Regulator annual service costs

[crazed_dolphin]

From www.diversdirect.com or aka Divers Outlet if you have a store near you.


Your regulator, octo & gauges should be serviced annually by a professional to ensure you’re always ready for your next dive. In addition, most manufacturers require annual service to maintain their warranties, and in some cases, provide free service parts as long as you do have the gear serviced in accordance with their warranty. This means that by servicing your gear annually, you can save hundreds of dollars on parts over the life of your gear. Be sure to consult your warranty card to ensure you are in compliance with its requirements. If you have any questions, contact us and we can review them with you by e-mail at Repairs@DiversDirect.com or just call us at 1-800-DIVE-USA.

When selecting your service/repair center, choose a shop that is factory certified and has earned your trust. Remember, only gear purchased and serviced at an authorized dealer is warranted. If you have any questions, call Divers Direct or check with the manufacturer for a list of authorized dealers. We currently perform factory authorized service for the following brands:

Dacor
Mares
Oceanic
Tusa
Aqualung/US Divers
The Divers Direct Service Center is a centralized facility designed to support all of our Superstore, Catalog, and Internet customers as well as those who have purchased gear elsewhere. Because we are one of the largest dealers for every brand we sell, Divers Direct has all the parts and experience necessary to provide top quality service and repairs at a great price. Also, because our center is located at our catalog and internet fulfillment center, we can provide superior shipping and receiving services for your convenience. We are confident that Divers Direct Service is a great value and welcome you to let us prove it.

Convenient! Two Choices...

Bring us your gear and warranty paper work - Divers Direct retail stores and outlets are located throughout Florida.
Send us your gear and warranty paper work - Use your own box and ship your gear to us... at your convenience.
Fast
8 Business Day Service - Standard
Your gear will be shipped from our service center within 8 business days of receipt.
3 Business Day Rush Service - Faster
Get wet sooner! We guarantee to ship your gear within 3 business days of receipt for an additional $19.99. (i.e. In on Tuesday out on Thursday)
Divers Direct’s 21 Step Service Program
Unless otherwise prescribed by manufacturers warranty each regulator in need of a complete overhaul receives our comprehensive 21 step program free of further labor charges to ensure your gear is tested and ready to dive. Each component is disassembled and cleaned. All soft rubber parts are replaced as are all worn or damaged hard parts. Then we reassemble, tune, and bench test before updating your service log and returning your gear to you.

Divers Direct Service Guarantee
Divers Direct guarantees all replaced parts to be free of defects for one year from the date of service. If, for any reason, your regulator does not perform to your satisfaction, Divers Direct will service the item again at no charge for a period of 60 days from the date of service. Simply return it and we will perform the service and pay the return shipping.

Service Options & Price

$42.99 4 Piece: 1st stage, 2nd stage, octopus, and pressure gauge. (Plus parts if not under warranty)
$39.99 3 Piece: 1st stage, 2nd stage, and pressure gauge/or octo. (Plus parts if not under warranty)
$37.99 2 piece: 1st stage, 2nd stage or gauge. (Plus parts if not under warranty)
Parts
Free rebuild kits from participating manufacturers if covered by warranty. Please see our notes on manufacturer’s warranties. You save from $8.00 to $40.00. Additional hard parts quoted as needed if in excess of $60.00. Should your gear no longer be covered by warranty, regular repair kits will be charged at our very competitive rates.
Return Shipping Options & Price (per set)

$ 6.99 Standard Shipping 2-7 Days
$15.49 FedEx 2 Day 1-2 Days*
$21.99 FedEx Standard 1 Day 1 Day*
$26.99 10am FedEx Priority 1 Day*
*Plus service days and RUSH fee if requested .

 

[Lead_carrier]

Genesis once bubbled...
cannot possibly include a thorough tear-down, cleaning and inspection. No way.

I've yet to annual one of mine that didn't have SOMETHING that needed to be cleaned up inside.

Why not Genesis, my shop charges $20 per stage and if the reg is under warranty the parts are free. If not you must pay for the parts. Each reg is torn down, cleaned, inspected, and rebuilt. Just because you have a problem with your LDS's, not all of us are out to "fleece" the diving community. Granted, we only work on regs that we are authorized to rebuild and we ask for a couple of weeks lead time but we aren't all out to "Get Genisis".

 

[Genesis]

equals $60 for a first and two seconds.

The problem with "throw a parts kit into it" is that it encourages lax inspections. Yet inspection - close inspection - is most of the job!

Yeah, yeah, you can throw in an annual kit and get away with it most of the time. MOST of the time.

But for that price do all hard components get a dip in the ultrasonic? Especially things like regulator 1st bodies, that typically have at least one and perhaps more critical sealing surfaces that, if there is crud on them, will leak down the road? Do they all get a CLOSE inspection on all of those sealing surfaces?

I understand the "one true shop way" of doing things. I disagree with it though.

First, the "parts kit" mentality encourages replacement of what's in the kit, and not everything else.

But replacing all O-rings in the reg can be done for under a buck in parts - if you're buying the parts! And by doing that you get ALL NEW SEALS. You also get all of the O-rings removed, which means all their sealing surfaces get cleaned (if you put the aforementioned parts in the ultrasonic!)

Look, why would you change seats and such if they're in perfectly good shape? Because the manufacturer says so? Why?

