Reg Technicians - What do you set the cracking effort to?

[canuckdiver]

on a slightly related thread....

the last two shops that I had my regs serviced at did not use a megahelic gauge on them at all! The only gauge that was used was an intermediate pressure gauge. Is it just me, or is this just WRONG!?!?!

The tech in both cases set the seats upon insertion so that they would free flow, then adjusted them so that it shut off the air, then breathed the regs to see that they worked, and pronounced them "done".

BTW, one of these shops "specializes" in tech diving

 

[jamiei]

One incident comes to mind about a local shop owner and "service tech". A diver at the same location as us kept complaining about his backup 2nd (r380 i believe) freeflowing on him. He was really concerned because he said it was almost constant. His regs had just been serviced and that nothing he did could keep it from freeflowing. "Our' shop owner walked over in all his greatness, looked at it for a minute (he's not a sp dealer by the way) and told the guy that he was basically doing something wrong and since it just had been serviced, that was how it was supposed to be. It was, in his words "finely tuned", that he wasn't used to a newly serviced reg, and that the guy should make sure the reg was turned down while he was diving it. The diver basically said screw it and that he wasn't gonna fight with it the rest of the day. This is why I'll work on my own from now on. There are too many guys that just don't care about what they are doing. There are some great people, like EZ, but I'm just not that lucky to have one around here. That was before I know what I know now. If I did know everything I know now, I would have told the guy off and done my best to completely embarrass him in front of every diver there. I'll have a "travel-kit" with me to help out in such a situation.

 

[Genesis]

are set to ~0.5" and just under 1", respectively.

My primary is an S600, which has an external adjustment, so I can turn it down if I need to. Never have thus far though.

My backup is an R380, and I've never had trouble with it freeflowing set to just under 1" of WC.

 

[ScoobieDooo]

Does one really need a Magnehelic Gauge? In Vance Harlow's book he says that one can use water in a sink and adjust that way instead, and it works pretty well. Thoughts on this?

 

[ElectricZombie]

Using water will work but, a magnahelic will be more accurate. If you are doing a lot of reg maintenance or working on customer regs, you will need to get a magnahelic. I like being able to show the person exactly what their reg is breathing. You can come up with a reasonable estimate of how the reg is breathing with just water but, to really be accurate you need a magnahelic.

 

[Scubaroo]

Just bought a *new* surplus Dwyer 0-3" magnehelic off eBay - for $9.99. It just arrived, and indeed is a brand new one, but no mounting accessories or tubing adapters (which are standard threads so I should be able to source locally). There's another one currently on eBay by the same seller if anyone else is interested.

 

[Scubaroo]

If anyone does pick up a magnehelic on the cheap from eBay without the fittings and screws, you can order them as part of the "standard accessories" pack direct from Dwyer:

200068-01 Accessory package $ 5.50

Just go to www.dwyer-inst.com and place an order.

 

[Stone]

I've never seen a new one cheaper than $55.

Normally I'm a do-it-yourselfer, but I did buy the mouthpiece attachment from Scubatools. The one currently on the website looks like it is chrome plated (mine is plastic).

 

[ericfine50]

That is a nice price. Now All I need is the bench and I will be set

Eric

 

[danw2002]

got my 0-3 magnehelic off ebay also, and you just need to reverce the fittings if you need the -3 to 0. most regs should be around 1-1.5 you can hyper adjust them lower, but you may find that you may have problems inverted or in current or such. of course when you do your own, you can tweek them how you want....like i do....