Mares Puck Air failed during dive

[ddkess]

I have a two year old Mares Puck Air that I had serviced in the past year and on my first dive following the service (oring and battery changeout) the computer showed fluid on the screen and failed. I contacted my dive shop that did the service and they told me that the fluid wasn't water but oil from the dive computer. Is this a comon problem? My local dive shop is contacting the manfacturer to try and get this resolved.

 

[GillScales]

Failed 1stdive. Post service? Sounds like a shop monkey problem to me. They let their newbie service your gear I bet, and he for got to relube the o-ring.

 

[ddkess]

Turned out there was fluid in the gage face yet no path for sea water to get from the battery compartment to the gage. The fluid turned out to be oil from the internals...I'm guessing the depth gage part of the computer. My computer is only 2 years old yet it's out of warrenty by 5 months. Hope that Mares will make it right and fix it.

 

[Kryssa]

Keep us posted. I always like to see if manufacturers come through.

 

[ddkess]

Latest update is there has been no response from the manufacturer since they received it over a week ago. Why the silence?

 

[ddkess]

Today I finally got the complete story on the cause of damage to my Mares Puck Air. First I would like to thank Zak and the great people at Mares for helping to resolve this problem and going far above and beyond their responsibilities. Their company was never at fault and they stand by each and every one of their products. I will continue to be a loyal Mares customer.

A brief history.... I had my regulators serviced in the past year and decided to have my dive shop also service my Mares Puck Air by changing the battery and oring. On a recent trip to Cozumel and the first dive since my service, the Puck Air failed within minutes of entering the water. On surfacing, I found the gage face was filled with fluid. I notified my local dive shop (Sound Diving Center in Bremerton Washington) and they said when I got back to bring it in. When I took it in, the Owner of my LDS said that he had seen this problem before and it was oil from the computer and not an o-ring leak at the battery compartment. He asked how long I had it for and I told him just over 2 years. He told me it was no longer under warranty and I was probably out of luck. The next day I called the dive shop and the owner told me he had someone open up the puck air and it was definately a manfacturers defect since it was filled with oil. THIS WAS A LIE TO AVOID THEIR POOR SERVICE PRACTICE. MARES DOESN'T USE OIL INSIDE THEIR GAGES/COMPUTERS.

Today I called Mares and talked to Juan and he was able to look at my service paperwork and fill me in on everything.
He told me they found my puck air was filled with seawater from a poor o ring installation on the battery compartment. He also told me there is no way they would ever have oil in the computers. Rather than deal with this dive shop, Mares sent a brand new computer to replace the one that was damaged. THANKS AGAIN MARES! I will never allow this dive shop to service any more of my equipment. I confronted them about their unethical practice and they just shrugged their shoulder...I guess they were more surprised they got caught in a lie.

 

[Doubler]

Same sort of issue with the same shop. I send my regs to the manufacturer for service now. The only
failures I have ever had are right after servicing. Makes you wonder why you even bother. And why I live by troubleshooting dictum number one, Last thing touched by human hands is 99% cause of failure.

 

[ddkess]

Makes you wonder why they are still in business. I guess I'm going to have to go to Tacoma for all my dive services now. I will never support that dive shop again.

 

[fishb0y]

It was most likely the manager you talked to, not the owner... even so, I also wonder why they are still open. Even though it is a drive, Tacoma Scuba is a FAR superior shop to do business with.