I'm gonna take the tanks back to where Ibought them and get Rich to fix it. No sense paying $10-$20 for a visual inspectin when all the thing needs is maintennance.
That'd be like changing all of the seals on my reg because I changed the second stage
Phil--sounds like I'll have to settle and run a full dive shop then
In my hometown there is alot of competition, and it would be hard to angle in on it, I'd need to partner with some good instructors, and startout carrying a single line of gear, most likely, but I swear i could give better service than atleast half the shops in town.
I don't know if I could ever provide service the way you and ST do. It's sort of like....PerroneFord on this board, or something like that. He does a great job vipping tanks, and not everyone does them as well as he does. As for the reg service, my Conshelf XII came back and I tested it inthe pool, and the second stage seemed to be a little freeflow prone. At some point, I changed out to a new first stage using the Conshelf second as my octo, and a Scubapro R380 as my primary second, and I don't know if I tested that in the pool or not, I don't remember when I switched. I only switched because my Conshelf didn't have enough LP ports for an octo and an inflator hose, and I got a good deal on a used Genesis first stage. I wanted to make sure that it worked fine, so I took it to the shop closest to me, who charged me $20 to test it. They said the IP was fine and that the stuff looked to be in good shape. I had specifically asked them tom ake sure that the second stages didn't freeflow too easily, and they specifically told me they performed fine inthe dunk tank. Three days later I was getting in at the Ear at Ginnie Springs at the Megadive and I couldn't get the Conshelf to stop freeflowing to save my life. If you had told me to make it stop or I'd be shot, then I would have been shot, it was that bad.
Actually, I did sort of get it to stop, but the second it was turned mouthpiece up, diaphragm down, it would freeflow. The hose on it was a little short, and so I got out of the water and changed the second stage out with another one, a Sherwood, which hadn't been serviced, just picked it up really cheap in town a week before. Still haven't serviced it, still works fine as my octo. I spent several hours detuning the Conshelf, and don't fancy the thought of paying that guy to "fix" it again
. And then the big shop here doesn't have a tech around, so any service takes almost a month, which is unreasonable to me. I have yet to find a place that will service my gear in house for a reasonable fee and will return my gear in working condition and provide me with help when I need it (I took the reg in to the shop where I'd taken it to get serviced (they all ship to same guy, but have different prices) and asked if they would fix it, they refused and told me I'd have to pay again to get it fixed. That's inexcusable in my opinion, making me pay again because the guy adjusted it wrong the first time???), so my gear will either not be serviced yearly, or will be serviced by yours truly.
I have no problems taking off the valve and fixing this, but I just know if I took it back to Divers Direct, they would complain that it was empty and that I needed it to be vipped. I'm not willing to do that. I would entertain the thought of ghetto-filling it, or would make my own DIY whip (might do that anyways) but I'm going home in a few weeks and can take care of it then, I've got another tank to dive if I need to in the meantime, and the 1400 psi in it still will get me through a shallow OW dive no problem ifI had to.
And Ann Marie, I appreciate your opinion but honestly I appreciate knowing what the handbook says more
That's what I was really after in this thread. Next step is to get my own handbook by taking the class myself.
Really all, I appreciate the frank and honest, yet fact filled discussion we have been having.
(a pint of seawater is horrible, and my tanks are aluminum. Has any company done a comparable study, but with aluminum cylinders?)
