Regulator service

[Adobo]

I have a Zeagle DS-V with ZX primary and an Envoy backup.

I've had some strange diving experiences lately which has prompted me to send this kit back to Zeagle to have them give the reg a look/see. According to one of their techs, it appears that both of my second stages air balance chambers were worn down due to fine sand and silt. I was told that in the conditions I am diving in (and perhaps my current rinse out routine), I should expect to be sending the reg in more often than the standard once a year recommendation.

Most of my diving is shore diving in Monterey. While I am new to the sport, I can't recall the last time I've done a face plant in the sand.

Now for the questions
- Does it sound strange to anyone else that a 6 month old regulator with less than 50 dives has gone from brand new to having the balancing chambers worn out thus leading to a cracking effort of 3+" in the water column?
- Given that the reg was almost downright dangerous to use after 6 months/~40 dives, what would be the recommended service interval? I would hate to wait until the reg is this "messed up" before it goes to service.
- Any of you other NorCal divers finding that your regs need to be serviced more often than once a year?

Just to be clear.. I am not picking on Zeagle. In fact, I think they have been really good at trying to help me.

TIA

 

[Ishie]

My reg needed some servicing after about six months. It's been a little abused a couple of times, but nothing out of the ordinary.

It didn't get horrendously dangerous though. It was putting out too much intermediate pressure which was causing a light free flow in the second stages, particularly in the octo, which is annoying, but not life threatening.

Mine's a Mares, and supposedly environmentally sealed (shrug).

I'm not sure if it's a cold water thing though. It did it the first time I dived cold water after I'd been diving six consecutive days on (warm water) vacation, so I'm not sure if it was worn down by cold water diving or if it was just the extra use that did it.

You say you did 40 dives in six months, which tends to be around what I do. Could it be that the "once a year" stipulation is for people that dive less frequently, since most divers (not on this board) don't dive that much, but would be more likely to do 20-40 in a year?

Experts?

 

[Ben_ca]

:blahblah:

IMHO i think that's BS... We dive in the same conditions... And I don't see you dragging your regs... scooping up the beach. The things are new so how can they be that worn out already? I would call your usage "Moderate" if that... I guess it's too late for a second opinion huh?

 

[Adobo]

Well.. the good news is that they fixed it for free. It sounds strange though. I've never heard any of the old timers talking about their gear needing frequent service (with the exception of the halcyon inflators, of course).

 

[abman]

sound to me like a case of less than desirable gear maintance. i dive with a zeagle flathead IV. i dive the hell out of it , but i am peticular about how i care for my gear.how it gets rinsed out, etc. etc. i talked to the bench tech at my lds, he asked me how in the word did you manage to get sand inside of the air balance chamber. the only way possible to do this would to be to take the hose off of the 2nd stage and put sand in the air line port going into the 2nd stage. or if when you are rincing out your reg you depress the purge,(with the reg detatched from the tank or with the air pressure turned off), which will let water and other crud inside the of the seat of the 2nd stage.

 

[redacted]

I'm not comfortable with that explanation.

I don't believe the Envoy octo is a balanced design.

Exactly what is worn? Wear between the balance chamber o-ring and the chamber seating surface should produce leaking problems. Perhaps you compensated for the leaking by cranking down on the adjustment thereby increasing cracking pressure? Scubapro now uses 2 o-rings in their balance chambers; one makes the seal and the other holds a little extra lub and protects the first one from crap in your dive environment. If you do get abrasive grit into that o-ring, it is very hard to clean out without disassemby and is just a matter of time before it causes wear and leakage.

You might just have to watch for early symptoms of a problem and service it more often.

Maybe ScottZeagle will jump in and help.

 

[Adobo]

I'm not comfortable with that explanation.

I don't believe the Envoy octo is a balanced design.

Exactly what is worn? Wear between the balance chamber o-ring and the chamber seating surface should produce leaking problems. Perhaps you compensated for the leaking by cranking down on the adjustment thereby increasing cracking pressure? Scubapro now uses 2 o-rings in their balance chambers; one makes the seal and the other holds a little extra lub and protects the first one from crap in your dive environment. If you do get abrasive grit into that o-ring, it is very hard to clean out without disassemby and is just a matter of time before it causes wear and leakage.

You might just have to watch for early symptoms of a problem and service it more often.

Maybe ScottZeagle will jump in and help.

Some detail here...

When I first talked to the tech last week, he said that he found both 2nd stages to be misbehaving (me paraphrasing). He promised to fix whatever was wrong and get both to be within spec by the time the reg got back to me. Below is a cut and paste of part of the email I received from the technician:

"I found that the balancing chambers were worn out from what looked like a lot of fine sand acting as as grinding compound. "

Based on this information, I am making the assumption that both regs had very similar problems. I suspect this all began when I did a couple of dives in Monastery late last year. I got sand everywhere. My drysuit exhaust valve even had to be changed out after that.


I also want to make sure I am clear about this; I am not here to be critical of Zeagle's products or the service they provide. All in all, I have found this service experience to be consistent with the very positive way Zeagle is portrayed within SB. My intent here is simply to understand whether or not divers who dive the same amount as I do and the same sites that I do find that they need their gear to be serviced more often than the once/year generally recommended by most manufacturers.

 

[Ben_ca]

"I found that the balancing chambers were worn out from what looked like a lot of fine sand acting as as grinding compound. "

As far as a dive at Monastery being the culprit.... I say that would be a big no.

For the people out there not familiar with Nor Cal beaches Monastery is more like a pebble beach. Large grains of course sand.

 

[Adobo]

As far as a dive at Monastery being the culprit.... I say that would be a big no.

For the people out there not familiar with Nor Cal beaches Monastery is more like a pebble beach. Large grains of course sand.

I was thinking that the waves tend to carry lots of fine sand with it too along with the big pebbles. The reg was in my mouth the whole time I was making my exit and yet I still wound up with a mouthful of large grains.

 

[bajashack]

Hope this is just a freak thing. Sometimes things happen, however if this happens again either evaluate the way you are cleaning your gear or you got a lemon for a regular. I know that here in southern California we have a lot of fine sand and I have done 400 plus dives on a reg without ever having it serviced. I was a little naïve when I started diving!