Servicing your own regulators
- Thread starter Rick Warren
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The only upside is if you take care of your Apeks first stage it'll, as a general rule, go for years without needing a service. I had a 5 year old FSR and then only serviced it coz was selling it. I dive every week, year round. Sorry to those who are getting f.cked by Covid
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I don't like where any of this is going, regs becoming consumables...poo. "Kinda" glad I'm not 20 and just getting into diving/DIY.
napDiver
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There is another reason for DIY. I feel like diveshops rip me off and I use 3 LDSes. Quote? Usually ends up being much higher and you don't find out until you get there. Better yet, no quote for additional work. Also I've had my regs held for 3+ months while it was being serviced and they had issues getting a service kit...
Ex. Tank valve was leaking through the knob? I asked them to take a look. No quote. Ended up costing like 50 bucks and it didn't fix the issue. Now I have extra tank values from DGX for 25 bucks to just replace if I have any issues.
@rsingler I would be interested. Completely interested if its online or we aren't dealing with COVID.
Ex. Tank valve was leaking through the knob? I asked them to take a look. No quote. Ended up costing like 50 bucks and it didn't fix the issue. Now I have extra tank values from DGX for 25 bucks to just replace if I have any issues.
@rsingler I would be interested. Completely interested if its online or we aren't dealing with COVID.
60 to 4......
I imagine the thread title effectively filters out most who have little interest in self-service.
BTW, I obviously answered Yes to the original question, but I'd be just as happy to take a non-manufacturer class. I would prefer hands on if possible. There's a lot to be said about having an expert physically examine your first efforts and offering advice or simply giving you the OK.
I happily change hoses and install and swap SPGs and second stages, but somehow getting inside a reg feels to me something like say, parachute rigging. I know it's not that difficult, yet a YouTube video just doesn't feel like it's enough.
Youtube videos are not the best, I usually prefer a static web page with pictures and textual explanations. However both provide knowledge that was simply unavailable 40 years ago. So, at the time, it was MANDATORY to get some training by an expert technician, explaining tricks and procedures.
Nowadays all this information is easily available. This means that you can also do a DIY training, you do not require anymore a specific class. This is generally true for many other topics, for example learning about Nitrox or deco procedures.
Of course, you also need practice, not just theory.
For servicing regs, the best is to get an used, low cost, old style reg, employed just for becoming used to servicing it.
Once you successfully dismount, clean, reassemble with new parts and carefully tune it for a couple of times, then you can risk servicing your REAL reg...
So, albeit I answered that I would take a class (I did take it 1978 at Scubapro factory, and it was absolutely useful), probably there is no need to spend money for it nowadays, given the available audio-visual material and service manuals available online.
This may work for initial practice but won't work as training for more modern regulators with more parts and much more sophisticated guts especially for second stages. The technicians needs to be certified on specific regulator models and not given a general certificate covering everything that he was never specifically trained on. Atomic may get away with training on one specific model since all of their first and second stages are the same and use the same kit, Scubapro is very different from Atomic and so are AL/Apeks and Mares.
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