Need advice: Water in my reg!

[one90proof]

Hi all,

Just looking for some quick advice. My 13yr old and I went diving yesterday afternoon. This morning we start cleaning our gear in the bathtub and I notice that she failed to replace her reg's dust cover after the dive. The reg (Genesis GS2000) must have sat in the water for about 3-5 minutes before I noticed it. I removed it from the water and set it out to dry without replacing the dust cover.

I did do a search on this subject and found situations where the reg took on seawater or chlorinated pool water. Most of the advice I saw recommended getting the reg serviced. The reg is new. I think she has only about 4 or 5 dives on it in the past 6 weeks or so. Should I get this regulator serviced now or should it be OK after drying out? Also, what should I expect to pay for servicing? It will be coming out of the kid's allowance.

Thanks in advance,
Craig

 

[miketsp]

Larry gave a good answer recently:
http://www.scubaboard.com/showpost.php?p=746551&postcount=4

on thread
http://www.scubaboard.com/t69674-.html

If you could get it onto a cylinder and run dry air through it within a few hours of it happening then you may get away without servicing.

 

[voop]

I do not know what a reg service runs around where you are, nor do I know the reg in question, but I would *not* skimp on maintaining my life-support equipment. So my advice is to get it serviced, if you care about your daughter being well.

The times when I even suspect that a reg of mine "might potentially have an issue" (such as "water might have gotten in to the 1. stage"), it gets a label saying "service" and the mouthpiece comes off (to prevent accidental usage) -- and isn't used again before I've had a chance to service it. It may be extreme and not strictly necessary, but I do prefer to err on the side of caution wrt. these things.

 

[SDAnderson]

Hook the regulator up to a tank and gently blow it out, then take it in and have it looked at. I'd be a little surprised if there's a problem but it's worth the couple of dollars to find out in the shop instead of in the water.

 

[underwater daphne]

safety first. get it serviced.
poor kid has to pay herself.

 

[one90proof]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. Unfortunatly, I don't have a tank to blow out the reg. I'll take it by the LDS tomorrow and ask about getting it serviced. Better safe than sorry seems to be the best way to go.

Because of this issue, my daughter now has a new homework assignment. She is going to create a pre-dive and post-dive checklist for us to use from now on and will be "in charge" of making sure we both follow it in the future.

 

[Robert Phillips]

The dust cover on regulators is not water tight. They are not meant to be used for submerging the regulator. Dad should do a homework assignment too! If you are going to soak your regs, they should be hooked up to a pressurized tank. If you dont have a tank, put the dust cover on and use a hose on the hose boots and then dry off the area around the cover, remove the cover while putting the towel over the opening, dry it, then the dust cover and replace. Although water wont destroy a regulator if a drop or two gets in, salt water will.

 

[Michael Schlink]

A good tech can take the 1st stage a part in a few minutes and make sure that its clean and dry. It won't be necesary to replace the seat and all the "o" rings assuming that the reg has been serviced lately, if not now's a good time to go ahead and have it's annual service done.

 

[frenzer3]

We're still curious about the question of how much one can expect it to cost for annual regulator servicing....(And does anyone know of a "list of reputable places" to take equipment, by state or region? We don't care for our LDS, which had a guy working there one day who didn't know a pony tank from a 63 cu.ft... In fact, we'd love to take an equipment specialist course ourselves, but again, don't even trust our LDS for a recommendation.... We're in the Chicago area....)

 

[pasley]

The cost of not getting the regulator serviced could very well be a life.

What ever the cost, it is cheap. Last year, a diver died after not getting his regulator serviced. He had his regulator serviced, did a few dives and then put the regulator away for a year or two. No need to get it serviced, again before diving he thought, as it was serviced and only dove a couple of times. Rust in the 1st stage ate away at the o-ring, resulting in catastrophic failure at 100 feet and the diver’s death.