Servicing your own regulator.

[herman]

Anybody know where I can get Mares rebuild kits? I've taken the class and want to rebuild my reg sets. Problem is, the lds (with whom I took the class) will not sell rebuild kits to me since I am not "factory trained".

FYI, here is a AL kit on ebay that has all the parts you need for a MR-12 and most of the parts will also work in other Mares, all the major ones are there - based on a quick lookover of the Mares parts manual.
AquaLung Titan & Conshelf Service Kit, PN 9000-01, NEW - eBay (item 220750813435 end time Mar-10-11 04:20:32 PST)

 

[Randy g]

Herman will the MR12 kit work on a V42? I also use metal Proton 2nds, where can I source parts for it?

 

[Afishianado]

The V42 uses a conical sintered filter where the MR12 uses a disc type, there is also one Oring missing from the MR12 kit that you would need for the V42 and it looks to be an oddball ( maybe a Quad ring) I haven't looked at it in person to know for sure which one it is. so the short answer is no. Neither of these kits has the diaphragm or the HP poppet/seat and the seats are not the same anyway.

Download the mares manual and it will tell you which parts are in wich kits

 

[herman]

While the Mares use the "trimetal" HP seats, the AL ones will work fine. I did not look at all of the Mares but the 2 or 3 I did look at (MR-12 for sure) use the same HP seat and odds are they all do, just like USD/AL diaphram regs do. Orings are rarely an issue, almost no one uses custom ones (other than SP use to use special color ones- only the color was special) The filters can be gotten from Trident or a SEA kit will work, it uses the same internal but a cone shaped filter. Which oring are you looking at? (part #).
Off hand I do not know about the Proton seats but odds are they are also a standard sold by Trident.

 

[herman]

Got a chance to look at the Mares book again, figures the 42 is the only one with an oddball HP seat so you are out of luck on that one. The proton uses the same seat as every other Mares reg I could find so odds are it's common one used in most other regs, def a Trident part or you can make your own.

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

Got a chance to look at the Mares book again, figures the 42 is the only one with an oddball HP seat so you are out of luck on that one. The proton uses the same seat as every other Mares reg I could find so odds are it's common one used in most other regs, def a Trident part or you can make your own.

Herman is (as usual) correct. I did some measurements for the Mares 2nd stage puck-style soft seats (for Proton, Rebel, Abyss and Voltrex 2nds that I have) and they are indeed a common "standard" size:

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/re...55326-rfc-second-stage-seats-substitutes.html

So the Mares 2nd stages should be no problem for routine servicing (using "generic" o-rings and seats).

Best wishes.

 

[Dave in PA]

I scanned the responses pretty thoroughly and figured I'd throw my 2 bits in: I moved to florida a couple of years ago from Pa. I actually had a customer of the shop I used to teach out of up north ask if I would service his regs if he mailed them to me. I performed 90+% of the equipment service on the nights I didn't teach a class for maybe 3 years. He had the shop owner service his regs and wasn't happy with the results. I would tune them for cold water when asked by certain customers. This guy now owns a charter boat. Now, I service my own gear, 5 reg sets and 7 tanks. I even built a tank roller so i could clean them for O2 service and in a year or two I will be buying a small gasoline powered compressor and maybe a year after that, a boat of my own.

 

[smorneau]

Case in point: I am new to diving and purchased a used Sherwood Blizzard from the 80's in great shape. Since it was used and sitting around awhile I decided I should have it serviced by a LDS. I knew this was going to cost around $75 to $100. When I got it back I was right $100. OK, I thought it was money well spent on my "life support equipment" even though it was a much as I paid for the Reg 1st & 2nd stage.

Being excited to have my newly rebuilt reg I got home that night and put it on a tank and to try it out. To my surprise the purge did not work at all. Being pretty mechanically inclined I decided to take of the cover to the front of the 2nd stage to see if I could figure out what was going wrong. I was quite taken back when I opened it up to find the purge lever was not adjusted at all and the little wheel on the end on the lever had a little corrosion on it and would not turn.

