Silicone oil for sealed regs?

[scubaalblake]

I have two 20+ year old Aqualung SEA regulators. I service myself as I have no problem sourcing the parts from a friendly LDS and lived for 2 years on an island where if you didnt fix it yourself it didnt get fixed Consequently I have the tools to service pretty much anything.

Regs are great and are the environmentally sealed versions with the silicone oil in the top. LDS has trouble getting silicone oil as I am the only customer that uses it..... and often forgest to order it in.

In the past I have used plumbing supply silicone grease but really it's too thick which makes it really hard to get the bubbles out.

I have now found I can easily get Silicone 'gun oil' or 'fishing reel' oil. Pretty cheap and nice and thin. (12 bucks australian for 50ml)

Any reason why I *shouldnt* use this in the environmental sealed section of Aqualung regs? It's only a pressure transfer medium so as far as I know should work just fine?

Thanks
Al

 

[scubafanatic]

....sounds like you're in Australia, ...anyway, MARES sells silicone oil for their environmentally sealed regs.....I had it installed in a Mares RUBY a while back. I'm not a reg tech...but if it were me, I'd just order some from a Mares dealer and not try to guess if something else would work OK in my life support system.

Karl

 

[beanojones]

You can get a dry sealed system for SEA first stages. I have no idea if it fits 20 year old SEA first stages but it does fit 10 year Old ones.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

I'd be cautious with silicone gun and reel oil. It is all petroleum based but the additives differ. Worst case, you end up with an oil that eats or softens the diaphragm and leads to a reg failure.

 

[TRIBOLUBE71]

If you are determined to using silicone oil we can make it available to you in a low viscosity format of 100 cSt. I agree with DA Aquamaster on this one though. A PFPE oil or grease will be better as it is 100% oxygen compatible.

We dont retail, but have distribution as we are a mfg of the product.
Phil Ellis can help with pricing and delivery.
divesports.com

I'd be cautious with silicone gun and reel oil. It is all petroleum based but the additives differ. Worst case, you end up with an oil that eats or softens the diaphragm and leads to a reg failure.

 

[scubaalblake]

Hmm,
learn somethiong new every day I thought all silicone oil/grease was the same - except for the viscocity....so different types have different additives...? I guess I'll stick to SCUBA stuff - its just a bit more of a pain to get thats all.
I never really thought about it before - silicone oil/grease is Petroleum based? For some reason I thought it *wasnt* petroleum based - ie made out of silicon (the element) - confused again?

 

[kadleck]

I never really thought about it before - silicone oil/grease is Petroleum based? For some reason I thought it *wasnt* petroleum based - ie made out of silicon (the element) - confused again?

Me too! I saw that silicon oil is not appropriate for O₂ environments (like Nitrox partial pressure blending), but had no idea that was because it was petroleum based. I thought the whole point of silicon oil's existence was that is was not based on petroleum.

 

[scubaalblake]

Ok
Not wishing to get flamed but I just got a very nice explanatory reply from the gun oil company who indicate their product is

"No additives at all - just pure PDMS (polydimethyl siloxane) alias silicone. "

So bearing in mind that this is for air (not nitrox) and its going into the environmental chamber (not the reg body) why wouldnt this be fine. Surely this is just silicone? I have used plumber (tap) slicone before (on the advice of an LDS) when I couldn't find anything else.


They actually put a little lable on the same bottle calling is 'gun oil' or 'reel oil' or 'serwing machine oil' and its all the same stuff. Just depends what the customer wants to buy it for as people dont link to think their putting gun oil on their sewing machine (or vice versa).

Al.