Poseidon Xtreme reg accident

[Cheekymonkey]

Background:
So my doubles are on the dive boat all set up, I get off the boat, hit the bathroom before we leave. A diver in our group decided to try on my doubles and took the weight belt holding them to the railing off when he tried them on. After he tried them on he re bungees them, but completely forgets about the weight belt.
So we get about half way out and it gets a little ruff, of course, those bungees don't hold in doubles, and I hear a crash, look up and my doubles had fallen, snapped the threaded part of my Poseidon Xtreme 1st stages off inside the valves, and cracks the fiberglass of the boat.

So, could have been alot worse, but everyone is fine.


Now I have two Poseidon Xtreme 1st stages that are in ruff shape to say the least. The internal parts seem fine, but the outside of the 1st stage definently needs to be replaced.


So heres the issue:

I have found a few shops in the area (Orlando) that will repair poseidons, BUT they are not familiar with the Xtreme, nor can I find any dealers in the area that can repair or replace these 1st stages for me.


I am also told that a whole lot of the comfort of these regs relies on the experience of the person tuning a poseidion reg.


So if anyone could point me in the direction of a place to get these 1st stages looked at preferably in Florida. But I will ship if necessary to find an experienced technitian.

Thanks in advance
Josh

 

[Cheekymonkey]

No one can recommend a Poseidon repair person.

 

[digital_steve]

Give em to me... i want a set of xstreams

 

[divengolf]

I'd get in contact with the regional or US sales rep. and have him recommend a shop for repairs. Your LDS should know him. From what little I know about these regs., they're touchy. So you definitely need the right person working on them. He may recommend sending them back to the factory in Sweden.

The web site lists a bunch of shops in Florida, under the "worldwide" tab.

I hope you strangled the bastard, then threw him to the sharks.

 

[tfsails]

I've been through the Poseidon training class, but have not worked on an Xtream yet. They're probably too new for many of them to have gone through their initial two-year service interval, so experienced techs may be scarce. The Xtreme isn't too different from other Poseidons, though, and I'd not be afraid to tackle one.

One thing I'd be very leery of if I were the OP: From what he described, the bodies of the first stages broke off from the DIN bolts, leaving the threaded ends of the DIN bolts inside the bodies. If that is the case, I would have the bodies NDI'd for cracks around the inlet fitting where the DIN bolts broke. A Zyglo inspection under a black light should work. I was in the USAF/ANG airplane business before I retired and got into the regulator business, and I've seen our NDI people do plenty of Zyglo inspections on metal parts. Zyglo is a dye penetrant that will get into cracks and won't be wiped off when the whole part is wiped off. It then glows under black light and tells you whether a crack is there or not.

I suspect you could find some nondestructive inspectors in the yellow pages who would do this kind of work. I would think metal failure of the first stage body underwater would be nothing short of catastrophic and I would not trust my regs with 3000psi if they'd gone through what the OP's regs went through until I had them NDI'd. It also may well be cheaper to replace the bodies than to test them.

I also would expect the guy who tried on my doubles to pay for this testing and parts replacement, and for the boat damage.

 

[Cheekymonkey]

Well the person who did this is paying to get it fixed or replaced. He was mortified and honestly he didn't know any better, he had never been around doubles on a boat before. So only guilty through negligence, and immediately offered to make good on the mistake.

And first off, thanks for the replies, I appreciate the help folks.

Digital Steve: You wouldn't be disappointed with xtremes I don't think (I also dive cyclons and love them both equally), but I don't think theres much you can do with them.

Divengolf: There is no one in Orlando I can find that seems to be experienced with these things. Probably a stupid question, but how do I find the rep?

Tf Sails: Thats smart thinking looking for the cracks in the main body. If the body is cracked, does that mean a whole new 1st stage? Or can they actually rebuild one with a new body and old internals?

 

[Luis H]

One thing I'd be very leery of if I were the OP: From what he described, the bodies of the first stages broke off from the DIN bolts, leaving the threaded ends of the DIN bolts inside the bodies. If that is the case, I would have the bodies NDI'd for cracks around the inlet fitting where the DIN bolts broke. A Zyglo inspection under a black light should work. I was in the USAF/ANG airplane business before I retired and got into the regulator business, and I've seen our NDI people do plenty of Zyglo inspections on metal parts. Zyglo is a dye penetrant that will get into cracks and won't be wiped off when the whole part is wiped off. It then glows under black light and tells you whether a crack is there or not.

I suspect you could find some nondestructive inspectors in the yellow pages who would do this kind of work. I would think metal failure of the first stage body underwater would be nothing short of catastrophic and I would not trust my regs with 3000psi if they'd gone through what the OP's regs went through until I had them NDI'd. It also may well be cheaper to replace the bodies than to test them.

Dye penetrant testing is kind of difficult in a threaded portion of a part. It is just hard to wipe all the excess dye between the threads (especially on a small fitting). It can be done, but the time and effort will probably cost more than replacing the first stages.

Saving the internal parts is normally good for future spares, but I would not try to reuse them just to save a few bucks. Seats and other soft parts should not be reused anyway. And the labor cost for reusing a few parts in a new body is probably more than a whole new first stage.

I have no idea of the price of that first stage, so if the first stage is very expensive, it may offset the labor cost to salvage as many parts as possible. But, from the difficulty you are having finding a competent technician; I would lean towards replacing it as a unit.

You could then use the damaged first stages to learn how to rebuild them yourself. Do get as much literature and guidance as possible…Poseidon has never been the most intuitive regulators to repair.

 

[Cheekymonkey]

Yea I have a family friend that repaired poseidons for years our of Long Island, and he told me he isn't familiar enough with the Xtremes to be comfortable doing it for me.

I am going to look into buying just 1st stages right now... I think that might be the safe bet, and then I can talk to the repair person and compare costs whats I find one.

 

[SteveAD]

I wouldn't even try to save money. The "diver" who caused the incident needs to learn the first commandment of dive etiquett:

If it ain't your gear, don't touch it without permission.

He owes you new regs, and quite possibly new tank valves.

A fall like that could easily have bent any number of components, any damage to which could cause catastrophic failure at a very inconvienient time.

Don't take chances.

 

[Cheekymonkey]

Well I will make sure we take a good look at any internal parts. But once again the diver who tried them on, I know well. He is a good guy and he is taking care of what ever he needs to do make this better, so lets keep it about the regs.

I found a poseidon authorized dealer that is going to take a look at it and see if he thinks it needs replacing or repair. Shops normally like to sell you things so I imagine he will be leaning towards a new one anyway.