Regs need servicing...

[Genesis]

That they are.

The dot on entry to the water is a "dive attention" symbol, which on the Suuntos is posted (BEFORE YOU GET IN) if you did things bad on the LAST dive (like ascend too fast!) and the computer thinks you have an excessive risk of microbubble formation.

The alert goes away when you're desaturated enough that the risk is gone - if you dive with it lit, you get that warning in the profile on initial entry.

I blew it up to 200% of "normal size" and was able to make out the shape and color of the symbols - the very small image was NOT helpful in doing so..... the numeric coords are not readable, but you can get a good idea of scale from the runtime and max depths posted on the numeric display.

 

[Lead_carrier]

I hate having to agree with Genesis I told him if I could spot his blips anyone could.

 

[SeaJay]

Great dinner with family. It's 10pm...

I've come home and kicked off my Girkees and removed my dive watch.

My tub is filling now... I'm going to test my regs and then begin disassembly. I've been waiting all week to have an hour or two to work on these things.

Cover me Jim, I'm going in.

 

[SeaJay]

I tested the regs.

My original complaint, if y'all remember, was that they were too sensitive... They freeflowed too easily.

...So the test was to see what the cracking pressure was like.

The guy's got them set up so that they crack open before the waterline even hits the sticker on the side of the second stage.

For those of you not familiar, that's waaaay too sensitive... Even moreso than they were from the factory.

To reiterate, I put a rig together and took my second stages and dunked them in water... Holding them upside-down (mouthpiece sticking up) and slooowly submerged them. I've made note of where the waterline is when the reg first cracks open.

I understand that most people like them to crack open around an inch from the bottomost part of the sticker is. These are set to crack open before the waterline even reaches the sticker at all.

Okay, I'm really glad I'm doing this.

 

[SeaJay]

#1 priority... Right wrenches, all clean. Looks like I'll need a 5/8ths, 9/16ths, and 11/16ths. I have all of the above, and an extra, just in case. I'm going to clean all of my wrenches before applying them to my pretty connectors.

...Then it's a compelte disassembly of my setup. I'll break it down to it's basic components.

...And I'll take those stupid "certification" thingers off. :upset:

 

[SeaJay]

No tricks here... Everything was snug... Not too tight or too loose... That's a good sign.

Everything came apart without a hitch. Basic components broken down, hoses are hanging.

What a nice piece of equipment these things are.

I've cleaned the external surfaces of my hoses. It appears that there is some sort of "goo" all over them... Like Armor-All or spray silicone. Yuck.

The "certification thingers" now sit in my trash can, where they belong.

Going to do a complete visual inspection of all hoses and the pressure guage. Checking O-rings, lube, and hoses for any sort of damage or whatever...

 

[diverUp]

Hey SeaJay....

Been reading this thread and BOY does it feel good to know I'm not the only one who feels this way!

I am so frustrated with being at the LDS's mercy when it comes to regulator servicing that I ordered Vance Harlows book on reg. maintenance and bought a bunch of tools from scuba tools.

One of my local LDS's said the only way I could work on my stuff was if I purchased thousands of $$ worth of test equipment.

WRONG

Long story short....I now have the peace of mind knowing the exact figures on all my pressures and adjustments.

Which BTW...I never received from any of the LDS's that serviced my regs in the past.

Rock ON!

 

[SeaJay]

Hoses appear to be in excellent condition. The O-ring on my low pressure inflator hose was pretty much shredded and ready to blow. I had a spare O-ring... I took the old one off, lubed up the new one with Cristolube (my Cristolube seems to be "runny"; I don't remember it being that way) and installed it. I wiped down all of the hoses and their connections, and put new lube in.

Things appear to be going smoothly. The "ding" in my pressure guage doesn't really look that bad... But this gives me an excuse to get rid of it (put it in my save-a-dive kit) and order one of the teeny-tiny ones from Scubapro. This one is an OMS.

By the way... I figured out which way the little spool goes into the OMS guage... It goes in so that the conical opening is toward the guage, and the flat opening is toward the 1st stage.

Hoses and guage done, except, of course, for reassembly (and lubing during).

 

[ScoobieDooo]

SeaJay,
Make sure you replace all the O-rings on the 1st stage and 2nd stage (if doing both) and check the filter in the first stage.

Good luck...

PS I think most regs have a cracking pressure of about 1-1/2 inches. 1 inch might be too sensative - but I'm not familiar with SP's.

 

[Genesis]

you can set up the cracking pressure as low as 1/2" with the adjuster all the way out and be ok - since you can "tighten" it if you need to.

This is how I set my adjustables.

They breathe like ambient air when set that way, and in current I can crank them down a bit to prevent freeflows.

You can really only do this for yourself though, as if a shop did this the average diver would be real unhappy.

Also, for non-adjustable seconds its inadvisable to set 'em that sensitive for obvious reasons.

One other thing - when seats are replaced they typically will "loosen" a bit due to taking a set in the first month or so. This doesn't apply to the newer "unloading" SP seconds (with the "anti-set" feature) but does apply to most other seconds, balanced or not. The unbalanced ones have more of a change over time since the sealing pressure on the seat is higher.