Question: I got my reg/BCD serviced a year ago and haven't dived with it...is it safe to use?

[briannapstevens]

Maybe somewhere. But not in the vicinity of this town.

Your dive shop has pool access

 

[Tournesol2000]

All of the above plus look at your hoses and make sure they look fine. Check regs for cracks. I like the idea of either asking your LDS to use a tank or even rent one for a few days and do it at home. You can put everything in a tub while pressurized to see if any leaks

 

[davehicks]

Watch out for the spiders!

 

[briannapstevens]

You will be fine. Keep in mind that the rental gear will be in worse shape than whatever you bring yourself . I would just take the gear and plan the first dive to be a shallow one just to be sure, especially after not diving for a while.

What you do need is to check your dive computer batteries and have those replaced if older than what the manufacturer recommends (3 years maybe?)

If you are paranoid:

Inflate your BCDs overnight. If they mostly stay inflated - all good. If not, check the dump valves for dirt. Repeat. Worst case check for leaks in a bath tub or spray the suspects leak with a bit of shampoo to check for bubbles. Replace inflator (I doubt any shop actually services them) every 5-20? years. Nothing else to service on a BCD. I wouldn’t bother with servicing BCDs in the future unless you have a known problem or feel like subsidising your local dive shop.

When you go diving, check if the inflator is not leaking (pressurising the BCD or bubbling when disconnected). If yes, there is a tiny valve in the low pressure hose that you connect to your inflator and the dive shop/dive master should be able to clean the o-ring inside in about 2 minutes.

Regs are most likely to fail (freeflow for most designs) right after being serviced because a service technician made a mistake. Always check your regs in a pool or on a shallow dive after service. Service the regs as little as possible to avoid failures .

You generally want to service your regs every few (2-3?) years as some of the parts might dry-rot, after putting a couple hundred dives on them, whenever you significantly flood them with salt water or when they start failing, e.g. breathe wet or freeflow (* . Replace hoses when they get bulges etc., might be prudent to change them ever few years depending on how much you dive.

Unless you flooded the regs or horribly bent the hoses to the point that you get visible bulges, you will be fine to dive them. If you are diving with a DM, they can fix any small problems (little bubble - no trouble) by replacing an odd O-ring in few minutes at the dive site.

Servicing regs every year especially if you don’t dive 100+ dives a year is unnecessary but it does give extra money to your local dive shop and obviously the manufacturer recommends it to sell you a service kit.

(* this does not apply to O2 clean gear, but that’s not your case

This is a very detailed, brilliant answer. And you sound like you know what you're talking about! I will do this and maybe we can do a shallow shore dive before we go on the boat dive. I appreciate it. Thanks!