Servicing your own regulators

Would you take a Manufacturer Approved Class on regulator servicing if offered?


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The costs for learning to do servicing correctly and competently in addition to the specialized tools and test devices with all of the associated overhead only to work on a couple of regulators every two years or so don't justify the costs and effort in the greater majority of cases (without taking into consideration people's ability to do the servicing competently). One must also consider that most divers around the world own very few regulators to make it worth their effort and time for the regulator owner to go through the process and for the mfg. to offer the required training and the hassles that go with it. It doesn't make sense to both parties, the regulator owner and the manufacturer.

Some of the companies that sell the parts and train divers to service their own equipment are doing it not because they are nice people but rather to compensate for their EXTREME lack of a real retail support network around the world, they are using the customer as a crutch to compensate for their own shortcomings. They are making a "defect" appear as a "feature" nothing more.

As for the well established manufacturers with robust dealer retail network worldwide, they have invested in their retail network over time and need to support them in every way then can. The dive business is so small and of limited human and financial resources, stakeholders need to watch their dollars and cents in this business. For a company such as AL, Mares or any other mfg., it will take a lot of effort, responsibility, support personnel and resources to start offering proper training and after-training support AROUND the whole wide world for regulator servicing should they chose to open the doors for end users to learn to be competent regulator technicians. It just doesn't make sense financially and from a liability point of view if one takes the big picture into consideration in a logical sense without the emotional noise some people put out. Just imagine the number of calls, emails, complaints, servicing problems AL will be dealing with if they open the training and support to the end users placing a very heavy financial and administrative burden in addition to astronomical liability responsibilities on the company that will be a serious detriment instead of being real gain in the long term.


Most real manufacturers require dealer technicians to attend refresher training every 3 - 4 years through mfg. sponsored training, end users will be need to do the same for a much more expense and responsibility for the mfg. These manufacturers can barely keep up with the much smaller number of dealer technicians' training and follow up as it is now, adding end users to the equation is going to be a much more daunting task and an extreme burden that will have no positive value on the bottom line of these companies. The companies that are doing it and offering training to end user now will probably find other ways of retreating from their initial stand once they get real busy with very thin qualified human resources and increased financial burden with very low and disproportionate return.

Having the president and owner of a dive equipment manufacturer running regulator repair service courses means that he and his company aren't busy enough in their business and that the company doesn't have the financial resources to hire a properly qualified person to do the job leaving the owner and president do what they should be doing for a busy company. One needs to read between the lines.
 
First of all, if you take the responsability of servicing your own regs the brand is irrelevant. Some manufacturers are against DIY servicing, but this has very little effect in practice.
In 1978 a friend of me had just started his shop, and he was admitted to the training course at Scubapro Italy (near Genoa). He asked me if I did want to come together, so we were both trained about servicing MK2, MK5, 108 and 109.
The training was just one day (these regs are very simple), we were asked to carry our own regs to be serviced (I had two MK5-109, my one and the one of my girlfriend).
After that, I did always service my regs and those of my family members.
Purchasing the original service kits is easy here in Europe.
So I do not see any reason for switching to other brands, when one chooses to service them himself.
I am still using my vintage SP regs, updating them with modern compatible parts used in more recent models. In my family we currently have five MK5, one MK10, six 109, one 129 and one 156. All the second stages were upgraded with silicon diaphragm, blue exhaust valve, and BA S-wing poppets.
Why the hell one should move away from top brands such as Scubapro (or Mares, or Poseidon), the only brands making parts available for several decades, and easily available worldwide, just for their policy of not supporting DIY servicing?
Those less-known brands who support explicitly DIY servicing unfortunately cannot provide the same worldwide network of shops and dealers, nor the guarantee to make the service parts available for decades...
 
The availability of spare part(service kits) is the deciding factor for any enthusiast.
 
What a terrible thing they are doing,
It's probably illegal in the USA. Car manufacturers tried getting away with this and were stopped. Alas, the dive industry isn't big enough for anyone to take the time to deal with this.

Motor Vehicle Owners' Right to Repair Act - Wikipedia

I have the right to repair anything I own in the way I want to repair it. That includes cars, tractors, my home, and even regulators.
If I take a HOG or deep6 class are they close enough to teach me to also do my regs?
A good class will cover how to disassemble/clean/reassemble the reg in question. A great class will give you the insight to go beyond that one reg and give you strategies to fix just about anything as well as how to diagnose any problems you might encounter. I've always encouraged students to bring their own regs to the class. The weirder, the better! :D :D :D
I can take my handguns apart for cleaning.
Regs are just as simple with very few moving parts. They are nothing but a simple feedback system. When I bought my first 1911, it was used and didn't work right. That was OK because, in my mind, a responsible gun owner understands their weapon fully. Learning how to diagnose and repair my weapon taught me all of the intricacies I needed to be safe.
The availability of spare part(service kits) is the deciding factor for any enthusiast.
Yet, for most regs, they are available. Heck, people have found them here on SB if they ask the right questions. It's one reason we have a DIY forum. Ebay is yet another source.
 
FWIW, I wish there was a way to buy diaphragms and seats in bulk. I already buy viton o-rings by the hundred from McMaster Carr. I always have spares on hand and will always travel with them.
 
All started when a LDS left a 2nd stage diaphragm out of a reg they serviced for me.
I had a similar occurrence. I left an Aqualung Micra reg I had been given with a shop to be serviced. They never gave me an estimate and charged me $199.00 when I picked it up. I was a DM for a scuba class at a Scout camp and at 55, I started to get wet breaths, which increased to the point of being unbreathable. It was back when I used a Tusa Duo air, so the students were perplexed why I was breathing out of my corrugated hose. :D During our surface interval, I pulled the front of the reg apart to ding a distorted diaphragm. I couldn't get it back on. Called the shop on Monday and the guy said he really had a hard time with it. When I asked why he didn't replace it, he told me he didn't want my bill to exceed $200. The part cost something like $12 and it was in later in the week. When I picked it up, he asked for my reg. He was a bit put off that I would be installing it myself. I never left a reg to be serviced by anyone else since. No one cares more about me than me.
 
I have thought about taking a course, but not high on my list currently. I suppose getting a certificate or free kits would be nice, but I'm not sure what other benefits I would get out of it.

Reg servicing isn't rocket science. If someone feels they need a course to figure it out, it might not be the best activity to take up.
 
I watched a couple you tube videos. Assuming they did it right the hardest part seems to be making sure you install the right oring into the right spot.

How much are apeks and aqualung service kits?
 
I have thought about taking a course, but not high on my list currently. I suppose getting a certificate or free kits would be nice, but I'm not sure what other benefits I would get out of it.

Reg servicing isn't rocket science. If someone feels they need a course to figure it out, it might not be the best activity to take up.
In reality when I did follow the course I did learn a couple of tricks which I did not know before, so it was worth the time spent (the course was free, indeed).
In particular the usage of the proper tools for removing safely the first-stage piston O-ring and how to insert the piston with the bullet-shaped tip for avoiding to damage it.
Nowadays, indeed, there are a lot of good videos on Youtube. In 1978 you could only learn through a course!
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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