polish some parts, it can change or go away. My Mk5 was never noisy until last summer & it started squeaking. When I had it serviced I had my tech work on that & he was able to make it stop. He has a fair bit of experience with that & has gone to some effort to come up with answers, but it still comes down to changing parts & seeing what effect that has.

There is no safety issue, it's just annoying. Most likely the reason is stops below 2500psi is that the harmonics don't work right to make the noise at pressures below that point.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

The RS-130 is a balanced piston first stage. In a piston first stage, this type of harmonic whistling is almost always due to inadequate lubrication of the high pressure piston stem o-ring. The piston stem passes through this o-ring and any excessive drag can cause it to vibrate and this can cause resonance through the hoses that can be quite loud.

I have noted that some piston designs can expereince problems with resonance depending on the combination of spring and regulator first stage body and cap parts. In many cases adding or removing a shim will alter the working range enough to eliminate any resonance that is occurring.

I frequently hear about flipping the spring to cure this problem, but that really would not accomplish anything. What does happen though is that the tech normally relubricates the HP o-ring and/or the process of removing the piston to flip the spring results in lubricant getting redistributed which solves the lubrication problem.

 

[itch808]

So I do have anything to worry about? From what I'm reading it seems like some are saying it's just annoying harmonic noise, but DA Aquamaster mentions it could be caused by inadequate lubrication of the HP piston. If it's a lubrication problem, would this mean the piston could eventually sieze on me?

What would be the best course of action?

A) Wait until my annual servicing in about 10-11 months and mention the problem to the tech.

or

B) Take it in for servicing prompto.

 

[scubatoys]

There is nothing to worry about other than the annoyance... but I don't sell you gear so you can be annoyed. Give us a call, we'll issue a prepaid return slip, get it back here, lube it up, bench test it then take it into the pool to make sure the problem is solved, then send it back. Turn around will be 1 day - 2 max, and we'll pay shipping both directions. 9 out of 10 simply putting a bit more lube on the piston o-ring solves this situation that seems to crop up on about 1 out of 100 piston regs.

It didn't do it in our shop when we bench tested it before sending it out to you. You can see on your receipt that we had it aired up since we gave you the IP and cracking pressure stats on your paper work... It's one of those little quirks that just raises it's head now and then - and not based on the quality or brand of reg. In fact we get that on atomic regs all the time too - they had it really bad for a while, but then did a few redesigns, and now it's probably back to that 1 in 100 luck of the draw.

So your a 1 in 100... call us up, and go buy a lottery ticket!

 

[drbill]

I had one of my ScubaPro Mk10's do this when I was in Belize and Honduras two years ago. I dove it to a max depth of about 130 ft and it seemed to be more noticeable at depth.

After I got home, I took it in for servicing and we discovered it had two significant cracks in the cylinder under the HP ports. It still delivered air, just scared off all the fish.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

Inadequate HP o-ring lubrication sounds worse than it is. It's not something that is going to cause a failure, just something that may eventually cause excessive HP o-ring wear. But unless you do a few hundred dives per year it probably won't progress to a leak. The comparatively soft o-ring is not going to cause the piston to stop moving.

It is also something that just seems to happen and it has (gasp) even happened a time or two on regs that I serviced.

 

[itch808]

Thanks for all the reassurance, it's comforting to know that it shouldn't be a huge threat. The odd thing is that I went on another dive the next day after it happened and I didn't hear a peep out of it. I'm not sure if it had anything to do with my tank starting off underfilled from the LDS this time @ 2800psi. I'm hoping conditions clear up here on the islands, because of right now it's really ugly for any sort of diving. I want to make sure I can duplicate the problem again before I send it back to Scubatoys. I don't want to waste anyone's time, I just want to be sure nothing's going to fail on me---especially since I sometimes go solo.

I really appreciate Larry @ Scubatoys offering such excellent service to us here. I wouldn't think twice before buying anything from them again!