Rebuilding reg. question

[av8er23]

My local dive shop says the i should rebuild my reg every year. I probably go on a total of 5 trips a year with no more that say 15-20 dives. is this nessary or is it a way for the dive shop to get more money out of me?

One more thing is this very hard? With the correct tools could i do it on my own?

 

[Hoosier]

If you use "serach" feature, you would get a lot of threads about this issue.
Why don't you try it at first? I am sure that it has been covered so many times in detail, even depending on the brand. Let me know if you can't find any info.

My local dive shop says the i should rebuild my reg every year. I probably go on a total of 5 trips a year with no more that say 15-20 dives. is this nessary or is it a way for the dive shop to get more money out of me?

One more thing is this very hard? With the correct tools could i do it on my own?

 

[Doc Intrepid]

My local dive shop says the i should rebuild my reg every year. I probably go on a total of 5 trips a year with no more that say 15-20 dives. is this nessary or is it a way for the dive shop to get more money out of me?

One more thing is this very hard? With the correct tools could i do it on my own?

So long as you're meticulous about rinsing, drying, and maintaining your regs, at that level of diving you might be able to go every other year instead of every year.

To some extent it depends on which regulator you buy. Some are tanks. They're less finicky than others. Others, in contrast, are like expensive cars - they perform very well but require annual maintenance. Parts that often need replacing include high-pressure seats and (depending on maintenance factors) those where salt and grit get into the regulators and impact on proper functioning of parts that wear against each other.

There are debates. Friends have taken perfectly functioning regs in for servicing, and the regs have failed to function properly afterwards, requiring tweaking and frustration. OTOH, regs are life support. They keep you alive in a hostile environment. Neglect them at your own peril. There is no one right answer for all circumstances. On the whole, however, if you purchase high quality regulators and take good care of them, at 15-20 dives a year you could likely go every other year on the servicing.

You can certainly service your regs yourself. It requires some instruction, some of which you can pick up from books such as Oxyhacker, but its best to either take a course or work with a qualified tech. Often at syposiums or seminars regulator manufacturers will offer seminars on basic repair. Frequently there are tools to purchase, and spare parts for some regs are easier to find than others. If you want to work on your own regs, take the time to learn how to do it properly.

FWIW. YMMV.

 

[av8er23]

thanks for the reply doc.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

Most shops can do a flow test of your regulator to determine that the IP is stable and that the inhalation effort is within normal parameters. The most common problem that occurs with a reg over time, even if not dove frequently, is that the seat in the second stage will form an excessive seating groove causing the reg to breather harder or freeflow. If the first stage has been well cared for, has only 15-20 dives on it and has a stable IP, changing the second stage seat or poppet may be all that is required. In that case the flow test and second stage service could probably be done for 1/3 to 1/2 of what you would pay for a full service. Some shops will service just the second stage and other shops won't.

In any case, if you opt not to service the regulator, a flow test is still a very good idea before going on a trip. A flow test will not catch all the things that may be about to go wrong with the reg but it will catch most of them.

And you need to consider that is false economy to spend $2000 on a dive trip where you are paying perhaps $150 per dive when the room, food and travel costs are factored in, only to have your unserviced reg fail on the dive boat and miss an entire day of diving and then be stuck with a rental reg for the rest of the trip. Servicing a reg never costs that much whatever the price.

 

[redacted]

If you have one of the more reliable rigs, you could easily go 4 to 5 years without a full service. Oxyhacker's book is a great reference that will help you test and tweek your reg and more if you are so inclined. If you would really like some trip insurance for that reg, buy a backup kit. An inexpensive, moderate performer will do fine. I'm not really sure how much it helps with the modern seat materials, but I store my 2nd stages with the pressure relieved on that LP seat.

Key is good cleaning after use and good storage environments that do not accelerate the degradation of soft parts. Shelf life of modern O2 compatible o-rings is in the neighborhood of 10 to 20 years, so 5 years in light service should not be unreasonable.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

Keeping pressure off the seat helps a lot even with modern seat materials. So any device that will keep the purge button slightly depressed will extend shelf life immensely.

The qualifier here is that you then need to be especially careful to store the reg in a clean dry, spider and bug free environment as the system is essentially open and more prone to being contaminated.

Due to the design, in a first stage the pressure is off the seat then the reg is not pressurized so they do well if the o-rings do not deteriorate or take a set. But those are big ifs. In the last month I have serviced two first stages that have sat at least 10 years and were still performing within specifications. In that same period of time, I have serviced several others that were sitting for a lot less time that definitely needed an overhaul, so the storage conditions and o-ring materials are critical.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

Here is a quote from Walter Stark, who has been diving for longer than some of us have been living, when he was talking about what it takes to succeed as a marine biologist and the training of students:

...And much of this building skill is common sense of the kind that cannot be taught other than by experience. Fortunately most of the major institutions have at least diving training programs, but even these are deficient in maintenance instruction, such as in rebuilding regulators. This is partly the result of the mystique perpetrated by diving instructors, who give the false impression that regulators can be torn apart and rebuilt only by master divers. Actually they are extremely simple devices which every diver should be able to repair, just as every rifleman in the military is expected to know how to disassemble and reassemble a rifle--a tool considerably more complex than a regulator. Stark, Walter, The Blue Reef, A Report from Beneath the Sea as told to Alan Anderson, Jr., Alan Landsburg Productions, Inc., 1978, pages 225-226.

I have been servicing my own regs for many years, and took that privilege away from my LDS years ago when the technician simply smeared silicone grease inside my regulator, rather than painstakingly lubricating each O-ring. Some are more complex than others, but the HP seats in the first stage should last for many years. I would replace them only when one began failing, or showing signs of failing in an inspection (won't hold pressure, leaks a little, etc).

The LP seat is different, and some do take a "set." This can cause problems, but on many models they can simply be popped out and reversed, and you essentially have a new seat.

SeaRat

 

[captain]

I have always serviced my own regs and never had any type of training. As John said they are very simple devices. I suggest that anyone who wants to learn buy a cheap used regulator, possibly off Ebay and pratice on it.

Captain