I have 3 sets of Aqualung Regs that need service before an upcoming Cozumel dive trip. For the last service I used Jack at Frogg Pond dive service who was a frequent contributor here but it appears he has gone out of business so I have been looking at various options online. I used DRIS several years ago and was pleased with their service but looking at the web site today it shows that the cost for for a first, second and octo service is $105 plus parts. A quick internet search shows Diver's Supply performs the same service for $62.95 plus parts. Is one service superior to the other? Obviously many other choices available but using these as an example. Thanks in advance for any advice.
Regulator service - Do you get what you pay for?
- Thread starter Yellowdog
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Find a local dive shop. You can test it when you pick it up. Rather than sending it back and forth if there are any issues.
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firmly disagree. Most dive shops are not regular repair shops. If you send to places like Airtech in Raleigh, DRiS in Chicago, Scubatoys in Texas, or Divers Supply in Atlanda, your reg is going to be serviced by someone who's full time job, as in 40hrs a week with benefits and vacation and and and, is doing nothing but rebuilding regulators. If you take it to a local dive shop you run the risk of it either being sent off to one of those places mentioned above and charged a premium, or having the regulator be done by a guy who services regulators every few weeks or every few months. There is no guarantee that it will be done "better".
That said, I would recommend that @Yellowdog gets in touch with Northeast Scuba Supply as they may be close enough to Maryland and give you both a service shop that is local and legitimate.
I think what you are disagreeing with is a poor diveshop. There are local diveshops who do not send out regulators and who do service regulators on a frequent basis. A good shop will also show you a bag of parts that were removed and replaced from their regulator set.
I have sent many regulators out to a third party organization. Actually to one of the ones that you mentioned. Not only were manufacturers parts not used, the person serving the regulators was a sub contractor that “picked up” the regulators, and from calculating the cost versus time to properly service the regulators, they were either paid less than minimum wage or didn’t really disassemble, replace parts with the service kit, reassemble, and test. Sometimes they even sent the regulators back to somebody else. Needless to say, we stopped using them when we realized what they were doing.
I attended a Mares full service course at DEMA several years ago by the brutally thorough Italian guy and the “full time” service technician next to me at one of those types of places failed the course.
What does all this mean? Nothing other than you need to know who is actually servicing your regulators and what they actually do, and how well they do it. It’s a lot easier to do that if you can talk to them face to face.
I have sent many regulators out to a third party organization. Actually to one of the ones that you mentioned. Not only were manufacturers parts not used, the person serving the regulators was a sub contractor that “picked up” the regulators, and from calculating the cost versus time to properly service the regulators, they were either paid less than minimum wage or didn’t really disassemble, replace parts with the service kit, reassemble, and test. Sometimes they even sent the regulators back to somebody else. Needless to say, we stopped using them when we realized what they were doing.
I attended a Mares full service course at DEMA several years ago by the brutally thorough Italian guy and the “full time” service technician next to me at one of those types of places failed the course.
What does all this mean? Nothing other than you need to know who is actually servicing your regulators and what they actually do, and how well they do it. It’s a lot easier to do that if you can talk to them face to face.
For anyone making the same decision I checked the prices of the service providers mentioned and listed below. The price is for service for the first, second and octo. While I am a price conscious consumer I also don't want to make life support decisions based on price but am still unsure why I should spend more with one dealer than another.
Scubatoys $59.95 plus parts ( Incudes, lube or replace the spool and hose o rings, inspect all hoses if included )
Divers Supply $ 63.45 plus parts
Northeast Scuba Supply $ 90.00 ( Incudes, lube or replace the spool and hose o rings, inspect all hoses if included )
DRIS $105 plus parts
Airtech $105 plus parts
Scubatoys $59.95 plus parts ( Incudes, lube or replace the spool and hose o rings, inspect all hoses if included )
Divers Supply $ 63.45 plus parts
Northeast Scuba Supply $ 90.00 ( Incudes, lube or replace the spool and hose o rings, inspect all hoses if included )
DRIS $105 plus parts
Airtech $105 plus parts
I don't know what Aqualung parts actually cost a shop, (even though with a phone call I could find out) but a full set of regs that require 1st and both seconds rebuilt, with parts, costs my customers around 115.00 plus return shipping. But I bill by the hour. Not by the stage. Why?
I've gotten in regs that were horribly cared for and it took more time to clean and get rid of the corrosion that had developed. My time is worth something.
I bill at $45 an hour based on the 1/4 and 1/3 hours. The first stage in good shape takes about 45 minutes to rebuild (including O2 clean) so the labor is 33.75 plus the parts kit. Second stages well cared for? 15 minutes. 11.25 labor. Not so well cared for 20 minutes so $15 labor plus parts.
But when I get a reg in I evaluate it and send the customer a quote for service. No work gets done without approval.
Occasionally an evaluation will see something unexpected come up when the reg actually gets torn down and opened up. If I miss that and it takes extra time, that's on me.
For example, I got one in that was fine other than the IP creeping. Clean, no signs of corrosion on the outside or in the ports. Opened it up and there was corrosion under the diaphragm. It took an extra 10 minutes to clean up. No charge to the customer but I made sure to make them aware of what I found. just in case it was due to poor care and lack of attention.
I also just sent a part to another tech who got a reg in that had parts missing inside yet still worked on his initial evaluation. How that happened is unknown.
I don't work on regs I'm not trained on or on some that I am because mfg policies don't allow me to get kits or would support me if something went wrong.