If I bring an in-warranty ("free" parts for life) reg to you, what I want you to do is:

1. Disassemble - completely - the reg. All components come out.
2. Ultrasonic clean ALL hard parts. No exceptions.
3. Inspect ALL hard parts and all seats and sealing components.
4. Inspect ALL soft parts for unusual wear, and if any is found, look for the cause (on the hard part(s) it mated with!)
5 Replace all O-rings - not just the ones on the annual list - irrespective of their condition. They're a nickel apiece in EPR; there's no excuse for not changing them (there's literally fifty cents worth of O-rings in those regs!)
6. Replace seat(s) and other parts in the kit ONLY if warranted. Yes, this means you must assemble and test the reg BEFORE condemning the seat.
7. Return ALL replaced AND unused (in the annual) kit parts to me, separating the two so I know which is which.

Why (7)? Because if the seat doesn't need replacement now, it might before the next annual. You got one in the kit, and if its unused I want it. For BP firsts I can typically change the seat without taking the reg completely apart - in just a few minutes. Ditto for things like intake filters - if the one in there is in perfectly good condition, and has no "gunk" on it, I want the replacement. If I bought the kit, the parts in it are mine. If I didn't buy the kit, the parts in it are STILL mine, because they're part of the "warranty", and I'm entitled to everything in that kit that you did not use.

I've yet to see any shop that does things this way. But its how all shops should do things.... IMHO anyway.

There are two common ways that shops do things:

1. Change only what's needed, pocket the rest. (Very nice for them over time, but those unused parts are YOURS!)
2. Change everything, but shortchange the inspection. All the parts get used, but the problem with this approach is that things that should be looked at aren't.

If you do your own you don't have either of these problems.

 

[MikeFerrara]

Genesis,

Some of the reg manufacturers who provide free parts in the warrentee require us to send the used parts back to them. We send them a used kit and they send us a new one. That's how it works. And BTW the way we get the original stock is to buy it ourselves.

 

[Zaphod]

Let it first be said that you, Genesis, are more savvy than most customers coming into a dive shop. I work at the dive shop moxie mentioned and the prices do include everything you have listed with one exception. We replace every part in the overhaul kit, regardless of condition. I understand that you may not want that, and if requested, we will follow virtually any special instruction, but most customer just want the reg to work when they pick it up. They usually just throw the bag of parts in the trash when they pick it up. All they want to do between overhauls re. maintenance is rinse it. So, what may work for you, wouldn't work for 99% of our customers.

Perhaps you need to come up to the DC area and see the one shop in the whole world that defies your expectations...

 

[Genesis]

Mike, that bites. So the customer can't get a look at what he had in there, what kind of shape its in, etc? That's dumb, among other things. It also means that you end up limited to the parts that are IN that kit, probably

I just don't get some of this stuff....

I mean, let's get real. I bought $25 worth of O-rings, which includes 30 or so of virtually every size in common use within and around scuba gear. That'll probably last me three to four years, at which point I will need more for "age" reasons anyway. That's the price of two "average" rebuild kits!

But I have enough O-rings to do rebuilds every six months on my "regular use" regs for the next four years, assuming I don't need any seats. Oh, yeah, I'll probably need one "real" kit each in that time, just to get a new seat for each stage....

(My "regular use" regs include 4 firsts and 5 seconds, including my O2 analyzer first.)

If I was to pay for kits for those regs, I'd spend $90 a year for parts kits ALONE. If I was paying $25/stage for labor, I'd have a labor bill of $225, and that assumes only annual service (I dive often enough that tearing them down every six months isn't a bad idea.)

For me, at least, there's a MAJOR cost savings in buying the kits from "wherever I can find them" and using only the parts that need to be replaced and can't be substituted - and for the rest, using O-rings out of my kit.

 

[Zaphod]

I'm curious which reg. manufacturers require you to send back the parts during an overhaul. I know a few did a couple of years ago, but not one of the brands my LDS services requires them to be returned.

 

[Lead_carrier]

Zaphod once bubbled...

Perhaps you need to come up to the DC area and see the one shop in the whole world that defies your expectations...

Defies Genesiss' expectations ?? Now I want to be there when he comes through that door. That's kinda like telling someone that while diving they'll get a little wet.

As for returning parts, I know of one shop that is still required to return all of his parts. Seems he gave a free "inspection" to everyone a few years back and just happened to keep track of the serial numbers. Part of these regs were getting serviced about twice a year. Once by the owner and once by this dive shop. The manufacturer finally caught on to who was actually doing the service..

 

[Genesis]

The manufacturer finally caught on to who was actually doing the service..

If the deal is "parts for life", who gives a hoot who is providing the labor? Why do they care?

Oh, wait. The deal really isn't "free parts for life." Rather, is the real deal "we're engaging in (more) vertical restraint of trade, by requiring a customer to purchase labor from you to get these 'free parts'"?

If the latter, that's quite a close shave on Magnuson-Moss, which, by the way, requires that if you demand that a particular place (or group of places) perform labor for warranties to remain in force, or require the use of "OEM" parts, you must provide BOTH parts and labor for FREE for the duration of the warranty!

Not that these manufacturers would EVER do something that is a tap-dance around consumer-protection laws... naw, they'd NEVER do something like that......

 

[divindad]

there are exceptions to every rule. however anyone who thinks that reg service should be open to everyone must only know one or two divers and they must be quite adept at reg service.