Not servicing my gear EVER!

[divad]

I did not expect so much responses. But I am glad that everyone has something to offer. Some negative comments yet they still came with a lesson so I'm glad they were posted. So to give a little more detail. I have an Atomic Aquatics z2 and a oceanic slimline 2 octo. I bought them both at the same time from leisurepro about 3 years ago. I would say I dove about 200 times with them. I have not serviced either one as of yet. No problems have arised so far. I have been pushing off service for a while but then realized that I might be doing something complety retarded by not servicing so I decided to ask. Since I got them from leisurepro I understand that the lifetime warranty does not apply. So I was thinking no service and just buy new regs after 4 years. So basicly I would sell these and regardless of what I got for them would buy a new set of regs in a year anyways.

Let me know what you think?

I actually once (a long time ago) had the same the same thought re just replacing the regs every couple of years when I could buy a Beuchat VX 10 from LeisurePro for $225.00. Why I didn't will just get convoluted and tedious.

So, let's say you are going to just buy new regs when your current regs need servicing. That's OK, no matter how profligate some gear-heads may find the practice.
But,......... how will you know when it's time to buy new regs? Time of ownership is irrelevant. If the problem is with the second stage, you can get away with it for a while, but if its with the first stage, it can become catostrophic quickly. That's what happened with my just serviced Beuchat and I got lucky. It was acting "funny", to be terse, but I kept diving it. After I followed the suggestion that I put an IP gauge on it, there was some creep and about three hours later the IP shot up to about 225 psi causing the freeflowing second stages to drain an alarming amount of the tank before I g0t to it and shut the valve.

So, yeah, you are being "retarded" if you're not using an IP gauge wether you're getting your regs serviced or not. You're being "retarded" for not knowing that LeisurePro's guarantee is to honor any manufacturer's warranty. And you are "retarded"
for useing the word "retarded" in this context. We're not allowed to use that word any more, although I think it's OK with parenthesis.

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

The best insurance you can have to prevent a dive trip spoiling problem with your regulator is a backup set; especially if you are going to push the service interval. Buy a 2nd set now and service your primary set at the first sign of a problem.

1+.

I've saved other people's dives by lending them my backup set.... pick up a no-frill's, reliable regulator set as a backup, and never miss a dive (or dive trip!) again; and be the "hero" of the boat or the beach when you can save someone else's dive.

Best wishes.

 

[duroejc]

Lots of differing opinions here- but I'll never do annual service an a regulator again. I did both mine and my wifes before a trip to Roatan- Mine failed on the first dive and the dive shop didn't have parts so I ended up renting a reg for the rest of the week. So doing service to prevent a failure doesn't prevent a failure- I'll keep the money for annual service and buy a new regulator instead-

 

[techintime]

This thread has been very informative with an abundance of widely divergent, but well-thought-out opinions. Regardless of your stand on this issue, this should serve as a lesson to all of those early responders who (sensing blood in the water) called it "a waist of a thread" or "trolling for a response". Turned out that there was more to the subject than that eh?

 

[LakeCountyDiver]

Lots of differing opinions here- but I'll never do annual service an a regulator again. I did both mine and my wifes before a trip to Roatan- Mine failed on the first dive and the dive shop didn't have parts so I ended up renting a reg for the rest of the week. So doing service to prevent a failure doesn't prevent a failure- I'll keep the money for annual service and buy a new regulator instead-

That can get REALLY expensive. You can go ahead and send me your old ones

 

[LakeCountyDiver]

I have all my regs serviced when needed. My buddy who is also the service tech for ScubaPro told me the worst thing you can do to a reg is not use it. Letting it dry out is the number one failure of the O-rings and seat.

My instructor is never out of the water more then 2 days and his MK25/s600 has not been apart in 5 years.
NOTE: I don't condone this in any way it is just what I know.

I service all my regs for preventive maintenance.

 

[BoltSnap]

For those that won't service their equipment because they had a bad experience with their equipment after it was serviced, wouldn't it be a better idea to find a better service center that would do the job right?

Based on my experience, it would be much better if one gets in the habit of servicing their equipment during the time of the year when they won't be diving or going on a trip. This would allow more time for the LDC to do the repairs/service properly including ordering any required parts from the mfg. Coming to a service center a week or few days before the planned trip to get their life support system serviced whereby risking either a "rushed" service or the service center not having the required parts seems to me to be poor planning. It would also help to test the regulator either in the store before leaving when picking up the regulator from service, or jumping in the pool to play with it prior to going on the trip. If you do this well ahead of your planned trip, you can get all issues taken care of while you are on the surface not U/W.

Nothing is fool proof but one can do all the little things including proper planning to reduce the chances of regulator/life support issues U/W or during a dive trip.

 

[aquaregia]

For those that won't service their equipment because they had a bad experience with their equipment after it was serviced, wouldn't it be a better idea to find a better service center that would do the job right?

Well, for people who travel to dive, it's a pretty expensive prospect to find such a service center. If you sit out one $100 dive day because of a regulator failure, that plus the $100 you paid for the service comes awfully close to the cost of a new regulator, with the balance being made up by the inconvenience/vacation day/hotel room. After doing that once, why risk going to another shop who may or may not be better?

 

[BoltSnap]

Well, for people who travel to dive, it's a pretty expensive prospect to find such a service center. If you sit out one $100 dive day because of a regulator failure, that plus the $100 you paid for the service comes awfully close to the cost of a new regulator, with the balance being made up by the inconvenience/vacation day/hotel room. After doing that once, why risk going to another shop who may or may not be better?

So they buy another regulator?? Don't you shop for an alternate auto repair shop if the one you used didn't do the service properly?

BTW, for most folks who travel on vacation spend more than what you mentioned on one meal while on vacation and don't think about it twice. The food or service may not be great or even half good but they get over it and go to another place the next meal and try again.

 

[aquaregia]

I think I expressed myself poorly.

If the technician was bad and you had him service it, you spend $250-$500 and miss an opportunity
If the technician was good and you had him service it, you spend $100
If the technician was bad and you bought a new reg, you spend $250-$500
If the technician was good and you bought a new reg, you spend $250-$500

If we have say one or two opportunities a year to go on a dive trip, and one service interval a year, we're risking a lot of our dive trips on the basis of the technician's competence. If you can only determine if they're competent if they've messed up your stuff before, and you've had someone mess up your stuff in the past, why would you have any confidence in any shop? A single bad service completely nullifies any money saved by servicing. This doesn't even take into account the resale price of your replaced regulators.

This isn't the same as with a car because of the scale of the numbers. The cost of servicing is very high compared to the purchase price of regulators. And to be fair, a lot of people end-of-life cars instead of doing the 100k service. Unless you get food poisoning, having a pedestrian dining experience isn't going to screw up your dives, nor did I have the option to buy a new citric acid cycle instead of 'servicing' my current one.


Edit: I'm not trying to claim that the cost of servicing is unreasonable, just that there's not a huge difference between service price and purchase price. Same as why television repairmen are less common these days.