Scuba Toys or Dive Right In Scuba Regulator Service

[scubafanatic]

I've done business with both, and have had regs serviced by Scubatoys, both companies are fine, I do more business with Scubatoys as they are only a 45 min drive (one way) from me, and I'm not a big fan of shipping regs for service, so Scubatoys is the natural service choice for me. Nothing against DRIS, I've just not tried them out yet for gear service. If memory serves, turn around time was under 2 weeks, but part of that time was due to my only being able to pick up my serviced items on weekends as I'm too busy for me to drop by during the workweek. The actual servicing timeframe was something closer to a week or so. I'm sure if you called either dive shop they can give you good timeframe estimates including shipping.

 

[divezonescuba]

Aeris and Oceanic are a marketing thing. If a shop has Oceanic, a nearby shop cannot have Oceanic, but can have Aeris. Many of the Oceanic and Aeris regulators are exactly the same thing. This means that some Oceanic regulators such as the CDX5 first stage can use the parts kits from the corresponding Aeris first stage. However, Oceanic or Aeris dealers may be reluctant to do so, as it could potentially cause dealership issues.

You are really better off finding a local shop to do your regulators. In case there are any problems you can just bring it in.

We once shipped out brands of regulators that we did not regularly service to an unidentified outside source. For the relatively modest amount of money they were charging, it was impossible that they actually used the service kit for the regset. The retail price for the service kits alone was close to the entire amount that they charged. They did replace the high pressure seat in the 1st stage and charged quite a bit for that single component. We have discontinued using them as we do not have confidence that the regulators are being serviced to the same level that we do in the shop. I won't mention that they couldn't find one of our regsets for a while and then actually shipped another of our regsets to somebody else. Ops. But then again, that could happen anytime you ship them out.

 

[jacked_72]

My understanding is that ST farms out the reg service to a local rebuilder that several of the shops in the area use. He is very nice and knowledgeable. He knew exactly what my older Sherwood reg was and commented that it was a great reg. (No attempt at an upsell or a newer and greater model.) His turn around time is generally very quick, but it is getting to be the rebuilding season, so plan ahead. I've had a couple of regs rebuilt at ST and they worked fine. I had an issue with some sand being left in an octo after a rebuild, but they took care of it without a problem. (The suspicion was that the diaphragm got set down on a table that had sand on it during the rebuild.)

Just do yourself a big favor check your regs under pressure once you get them back and before you go on your trip. I got some regs back from another shop that were "serviced" and the lever on the octo was so far out of adjustment that the purge button did nothing. On the other, an o-ring on a port plug was shot allowing an obvious and audible escape of air. How either of them "passed" inspection by the rebuilder is beyond me. You certainly would not want to find either defect on the boat when you're ready to get in the water.