I have an acquaintance who insists on servicing his own gear, BC, reg, octo, this goes against everything Ive been taught through the years, you need to take them, to a certified dealer, or is he correct, that its a rip off, what the dealer does, any comments?
servicing own gear
- Thread starter msjones
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Servicing depends on a few things:-
How complicated something is
What exactly it is you are servicing
How many specialist tools are needed
How much skill you have
The facilities you have
Are the parts available to you.
Personally I don't have a problem servicing the vast majority of my own gear. There are however, bits of my own gear I won't touch, for example my regulator.
Simple parts like a drysuit dump valve can be taken apart by the dumbest of people and put back together again. then there are more compliated valves like the spring loaded dump valves on a BCD (not the main dump valve, but the other ones) which someone with a bit of mechanical skill can service quite easily.
In other walks of life people service other safety critical devices, for example changeing car break cylinders (I have changes master cylinders, wheel cylinders, serviced servo's and made brake pipes), why not do the same with diving gear? After all, you are endangering other peoples lives playing with your car breaks, and with diving gear, only with yourown life.
It comes down to skill, and also wether you trust your life to what you have done.
Life support equipment (for me) is a no-no, back to the dealer it goes.
Semi-citical bits (BCD emergency dump valves etc..) I am happy to do myself.
Non safety critical bits will probably get taken apart for the hellof it to see how they work.
As to wether servicing is a rip off, that just depends on how much you value having you gear looked at by some-one that is reasonably confident and competent.
For some confident and competent people, it is not worth the money as they can do the job just as well.
A good analogy for a lot of the engineers that take their own gear apart is 'would you expect bill gates to take his diving computer back to have the battery changed, if it was possible to do it himself?'
The answer to this is that he would almost definitely have the thing apart himself to look at it as he is king geek.
Jon T
How complicated something is
What exactly it is you are servicing
How many specialist tools are needed
How much skill you have
The facilities you have
Are the parts available to you.
Personally I don't have a problem servicing the vast majority of my own gear. There are however, bits of my own gear I won't touch, for example my regulator.
Simple parts like a drysuit dump valve can be taken apart by the dumbest of people and put back together again. then there are more compliated valves like the spring loaded dump valves on a BCD (not the main dump valve, but the other ones) which someone with a bit of mechanical skill can service quite easily.
In other walks of life people service other safety critical devices, for example changeing car break cylinders (I have changes master cylinders, wheel cylinders, serviced servo's and made brake pipes), why not do the same with diving gear? After all, you are endangering other peoples lives playing with your car breaks, and with diving gear, only with yourown life.
It comes down to skill, and also wether you trust your life to what you have done.
Life support equipment (for me) is a no-no, back to the dealer it goes.
Semi-citical bits (BCD emergency dump valves etc..) I am happy to do myself.
Non safety critical bits will probably get taken apart for the hellof it to see how they work.
As to wether servicing is a rip off, that just depends on how much you value having you gear looked at by some-one that is reasonably confident and competent.
For some confident and competent people, it is not worth the money as they can do the job just as well.
A good analogy for a lot of the engineers that take their own gear apart is 'would you expect bill gates to take his diving computer back to have the battery changed, if it was possible to do it himself?'
The answer to this is that he would almost definitely have the thing apart himself to look at it as he is king geek.
Jon T
Regulators for one can be very unforgiving to 'garage mechanics" tinkerings. There are many technical bulletins that are sent out to only qualified and certified repair facilities that include upgrades, recalls and other changes. One or more of these may make a huge difference in the performance of the reg, and more importantly can mean the difference between life and death.
Don't take any chances on your life, especially when the cost for life is the $30-50 a year in labor costs to maintain the gear properly.
Now having said that there is plenty a diver can do safely like replacing buckles, hoses, batteries, neoprene etc. Just don't take any chances with life support gear!
Don't take any chances on your life, especially when the cost for life is the $30-50 a year in labor costs to maintain the gear properly.
Now having said that there is plenty a diver can do safely like replacing buckles, hoses, batteries, neoprene etc. Just don't take any chances with life support gear!
nyc aquanaut
Guest
I took a little course on servicing regulators from my old Naui instructor and it payed off, maybe there might be a chance for most to get a certification on some sorta thing like that, it was available to me so...........................
Sorry I couldn't have more input!
Sorry I couldn't have more input!
There are two issues here.
First, warranty. Many pieces of Scuba gear require periodic maintenance by a certified shop to keep the warranty in force. If you don't mind voiding the warranty or the warranty has run its course this isn't an issue.
Second, competence. Maintaining Scuba gear isn't exactly rocket science, but it isn't within the grasp of the average tinkerer with no formal training either. If you want to maintain your own gear, *spend* the money to get trained to do it right the first time, then have at it. "Avoiding the ripoff" (which it isn't, by the way) by tearing into a regulator without the proper tools and overhaul parts can end up being very expensive indeed.
Rick
First, warranty. Many pieces of Scuba gear require periodic maintenance by a certified shop to keep the warranty in force. If you don't mind voiding the warranty or the warranty has run its course this isn't an issue.
Second, competence. Maintaining Scuba gear isn't exactly rocket science, but it isn't within the grasp of the average tinkerer with no formal training either. If you want to maintain your own gear, *spend* the money to get trained to do it right the first time, then have at it. "Avoiding the ripoff" (which it isn't, by the way) by tearing into a regulator without the proper tools and overhaul parts can end up being very expensive indeed.
Rick
Kevin
Registered
Rick,
Where can you get this training ? I have been told that I have to be connected to a dive shop in order to get on a training course.
Kevin
Where can you get this training ? I have been told that I have to be connected to a dive shop in order to get on a training course.
Kevin
I had my reg serviced last AUG. Wehn it was tested at home two hose were lose and my octo. free flowed. This was right out of the shop. i will continue getting them serviced I will just check them before I leave the shop. I also had 4 tanks hydroed and VIP and of the four two leaked and had to be taken back. so just be sure to test things before leaving the shop. it is a 45 minute drive for me.
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