Last year I saw 5 sets of regs from a PSD team who were told that the regs were junk and could no longer be rebuilt. Those same regs had the last service done by that shop. The team was told they needed to stop using them and buy all new apeks.
When I received them I discovered and thoroughly documented the service that the shop had performed. Wrong torques used, parts that were never used by the mfg, and parts missing or substituted with parts that barely fit but looked similar. All of those could have resulted in reg failures.
I now have their service business from here on out. Sadly I can't do all their team equipment because I'm not an AGA tech or OTS tech. I did try to find them some people they could rely on for those.
I won't accept a service I have to contract to a 3rd party. I will let the customer know I have contacts with other brand techs in my area and they can ship to me to deliver to them after they've spoken to the other party to save on shipping and help them out. But they need to deal with the other tech directly and pay what they charge and it's a separate transaction.
I've gotten in regs that were horribly cared for and it took more time to clean and get rid of the corrosion that had developed. My time is worth something.
I bill at $45 an hour based on the 1/4 and 1/3 hours. The first stage in good shape takes about 45 minutes to rebuild (including O2 clean) so the labor is 33.75 plus the parts kit. Second stages well cared for? 15 minutes. 11.25 labor. Not so well cared for 20 minutes so $15 labor plus parts.
But when I get a reg in I evaluate it and send the customer a quote for service. No work gets done without approval.
Occasionally an evaluation will see something unexpected come up when the reg actually gets torn down and opened up. If I miss that and it takes extra time, that's on me.
For example, I got one in that was fine other than the IP creeping. Clean, no signs of corrosion on the outside or in the ports. Opened it up and there was corrosion under the diaphragm. It took an extra 10 minutes to clean up. No charge to the customer but I made sure to make them aware of what I found. just in case it was due to poor care and lack of attention.
I also just sent a part to another tech who got a reg in that had parts missing inside yet still worked on his initial evaluation. How that happened is unknown.
I don't work on regs I'm not trained on or on some that I am because mfg policies don't allow me to get kits or would support me if something went wrong.
Last year I saw 5 sets of regs from a PSD team who were told that the regs were junk and could no longer be rebuilt. Those same regs had the last service done by that shop. The team was told they needed to stop using them and buy all new apeks.
When I received them I discovered and thoroughly documented the service that the shop had performed. Wrong torques used, parts that were never used by the mfg, and parts missing or substituted with parts that barely fit but looked similar. All of those could have resulted in reg failures.
I now have their service business from here on out. Sadly I can't do all their team equipment because I'm not an AGA tech or OTS tech. I did try to find them some people they could rely on for those.
I won't accept a service I have to contract to a 3rd party. I will let the customer know I have contacts with other brand techs in my area and they can ship to me to deliver to them after they've spoken to the other party to save on shipping and help them out. But they need to deal with the other tech directly and pay what they charge and it's a separate transaction.
Rose Robinson
Contributor
Hello Yellowdog,
I believe it goes without saying that there is good and bad service in just about anything you can mention.
I also personally believe that scuba gear in general is consumable.
A lot of the popular ''Taiwan'' brands offer $150. second stage regs, and $100. first stage regs, how much money are you willing to spend on something that after two/three seasons has no value.
I dive with Poseidon regs, have for over twenty years, never spent money on ''tear-down'' servicing.
Most of what I own is traded in, depending on use, every third/fourth season and replaced with new.
The shop I do business with takes my trades, refurbishes them, and resells to someone who wants good equipment but maybe can't afford brand new, so everyone wins.
I see little point in continually re-investing in a consumable item. I have been provided with the knowledge/skill and equipment needed to conduct all required gear inspections/checks and simple replacements and if I have a concern with anything, it's replaced.
My father had the philosophy of ''never throwing good money after bad'' and I followed his lead.
I am speaking strictly for myself here.
Rose.
I haven't had others service my regs in the past five or six years, but the last time I did, I had a local branch of Divers Supply service my HOG regs. Cost back then for a first stage and two second stages, including parts kits, was about $115. I believe they did a poor job, likely not breaking the regs in properly, as I had to have them readjusted in the field. I should have sent them to Lapenta, but instead I took the HOG service course and learned to do it myself. A few hundred dollars worth of tools was needed, but I recouped that quickly in service costs saved, and moreover, it gives me peace of mind.
rolanddiver
Registered
Back in '96 when I started diving I had a Sherwood reg set that I took to the only sherwood service center we had here in Hungary back then. They also happened to be the importer of that brand. I dropped it off in October and in March I picked it up from the exact same shelf I put it on 6 months earlier. Needless to say, they never even touched it. That was the moment I decided to service my own regs and been doing it ever since. Regulators are super simple devices and easy to clean/service/adjust. In other words it is not rocket science, but of course it is not for everyone. I'm not saying that everyone should be doing the same, but the way I see it is that if I do it, i know it is done properly and there are no hefty bills and nasty surprises/ruined trips at the end of the day.
Very Respectfully
Roland
Disclaimer: Scuba gear is life support equipment and as such servicing your own gear could be very dangerous and potentially lethal. If in doubt find an expert to do it for you.
Very Respectfully
Roland
Disclaimer: Scuba gear is life support equipment and as such servicing your own gear could be very dangerous and potentially lethal. If in doubt find an expert to do it for you.
I absolutely agree. 1st stages are incredibly simple and completely devoid of any electrical gizmology. They operate on basic physics and have very few moving parts. Take your time, keep the manual or a video open in front of you, lay everything out on a pad or towel, and you're golden. If you can assemble Ikea after drinking a bottle of wine, you can service your own regulators.
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