Regulators that work but have gone out of circulation

[FuzzyNutz]

Have you looked at the age of some commercial passenger jets? Age is much less a factor with regulators as with planes that suffer from metal fatigue problems. As long as they are inspected and serviced I don't see the problem. That does mean that service parts must be available and, with few exceptions, they generally are. Unfortunately, many service providers have a tendency to condemn older gear in the hopes of making a sale on new gear.

The OP still has not told us what kind of regs we are talking about.

Again, true, but seriously... we're talking about 10 sets of regulators here... I think it'd be appropriate for a scuba rental facility to drop 5K on some new regs every few years... though perhaps this is just my opinion.

 

[highflier]

There is a big difference in a old/surplus rebuild kit and a newer/3rd party kit. Rubber parts deteriourate with time. I would not put a 10 year old never used o ring on anything I am going to breath. Now a 3rd party part that is months old, sure no problem, as long as it is a good quality 3rd party part.

OP, Care to post when the average last service was? To me that would mean alot.

A newly rebuild Camry might not be state of the art, but it would run just fine. While I would not want to pay todays rates for renting it. I would not be agaist renting it at a fair price.

On the other hand if it had 200,000 miles on it, and currently ran,but not rebuilt, I do not think I would want to rent it for fear of the brakes failing or the whole thing just breaking down and leaving me stranded.

Highflier

 

[VooDooGasMan]

If the regulator works it is fine, One mentioned that a cracked housing, they work just free flow and that is evident on the surface also.

Now search for regulator fatalities, I know of one here in seattle where a girl died at mummy rocks in the san Juans, it was with an outing with seattle scuba schools and the owner craig was on the dive trip and his rental reg was determined the cause of death and he had to settle with the family. So it does happen and all I recall from memory was a debate that it was adjusted so it will not free flow and it was hard to breath off of at depth. You could call craig as he is an extremely smart instructor and ask how to avoid this in the future.

This is what I find to be nice alternative in those leaky regs although I have never used one before, in the link you can email there service dept as they have been servicing regs for over 50 years.


http://www.underwatersports.com/

Good luck on your decision for the safety of your customers.

 

[Teresa McKinna]

I don't believe that I said I rented this gear. We have over 25 sets of gear that have just been bought and I was just inquiring as to the legal side of things. I am very proud of Jules' Undersea Lodge and the people who work there. I think asking for public guidance and using my real name does speak volumes to our integrity.

thank you for your input.

 

[theduckguru]

The regs are odsolete, replace them.

 

[Afishianado]

You have asked one question, but the board population is answering 2 separate questions interchangeably. I will answer both, separately.

In a reg rental fleet: you want newish gear, you want to inspire confidence and comfort in your customers, newish gear does that. Most people who rent gear don't understand it well enough to know about parts being available from the OEM or if that is a negative or not. Most people who rent gear want to rent something that looks good/new and feel good about it. In a court case having newish gear will help you because judges and juries are like customers in their thought processes regarding the suitability of rental gear. Lawyers only care about what they think a judge/jury will think.

For diver's personal use: Who cares how old it is? Who cares if a shop can get new rebuild kits for it? If it was a safe reg when it was supported by the OEM then it is still a safe reg for you to use provided that whomever services it knows what they are doing. Most special replacement parts for regulators are available from Trident or someplace similar (Vintageregulator.com or northeast scuba...etc etc) the remaining parts are O-rings and they aren't rubber, you(or a competent service tech) can easily get VITON or EPDM replacements for the regs just like the OEMs do and use them without worry, they have a shelf life of 20 years but I doubt you would need it since they get replaced so often.

I own and dive older regs, some that are not supported by the OEM any longer, no issues. If I owned/operated a rental fleet of regs I would have newish ones in that fleet. I would also have recorded service intervals according to the OEM published recommendations, no exceptions. Personal and public usage are completely different.

On a personal note: Kudos to you for using your real name(s) integrity seems to be a diminishing attribute these days. I don't see a problem with it.

~Chris

 

[Teresa McKinna]

awap,

Sorry, they are Genesis regs and I have them shelved. I am going to find out if there are any companies that carry the repair kits but, my technician says he can't find any. We just bought 20 Brut's and they work great. Thanks

Teresa McKinna