Servicing Mixed Brands of Regulators

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SmashMonkey

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Messages
54
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Location
Mid-Atlantic, USA
# of dives
100 - 199
My wife and I are sporadic warm weather vacation divers. We go years, even decades between dives. Our gear is old, but none has more than 50 dives, some have as little as 5 dives. We are hoping to go diving in 2021 after a 9 year hiatus so it's my job to figure out the simplest and least costly way to get all the gear serviced.

Atomic 1st & 2nd stage (10 yo) & Sherwood octo (30 yo)
Oceanic 1st & 2nd & octo (20 yo)
Spare Air 300 (20 yo)
Aeris 300G computer (non-integrated) (15 yo)

There is no single local dive shop that is an authorized dealer for all these different brands. Does a shop need to be authorized to service this gear? What about ship to online service centers that claim to be able to service all brands? Thanks for the help.
 
servicing costs are pretty much the same with some slight differences depending on the cost of service kits. most shops will decline to service brands they are not dealers for varying reasons (insurance liability, parts sourcing, etc). mailing it out to a dedicated service center is fine if you go that route, there is nothing complex or technical preventing dive shops from servicing a brand of regs they don't sell.

with the cost of servicing, you might be just better off selling what you have and buying new deep 6 / hog / sherwood regs instead.
 
My wife and I are sporadic warm weather vacation divers. We go years, even decades between dives. Our gear is old, but none has more than 50 dives, some have as little as 5 dives. We are hoping to go diving in 2021 after a 9 year hiatus so it's my job to figure out the simplest and least costly way to get all the gear serviced.

Atomic 1st & 2nd stage (10 yo) & Sherwood octo (30 yo)
Oceanic 1st & 2nd & octo (20 yo)
Spare Air 300 (20 yo)
Aeris 300G computer (non-integrated) (15 yo)

There is no single local dive shop that is an authorized dealer for all these different brands. Does a shop need to be authorized to service this gear? What about ship to online service centers that claim to be able to service all brands? Thanks for the help.

They SHOULD all still be current for parts though the Oceanic and Aeris computer may be hit or miss. I would contact Airtech in Raleigh, they are factory trained in all of those and that is all their employees do all day every day. Very different than a local dive shop that is hit or miss in terms of how much they service.
Home - Airtech Scuba Services

I would look at ditching the computer though. 15yr old electronics don't exactly give me warm fuzzies. Consider renting if you aren't going to dive for a long time or buying something like this
Deep 6 Excursion Dive Computer

Also, if you haven't dove in 9 years, consider taking a refresher course from a local instructor after all of your gear comes back. You don't say where you are located, but there is lots of good local diving in most parts of the world.
 
The SpareAir might be the most costly single piece of gear to service for you. The service kits are expensive, the labor will probably be comparable to a reg stage, but then the tank itself will prolly need a hydro. Unless you really love it I would consider retiring it.
 
Are your intermediate pressures holding steady on the regulators?
 
after 9 years they at least need to be readjusted, whether IP holds or not

That's not typically very difficult, many times it just takes an allen wrench. If it's been nine years though, probably best to get them serviced
 
This is all very helpful, thanks. We always take a refresher course before vacation to shake out the cobwebs. I'll contact the service center to get an estimate. Would the cost of servicing everything come close the cost of a new set of regulators? We bought Atomic Z2 and Oceanic Delta II because we wanted quality that would last. I think both have balanced 1st and 2nd stages and the Oceanic is sealed diaphragm. Has technology advanced so that equivalent performance is relatively inexpensive? Keep in mind after this trip, it could be another 10 years until we go on another dive vacation!

Renting a computer and using the Aeris as a backup probably makes most sense.

I have a vague recollection that it cost $100 to service and hydro a Spare Air 10 years ago. I see the factory also offers $80 trade in credit.

And before anybody suggests it, I am way way way too lazy either learn to service our own gear or buy new gear for our vacation, and then sell it the minute we come home LOL!
 
This is all very helpful, thanks. We always take a refresher course before vacation to shake out the cobwebs. I'll contact the service center to get an estimate. Would the cost of servicing everything come close the cost of a new set of regulators? We bought Atomic Z2 and Oceanic Delta II because we wanted quality that would last. I think both have balanced 1st and 2nd stages and the Oceanic is sealed diaphragm. Has technology advanced so that equivalent performance is relatively inexpensive? Keep in mind after this trip, it could be another 10 years until we go on another dive vacation!

Renting a computer and using the Aeris as a backup probably makes most sense.

I have a vague recollection that it cost $100 to service and hydro a Spare Air 10 years ago. I see the factory also offers $80 trade in credit.

And before anybody suggests it, I am way way way too lazy either learn to service our own gear or buy new gear for our vacation, and then sell it the minute we come home LOL!

Spare airs aren't really going to give you much gas at depth in an emergency. I'd put that firmly in the circular bin rather than pay to service it if it were me.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

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