Regulator shelf life

[Nemrod]

the local shop told me "the worst thing you can do to the regulator is storing it and not using it". he described how the pistons would seize/lock up from lack of use. what do you guys do to if it's stored for months without diving? just breath into it so the pistons would move? push the purge button? I am new and not sure what to do
thanks

Oh baloney. A properly stored regulator can sit for years. Not all regulators have "pistons" and while parts can degrade over time a little common sense goes al long way. I would not take a reg out of saltwater, rinse it and throw it in a wet dive bag and then a year later pull it out and expect it to work. But, a prepared for storage regulator can sit possibly for decades with no real harm. A brand new regulator sitting in a box, meh.

N

 

[halocline]

the local shop told me "the worst thing you can do to the regulator is storing it and not using it". he described how the pistons would seize/lock up from lack of use. what do you guys do to if it's stored for months without diving? just breath into it so the pistons would move? push the purge button? I am new and not sure what to do
thanks

Start looking for another shop. Really, you could cure world hunger if dive shop B.S. was edible.

 

[ams511]

the local shop told me "the worst thing you can do to the regulator is storing it and not using it". he described how the pistons would seize/lock up from lack of use. what do you guys do to if it's stored for months without diving? just breath into it so the pistons would move? push the purge button? I am new and not sure what to do
thanks

Lesson one: Take whatever a dive shop says with a grain of salt.

As others have said this is just plain BS. A regulator piston is not like the piston in an automobile, there is no metal to metal contact between the rings and the bore so there is nothing to seize. What could seize are the hoses to the first stage and the components of the body but this usually because of poor maintenance, for example storing a reg without rinsing it first or a tech overtightening the connections.

 

[rhwestfall]

the local shop told me "the worst thing you can do to the regulator is storing it and not using it". he described how the pistons would seize/lock up from lack of use. what do you guys do to if it's stored for months without diving? just breath into it so the pistons would move? push the purge button? I am new and not sure what to do
thanks

I took 8 years off from diving, and had just packed my regs in a tote, and put them on the shelf. When I started back up, replaced seats on a couple of the seconds, and ist been dive, dive, dive.... Now, maybe you folks diving that funny tasting water have different things happen, but I'm thinking what you have been told is BS....