Reg Service Price

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BikerManiac

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Location
NEW YAWK, USA
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I was thinking about buying an used Oceanic Zeta regulator and was wondering how long and how much does it cost to have them service? If the price is too high it would be better just to buy a new one.

Thanks
 
BikerManiac:
I was thinking about buying an used Oceanic Zeta regulator and was wondering how long and how much does it cost to have them service? If the price is too high it would be better just to buy a new one.

Thanks
You might want to find out the serial number of the regulator to find out if it is covered by a U.S. parts warranty.

Usually the manufacturers only honor the parts warranty if the regulator was purchased from one of their "authorized dealers".

You might also want find out if that parts warranty is extended to someone other than the original purchaser.
 
Most of the time, the warranty is only to the "original purchaser".


My thoughts on buying a used regulator are simple. Unless you're getting it for $300 or more than what a new one costs, you're not getting a deal.

Here's why:

Typical regulator service costs is about $60 bucks for labor and $60 bucks for parts. So if you buy a used one then you'll pay $120/year on regulator service. You'll do it once before you ever dive with it and three more times over the next 4 years, which is a good average life of a regulator before people buy a new one or upgrade.

However, if you buy a new regulator, most come with "Free parts warranties" as long as you buy it from an authorized dealer and get it serviced annually. So this saves you $60 per year on parts. However, you still have to pay the labor, which usually runs around $60 bucks, but differs per shop.

So to me, to buy a used regulator, you pay $120 up front for the initial service and then an additional $60 per year on parts. If you take your first $120 plus the parts for an additional 3 years, you have spent an EXTRA $300 on that regulator over a new one. ($120 initial + (3yrs x $60parts) = $300 ). Now if you paid $250 for that used regulator for example, add the $300 and you've got $550 in it in original purchase plus extra service and parts.

for $550 to $600 you can buy a pretty decent BRAND NEW regulator that you know it's complete history on.
 
The Zeta is a mid-priced regulator, Scubatoys has it for $289. Here

Used regulators are not worth the cost in the long run, unless you are a collector of old regs and the like, or if you can service them yourself.
 
ronbeau:
You might want to find out the serial number of the regulator to find out if it is covered by a U.S. parts warranty.

Usually the manufacturers only honor the parts warranty if the regulator was purchased from one of their "authorized dealers".

You might also want find out if that parts warranty is extended to someone other than the original purchaser.

original owner is the warrenty ..I cannot think of any manufacturer that does otherwise..good guess would be $100...$130....
 
As an example of reg service prices, we charge 59.95 plus parts (about $30) if not purchased from us... but 39.95 and parts are free if purchased from us.
 
mike_s:
However, if you buy a new regulator, most come with "Free parts warranties" as long as you buy it from an authorized dealer and get it serviced annually. So this saves you $60 per year on parts. However, you still have to pay the labor, which usually runs around $60 bucks, but differs per shop.
Yeah... check with the shop. The Apeks dealer in Anchorage does not honor Apeks' free parts warranty, even for regs bought from them :mad:
 
Snowbear-
Maybe this should be brought to the attention of Apeks, huh.
 
I suppose I could have. But instead, I learned to service my own regs.

When the same shop made it difficult to get a custom DC drysuit to fit, the owner fired me as a DM and badmouthed me to the entire local diving community since I went to the manufacturer rather than through him to get the issue resolved.

So yeah.... maybe I will do as you suggested :D
 

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