Good Afternoon All, I have recently started rebuilding and dare I say tuning regulators. I started as advised with some older Conshelfs both first and second stages and have gradually been servicing others I have bought or reg. sets for my family members. One of my questions is for those of you who buy, service, and resale. What do you do if anything to cover yourself as far as being liable for a mistake that causes either injury or death? My instructor has told me he would be interested in me servicing some of his regs set and airsources but I am a bit apprehensive. I was thinking of looking into a LLC and liability insurance and wanted to see if any of you have gone that route. I would love to get certifications through Aqualung but I can't since I don't work in a shop. My instructors business is an LLC so I may ask about working as an employee through him. He doesn't have a brick and mortar store and operates out of his home so I think Aqualung certification through him is a no go as well. The last thing I could try to do is get on part time at one of the LDS so I could acquire some certifications. What are you thoughts?
Here are some direct answers to your questions:
You can purchase a professional liability policy just like dive instructors do to cover yourself for mistakes made when repairing tuning touching someone's regulator. I have such a policy. I pay a little over $4,000 a year for it.
Your policy will not cover you unless you have a current certification from the manufacturer (usually within 2 years) to service that kind of regulator. There are not enough days even if you went to DEMA every year to keep the certifications up for all regulators. Mares is 3 days by itself, Atomic is 2 days, ScubaPro is 2 days, Zeagle is 2 days, USD/Aqualung is 2 days, etc. That's just for the current models. If you want to go to retired/discontinued models (what you usually find in pawn shops), add a day.
Mares, Atomic, ScubaPro, Zeagle, Aqualung, most of the manufacturers require you be a dealer. Sometimes you can get a dealer (dive shop) to sponsor you. I fix Mares for NOAA. NOAA is not a dealer. I cannot get into a Mares class, so I don't fix Mares for NOAA. My wife works for a Mares dealer. She does all of the Mares repairs. Poseidon, HOG/EDGE and Deep 6 are notable exceptions. A lot of HOG/EDGE and Deep 6 owners repair their own reg sets. Poseidons are notoriously difficult to tune until you've done a thousand of them, or are extremely lucky.
I've been a dive professional and repair tech for 20 years. I have the tools. To do the job right, you will need about $1k worth of special tools to remove faceplates, load balance chambers, and take pieces on and off without breaking them. Tools come from ScubaTools, among other places. It's a small market, prices are high.
I make $20 a stage plus parts. On a good day I can repair 4 or 5 sets. On a bad day, when someone has brought me 3 pieces of junk from under the center console of their boat, or the pawn shop, I can't finish a single set. And still the customers walk in and ask me how I can rape them for $150 for a full set of regs including SPG spool and kits.
As Sam says, best to you. Start small and grow from there. Become excellent at a brand before going on to another brand.
