Negligent LDS

[Dadvocate]

If I find myself unable to do much more than test my reg at the shop with a tank, etc, what would you recommend in terms of initial dives the next time I take her out into the ocean?

A couple of people mentioned doing quasi safety stops at specific depths. At what depths and for how long are my questions? I figure I'll be diving this weekend or next. I'll want to hit Verde Island which will bring me down to 30-33 meters.

I am in no mood to have a similar situation to the OP.

What is a good profile to start things off after a service on a reg, especially before going to 30 meters?

Thanks

 

[Colliam7]

I had a left real wheel on my pickup pass me one day while hauling home a load of firewood. Once it clears the roadway and is not going to hurt anyone, it really is pretty funny.

Seems this is more common than I ever thought. Was in the back seat of a buddy's car, half asleep, riding home on the interstate after work one Saturday afternoon, and noticed a tire / wheel rolling past us heading across the left lane to the median. My first thought was, 'Gee, that may cause an accident.', second thought was, 'This ride has gotten awfully bumpy all of a sudden.', and the third thought was, 'Holy s$%#, that's our wheel!' And, we still laugh about it many years later. We didn't at the time it happened.

 

[Colliam7]

I guess I would have been pretty pissed at the LDS for not doing a proper job with it in the first place, especially if it made me unable to make a dive. Next person I would be pissed at would be myself for not making sure before I left the shop that it was in order or at the very least before I planned to dive with it.

It may not always be practical to test a newly serviced reg at the shop when picking it up. Rather, the general sentiment is, to find a way to test it before using it, certainly before trusting our life to it. That is just good, prudent advice.

ANY work performed on a life safety device should be ready to go when it is returned to it's owner. sure the owner should test it, but it damn well better work, thats what the shop was paid to do.

Correct. The primary responsibility must rest with the service tech / shop doing the work.

People make mistakes. In this case it's obvious that the reg was not bench tested. I would give my LDS a chance to explain however before condemning them.

And, that is a key point. Mistakes are possible. Not excusable, but possible. Testing the reg before trusting your life to it is a reasonable precaution against human error. Letting the dive shop know about the mistake gives them a chance to modify their systems to possibly prevent the problem from happening to someone else, or reminds the tech about the dangers of allowing distractions during the service process, etc. Plus, it gives a really good shop a chance to say something like, ‘We will comp / credit your reg service charge, and also give you a store credit equal to half (or all) of the charter cost by way of an apology.’

 

[markfm]

My save a dive kit has two wrenches, for the LP and HP fittings, plus a spare LP hose.

This summer I've loaned the LP hose out several times -- issues with others' LPs (due to be replaced, things do wear over time), plus had a couple of second stage loose items (obvious, you can hear the slight leak -- need to tighten the reg).

None of these were LDS faults, they were all easily corrected by attention to gear when putting it together pre-dive, plus the wrenches.

(My save-a-dive isn't pocket sized, but it has what I need to keep me and my buddies diving).

 

[Zeeman]

No, if I die because I made a mistake, that be skydiving, driving, scuba diving, skiing, defusing a bomb or whatever, of course finding out what caused it and why wont bring me back to life, but thats also NOT the point of investigating accidents.
When a plane crashes and millions are spent to re-build the wreck, find and analyze the flight recorders and investigate everything that happened, thats not for the purpose of resurrecting the people who died obviously. Its for the purpose of minimizing the risk of it happening again, if possible..

So if youre on a dive boat and you find out your reg is not working properly or your o-ring are leaking as youre about to hit the water, what can you learn from it? How about to test it before you get to the point where youre about to hit the water?

I think you miss my point - or, perhaps, just as likely, I may have mis-interpreted Doc Martins point.

Either way - what you are saying in your post is exactly my point.

I'm not saying an investigation into the accident wont teach us lessons, what I am saying is, to the best of your ability, check the gear over yourself when you get it back - because if all goes to hell at 90 feet with 5 feet of vis and for some reason you loose your buddy - that jury that finds the LDS who serviced your reg guilty of whatever charge it is they find them guilty of, will not be able to help you survive.

If your best effort is to put the reg on a tank and take a few breaths, press the purge - so be it - it may uncover something (the same way as doing this pre-dive will).

anyway, as I said, I think we ar ein agreement here.

Z..

 

[Zeeman]

If I find myself unable to do much more than test my reg at the shop with a tank, etc, what would you recommend in terms of initial dives the next time I take her out into the ocean?

A couple of people mentioned doing quasi safety stops at specific depths. At what depths and for how long are my questions? I figure I'll be diving this weekend or next. I'll want to hit Verde Island which will bring me down to 30-33 meters.

I am in no mood to have a similar situation to the OP.

What is a good profile to start things off after a service on a reg, especially before going to 30 meters?

Thanks

I don't know about the others, but I usually wade into the local sheltered bay from the beach, and follow the bottom down to about 10m over 10 mins, and then hang around for a while. At least if all hell breaks loose, I'm only in 10m of water, and I know I can hold my breath long enough to surface from 10m without rising overly fast.

Z..

 

[reeldive]

Well, I certainly want my wheels to stay on - had one fall off of an old work pickup once, at a slow speed - not fun. But I know that when a pro works on my wheels, he's going to use a power wrench, which is why we don't read about wheels falling off.

On the other hand, I have read about several regs being serviced, then having problems - I guess they don't use power wrenches.

Either way, I am going to drive my pickup or breath my reg as soon as I accept it.

Power wrenches no but A tourque wrench and appropriate crows foot should be standard equipment on any repair bench!

 

[reeldive]

Tank valves are only supposed to be hand-tight. Only the tank pressure keeps them from unscrewing.

Generally a whack from your palm will get it turning.

Terry

Don't know who is teaching this mis-information!! From the Sherwood maintenance manual for tank valves. "Tighten the tank valve into the tank to 40-50 ft. lbs. of torque. This torque will help prevent water and corrosion in the O-ring area."
My hand can't tighten to that!-- and besides-- my hand ain't calibrated

 

[reeldive]

That said, a really good shop will put your reg on a flow-bench after service, and give you a chart showing exactly how the reg performs while in use. This also means that the tech pressurized it after service and that any big (and hopefully any small) leaks will have already been detected and fixed before you ever see the reg.

Terry

Well said Terry1 No lets advertise who the good shops are so that we can all benefit

 

[Ken abucs]

I don't know about the others, but I usually wade into the local sheltered bay from the beach, and follow the bottom down to about 10m over 10 mins, and then hang around for a while. At least if all hell breaks loose, I'm only in 10m of water, and I know I can hold my breath long enough to surface from 10m without rising overly fast.

Z..

Please don't hold your breath. A bad reg will be the least of your problems.