It took me all of three minutes to clean and fix this. I was pretty PO at the shop and will not ever shop there again let alone let them service my gear. This is simple stuff compared most things that I have tinkered with. I have since picked up the manual for this reg and will be servicing it myself in the future. I know I will do quality work with quality parts if I am doing it myself. By letting someone else do the work I can not be sure it is done right. If something happens on a dive trip with the reg I will now be able to handle the problem myself with some degree of confidence and have learned a lot about my regs and how they really work.

It's too bad because here in Maine there are only a small handful of Dive shops. Now there is one less to do business with.

 

[Bobbear]

I know this thread is 3 months old, but I still want to throw my two pennies in.

The equipment specialist course offered by training agencies are worthless is you want to O/H your own regulators. The course doesn't "authorize" you to do anything, nor does it allow you to order parts.

Get and read the two books previously mentioned.

Get to know the local LDS pretty well (if they are an authorized dealer for your regs). Ask them to sponsor you for a manufacturers course. Pay for the course yourself and offer to do O/H's for them. They will probably gladly order the O/H kits for you.

Aqualung is the easiest. They offer online courses that take about 45 minutes to complete. The downside is that each reg has it's own course and each course is $40.

I am not sure, at this time, whether Scubapro is offering training at DEMA.

Zeagle conducts training in Zephyrhills, FL and only starts a class when 8 or more have signed up.

I am not sure of any others (those three are the only ones we sell and service).

Bob

 

[LKJ]

I have found this thread quite helpful and even though it's a little old, I have something to contribute.

Here's a good reason to service your own regulator.

2 years ago, I brought my old Conshelf Supreme to the only authorized Aqualung dealer in town to have it overhauled. They said that they wouldn't do it due to its age, but offered to take it as a trade-in for a new reg. I told them that Aqualung was still manufacturing a commercial/military version of this reg, but it fell on deaf ears. After complaining to Aqualung, I took my Conshelf to another local dive shop for the overhaul. About $230 and a week later, I got my regulator back. When I looked at it, the secondary 1st stage diaphragm (environment seal) looked a little different to me. I didn't think much of it, after all, I just had id professionally serviced. Later, I found the service manual on line and after reading it, I felt quite confident about doing the next overhaul myself. After recently completing my overhaul of this reg, I looked at that secondary diaphragm and noticed that it looked like it used to before the previous rebuild (a puckered look when not under pressure). After sitting for a week, the secondary diaphragm lost its pucker and there was air in the spring retainer where there should only be silicone oil. The secondary diaphragm is in very good condition an there was no evidence of silicone oil on the outside. The primary diaphragm is brand new. So it looks like the local dive shop that did the previous rebuild, probably used a pick to remove the primary diaphragm and damaged the seating surface. Man I’m ticked off!!

Aqualung (and other) service manuals are very detailed and if you follow them precisely, you should not have any problems rebuilding a reg. After this experience, I am confident that I'll do a better job servicing my own reg, rather than having a dive shop do it.

---------- Post added August 10th, 2013 at 05:29 AM ----------

I have to correct a couple of things that I said in my previous post. I just removed the secondary diaphragm on my regulator, checked for leaks and there are none. So what I said about the damaged diaphragm seating surface is not true. Perhaps the fairly flexible secondary diaphragm stretches back into shape after sitting for a while and nothing is wrong. I'm still learning. I have 2 versions (2007 & 2009) of the Conshelf service manual and the photos of the non pressurized secondary diaphragm are different in each manual. Mine starts out looking like the photo in the 1st manual and after a week, ends up looking more like the photo in the 2nd revision of the manual. I suppose that a professional might have a better idea as to how it should look.

Anyway, servicing it myself was better than having one shop refusing to service it and another charging $230.

Another interesting thing is that when I disassembled it, the spring retainer sure didn't feel like it was torqued to the specified 25 ft/lbs.