Problems with Mares Abyss

[boulderjohn]

I have a five year old Mares Abyss, and I was always very happy with it. I took good care of it, and I had it serviced annually. (I only averaged about 40 dives a year with it.)

On a recent liveaboard trip, I suddenly had trouble in mid trip. It was a real tough pull at moderate depths (~80 feet), and my non-Mares octo was even worse. I figured it was a 1st stage problem. A member of the boat crew played with it, and it worked reasonably well for the rest of the trip, although I felt it was harder breathing than I was accustomed to.

As soon as I was home, I had it serviced, for the second time that year. The technician said there was dirt in the filter and thought I might have gotten dirty air somewhere. Of course, that would have had to be on the liveaboard, where everyone of us was getting the same air every dive every day and no one else had a problem.

So I immediately went off on another trip, and the first time I went reasonably deep (110 feet), I again had problems getting air. It got better as I went up, but the Abyss is supposed to be famous for breathing at depth, and I had always felt there was no real difference breathing at those depths. I immediately took it to a local shop. The tech there did not service it. He made an adjustment and reset an o-ring that he said looked slightly twisted, but that was it. It seemed OK.

The next few dives were quite shallow, and everything was fine. Then I went to 90 feet, and it was a tough pull again.

Any ideas why a supposedly high quality regulator like this would suddenly have problems breathing at depth?

 

[sailingking]

Very Strange.
Bring it back to where you got it serviced and get them to re-check it, this shouldn't happen.
If it continues you will have to start changing parts to determine the cause.

My first guess would be that a spring has become worn out.

 

[keyshunter]

In the early 90's, I worked for a shop in the Keys that sold Mares. When the latest and greatest MR12 Navy was introduced, I had to have one. I was in the water almost every day and at first the Navy was great. Then suddenly it began to breath ugly--intermittant hard breathing, stuttering, etc. The tech worked on it several times, but was never able to solve the problem. Then one day, the Mares rep walked in and we told him of the problem. He took my reg, and handed me a new one. I suspect that there had been a known, but unannounced, problem. The new reg was trouble free except that it went through about 3 high pressure seats a year, but MR12's were noted for poor high pressure seat life.

The Abyss has been around for quite a while, and has an excellent reputation. If the warranty has been kept up on your reg (or even if it hasn't), and the lds tech cannot solve your problem, I would contact Mares.

 

[Viscya]

I’ve used my current Abyss for 300 dives now. When it got even a little stiff, a quick cleaning and adjustment fixed it right up. It’s been down to 180 fsw with no noticeable change in performance. I don’t know your shop or reg tech, but if they can not fix it, either contact Mares or you might try Larry at Scubatoys.com. They work on Mares regs, and have been a great help to me in the past. Greg Barlow (on this board) is also a great source of info.

I am not implying anything, but the Abyss Mr-22 are simple regs. Very few moving parts. If maintained by a good reg tech, they should perform well at depth, and last a long time.

 

[aquaoren]

I too am using the Abyss since a while and am very pleased with the reliability and performance of the reg.
I'll join the others in recommending to allow someone who knows what they are doing to take a look at the regs.

 

[Diver0001]

Any ideas why a supposedly high quality regulator like this would suddenly have problems breathing at depth?

Do you have an ice-kit on it?

R..

 

[scubafanatic]

I have a five year old Mares Abyss, and I was always very happy with it. I took good care of it, and I had it serviced annually. (I only averaged about 40 dives a year with it.)

On a recent liveaboard trip, I suddenly had trouble in mid trip. It was a real tough pull at moderate depths (~80 feet), and my non-Mares octo was even worse. I figured it was a 1st stage problem. A member of the boat crew played with it, and it worked reasonably well for the rest of the trip, although I felt it was harder breathing than I was accustomed to.

As soon as I was home, I had it serviced, for the second time that year. The technician said there was dirt in the filter and thought I might have gotten dirty air somewhere. Of course, that would have had to be on the liveaboard, where everyone of us was getting the same air every dive every day and no one else had a problem.

So I immediately went off on another trip, and the first time I went reasonably deep (110 feet), I again had problems getting air. It got better as I went up, but the Abyss is supposed to be famous for breathing at depth, and I had always felt there was no real difference breathing at those depths. I immediately took it to a local shop. The tech there did not service it. He made an adjustment and reset an o-ring that he said looked slightly twisted, but that was it. It seemed OK.

The next few dives were quite shallow, and everything was fine. Then I went to 90 feet, and it was a tough pull again.

Any ideas why a supposedly high quality regulator like this would suddenly have problems breathing at depth?

........you need to take your reg to a decent dive shop, one with a flowbench that can simulate a deep dive...to find the problem they have to first replicate the problem.

I dive the Mares Ruby and MR16 Voltrex, and both have been outstanding regulators, both in performance and reliability......in fact I did 8 dives in Coz late Feb and just got back Sat from doing another 27 dives on the Turks & Caicos EXPLORER......dove the Ruby both trips, it sure is a sweet regulator...outstanding!

Karl

 

[Viscya]

........you need to take your reg to a decent dive shop, one with a flowbench that can simulate a deep dive...to find the problem they have to first replicate the problem.

I dive the Mares Ruby and MR16 Voltrex, and both have been outstanding regulators, both in performance and reliability......in fact I did 8 dives in Coz late Feb and just got back Sat from doing another 27 dives on the Turks & Caicos EXPLORER......dove the Ruby both trips, it sure is a sweet regulator...outstanding!

Karl

Just got back from the TCI explorer myself. ( Dove my Abyss ... ) Had a great time Jf got some great pictures of us. Mike, Julie, Nicole, Stan all were great fun. Had a fantastic time What a great boat. I was the only one to do the 27 dives. The others succumbed to beer. Did they mention the group from NJ?

[/hijack]

The reg is great, check your tech.

 

[Viscya]

wtfo

 

[scubatoys]

The other thing that would be great to do is swap the seat over to the spherical core seat system that they now use in the V16, V32 and LE first stages. There's not much in one of those things... diaphragm, spring, seat... couple o rings. If that stuff gets changed, your problem has to go away. But changing out the seat to the SCS will be a nice change that makes the first stages even more dependable.