Servicing Apeks and Aqualung seconds. Rubber or silicone low pressure seats?

[walkonmars]

Hi Folks,

I ended picking up a pair of ATX second stages.
I spend the afternoon tearing them down for cleaning and inspection and ready to start putting them back together. I'm wanting to replace the low pressure seats on the second stages. I'm thinking on purchasing a few extra low pressure seats for future service and inspections on Apeks, Hollis and Aqualung seconds that don't require replacement of all parts. Northeast Scuba Supply has individual low pressure seats available but come in both rubber and silicone materials. Do you folks know what material is preferred?

(I'm guessing one is for enriched gas service and the other is not? I'm guessing the rubber one lasts longer?)
Thanks,
-T

 

[sh1513]

The ones that come in the Apeks and Aqualung service kits are white silicone.

 

[Macan]

Apeks Part number is AP2034. Its silicone.

 

[tbone1004]

silicone is better, but why not just do the entire service kit? it's only a couple more o-rings

 

[walkonmars]

Thanks. I'll order some up.
I don't use kits with every service because some of the O-rings are still OK (In my opinion).
I want to pull them apart every year to clean out grit and calcium or salt that builds up in the barrels. The seat change is mandatory for me.
Happy diving-T

 

[tbone1004]

Thanks. I'll order some up.
I don't use kits with every service because some of the O-rings are still OK (In my opinion).
I want to pull them apart every year to clean out grit and calcium or salt that builds up in the barrels. The seat change is mandatory for me.
Happy diving-T

fair enough. I'd just buy the o-rings in bulk and replace everything in one go for peace of mind if I took it apart. I do that with my Poseidons. Order the custom bits from Poseidon and get the rest of the o-rings myself

 

[walkonmars]

Are the Apeks, Aqualung and Hollis internal O-rings mostly silicone? They seem too soft and glossy smooth to be Viton even though different Duro hardnesses are available.

 

[Macan]

Northeast Scuba Supply has individual low pressure seats available but come in both rubber and silicone materials.

Hi @walkonmars, I don't think Apeks service kits and parts are sold in the US to non authorized Apeks service centers. Can you provide the link to the seats you referred to?

 

[walkonmars]

I can provide a link to the low pressure seats:
Low Pressure Seats
Repair/rebuild kits are available from this shop but they can also be purchased from other suppliers such as vintagedoublehose.com . You can find them on Ebay but sometimes quite expensive and I am apprehensive about buying them off Ebay. If others have good sources for parts, please share them again.

 

[Scubagaskets]

If you are looking for APEKS o-rings look in page 7-9 of our catalogue
http://scubagaskets.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/New-catalogue-April-2018.pdf