Scubapro Air 2 Problem?

[scubajane]

First, my dive gear is serviced annually by an authorized Subapro dealer and I am anal about cleaning/maintaining my gear. I do about 30-50 dives per year.
I have a Lady hawk BC with Air 2 and MK25 reg. My gear was serviced in Jan. First trip after the gear was serviced was to the Florida Keys. Duuring the first dive, no problem. During the second dive, the Air 2 starts bubbling like crazy. I shake it, purge it....same thing. Not wanting to waste air on a 30 ft awesome Keys dive, I start breathing from the Air 2. After a couple of minutes, I decide that this is really a pain in the butt, and switch back to my secondary. My air 2 starts free flowing like crazy. I shook it, banged it, purged it...and it is still free flowing. I decide to abort the dive. On the boat it is hissing like crazy. The dive operator says we won't touch it....we don't do Scubapro....someone didn't check your gear after servicing...but you can rent. So I rented for the remaining dives.
I get back home and take the thing into the shop. They hook it up and no problem. They refuse to open the Air 2.
Comments please......should I ditch my Air 2? Has anyone else had Air2 problems.?Any other advice? The thing has occasionally bubbled on other dives but this is the first significant issue. What is really funny, is that I got on my dive buddies case about his mail order gear that hasn't been serviced!

 

[dbg40]

Some of the older air 2s had freeflow problems, I use a 4th gen. air 2 and don't have any problems with mine, but I hear that some people do. It may just need a simple adjustment to tighten it up a little so that its not so touchy, or maybe it got sand or a little stone cought in it. Still the dealer should have disasembled it for cleaning and inspection. But the rule of thumb is to carry a stock inflator and a backup 2nd to switch to just incase of these problems.
I still prefer my air2 for rec diving over a standard occto. I just don't like the extra "stuff" hanging on me, and so far have found mine to be reliable.

 

[archman]

My AIR2 was originally fairly sensitive to free-flowing, but after mentioning it to the tech during an annual servicing, he said "oh yeah, I'll fix that for ya!" and I haven't had any problems since. I think he said it had to be "detuned" or something.

 

[halocline]

You took it back to the shop that sold you and serviced the reg, told them that it freeflowed on you, causing you to abort a dive, and they would not take it apart for inspection? If that's correct, I suggest you immediately contact scubapro and make a big complaint about this dealer.

If it's possible, you could have scubapro recommend another SP dealer in your area to get it looked at. It's probably something easy to fix, but in my opinion that's not nearly as troubling as the attitude of your dive shop, unless I've misunderstood about you bringing it to the same shop that sold and serviced the reg. It that case, never mind...

 

[Poseidon8118]

Sounds like a shady dive shop to me...

When you have your gear serviced do they place the used parts in a bag so you could see all the work performed?

My theory:

I have two exacted (Sherwood) first stages one is set at 135 IP lock up (Blizzard), and the other at 140 IP lockup (Maximus). Now, if I take my second stage Maximus and put it on the Blizzard’s first stage it will free flow while submerged (even if I crank down on the adjustment) but not at the surface. The difference is the IP of the first stage and how the second stage is tuned primarily for that particular stage. Now, I’m thinking that the tech at your dive shop serviced the first stage and primary second stage but may have only cleaned the octo, so if he readjusted the IP pressure it may lead the octo into free flowing while submerged. My theory is the tech hates working on the Air2 and this is why they won’t inspect it…this is a liability as far as I’m concern. Please find a new shop that will look into poorly adjusted equipment. The shops I go to place used parts in a bag and if something’s free flowing underwater wouldn’t hesitate to look at it again!

Just a theory...

 

[mossym]

it might be ip creep, hook it up with your first stage when they hook it up, get them to leave it on a while, and see if it comes back

i had the same problem with mine, after i got its erviced it leaked,when i checked it at the shop they found nothing wrong until they hooked it up with my first stage and left it a couple of miutes it happpened..one thing to try

 

[scubatoys]

Mossym is right there... Did you try unhooking the inflator.. then did the primary second stage free flow?? Did you take your reg and BC into the shop??

Keep in mind... it's like telling the mechanic every time you turn right with your car, there is a grinding noise... so here I brought in the steering wheel... what's wrong?? Where you experience the problem may not be where it originates.

 

[Dan Gibson]

I would think the first thing a good tech would do is check the IP. All other checks are pointless if the first stage IP is too high.

An IP gauge is a piece of equipment every diver should have in my opinion.

it might be ip creep, hook it up with your first stage when they hook it up, get them to leave it on a while, and see if it comes back

i had the same problem with mine, after i got its erviced it leaked,when i checked it at the shop they found nothing wrong until they hooked it up with my first stage and left it a couple of miutes it happpened..one thing to try

 

[DA Aquamaster]

A tech should tune an Air 2 to your specific first stage as it is a downstream design roughly similar to the R190 and if placed on a reg with an IP higher that what it is tuned for, it can freeflow.

Alternatively, a tech can tune the Air 2 on a shop first stage running at an IP of 145 psi, which is as high or higher than any first stage encountered in the field (not counting a few older poseiden first stages.)

I would also agree with the sentiments expressed above that the problem may well be your first stage, although a freeflow during a dive usually indicates more than just IP creep - more like a serious and large HP seat leak. A large number of second stage problem are actually first stage problems and a tech should not even attempt to diagnose a second stage problem without first checking the first stage.

I also agree your SP dealer apparently sucks. They should have told you all of this and had you bring in the compete regulator set for a flow test.

 

[DennisW]

I totally agree with DA Aquamaster, but I have one further comment to make. Air 2 regulators are very sensitive to getting sand or particulates in the regulator. I have to take the cover off of mine after every shore dive to really clean it good before the next dive. I also had to adjust mine (de-tune) it a bit after I had a scubapro dealer overhaul it a couple of years ago because it would free flow too easily.

Since I took the Diving Technologies International course in SCUBA equipment repair and overhaul, I take care of my own gear, so if it doesn't work right, I know who to blame.