Tired of naysayers

[Gombessa]

Are we talking about this thread?

The Deco Stop (registration may be required).

If so, then I'm not convinced that the responses being given are just by a bunch of nattering nabobs of negativity. Be careful when dealing with pressurized gas!

 

[Van Isle]

Could be! But it extends beyond that to the gang out of the local shop. Many people seem intent on throwing money at a problem and buying their way in to a gear solution rather than understanding and fixing what ever is really wrong.

Again, I find the challenge in DIY (even the mental bench testing games we play) is in managing my own confidence or arrogance while trying to separate the wheat from the chaff in responses I get, either online or in person.

They say knowledge is power...but power corrupts. Therefore knowledge corrupts? :shocked2:

VI

 

[Gombessa]

If you're talking about your local shop, I can only glean information circumstantially from the TDS thread. And from the TDS thread, I know several of the folks who responded, and I didn't see any bad, ignorant or misleading advice. Generally, if 1) you don't know anything about SPGs and 2) a lot of people who do a lot of rigorous diving, compressor building and filling, and equipment maintenance (as a bunch of obsessive tech divers might) tell you that using a leaking one is a bad idea, the big burden is really on you to establish that you know better and they're just being "naysayers, ignorant, or unhelpful."

If you're not on TDS much, I think the best thing is to just lurk, and over time you'll figure out who really knows their stuff and who's full of hot air. Same thing on here. Opinions are a dime a dozen, but there's definitely a hierarchy of people who know their stuff in various subjects (I'd pay attention to Oxyhacker, or anyone who has built and maintained their own compressor or regularly works with compressed gas, for starters).

Good luck! DIY is a lot of fun, but you have to come in with an open mind as to what you may not know, and what some of the risks and consequences are. Working with pressurized gas is certainly one of those areas.

 

[sambolino44]

How do I deal with the naysayers while still trying to glean information? It can get pretty depressing sometimes. I've just had to "re-calibrate my filters". In other words, unless you're just going to give up, you're going to have to slog through all the uninformed, negative responses to get to the rare pearls of wisdom. I wouldn't have been able to do it without changing my attitude about what gets me down, or makes me scream. And in fact, it can be fun sometimes.

Stories? Here's one: I had noticed that all the brass 'n glass SPGs seemed to be exactly the same except for the graphics, hinting that they may all be made in the same factory, so why pay more? I asked for the "cheapest" brand. One response was, "How much is your life worth?" Hilarious. I never did get any useful information about how or where they're made, or any possible difference besides the graphics.

My response to "you don't know what you don't know" is, "that's not a good reason to stop asking". Of course it does make it hard to know what to ask, doesn't it? People fear what they don't understand, and there's always been a difference between the kind of people who want to have faith in something and the kind of people who are more skeptical, curious, and analytical.

It gets hard, though, when you ask a question, and the first real answer is on page 12, after 87 responses telling you why you shouldn't be asking the question in the first place.

 

[gcbryan]

How do I deal with the naysayers while still trying to glean information? It can get pretty depressing sometimes. I've just had to "re-calibrate my filters". In other words, unless you're just going to give up, you're going to have to slog through all the uninformed, negative responses to get to the rare pearls of wisdom. I wouldn't have been able to do it without changing my attitude about what gets me down, or makes me scream. And in fact, it can be fun sometimes.

Stories? Here's one: I had noticed that all the brass 'n glass SPGs seemed to be exactly the same except for the graphics, hinting that they may all be made in the same factory, so why pay more? I asked for the "cheapest" brand. One response was, "How much is your life worth?" Hilarious. I never did get any useful information about how or where they're made, or any possible difference besides the graphics.

My response to "you don't know what you don't know" is, "that's not a good reason to stop asking". Of course it does make it hard to know what to ask, doesn't it? People fear what they don't understand, and there's always been a difference between the kind of people who want to have faith in something and the kind of people who are more skeptical, curious, and analytical.

It gets hard, though, when you ask a question, and the first real answer is on page 12, after 87 responses telling you why you shouldn't be asking the question in the first place.

Haha...I can really identify with this one.

On SB regardless of what you ask the answer might be "you don't know what you don't know" or "it's life support equipment, how much is your life worth?" but on other boards (different subject matter) it's frequently just someone answering your question with the only answer they know how to give even though it's not the answer to your question.

Another example would be TDS where you're likely to get a long winded answer on everything someone knows (or doesn't know) on decompression delivered in a very condescending way on subject matter that you do know and still your question isn't answered. It's as if someone thinks if they talk long enough you will go "oh" and think they answered the question and just walk away.

 

[nwbrewer]

Are we talking about this thread?

The Deco Stop (registration may be required).

If so, then I'm not convinced that the responses being given are just by a bunch of nattering nabobs of negativity. Be careful when dealing with pressurized gas!

As someone who DIY's lots of things, (lights, drysuit seals, pockets, fins straps, weight pockets, even my own weights) throw that spg away before you hurt yourself. In that case those folks were trying to help you.

The water in the SPG could cause the bourdon tube to corrode, fail, and release the HP gas into the casing, which is NOT designed to take those pressures. I love to DIY, I even service my own regs, so please don't think I'm part of the "you're going to die crowd" but there are limits. In this case, toss the spg and move on.

 

[moneysavr]

In your question about service tec,and a hose replacement wow! you asked in the wrong board,,
IMO I think every diver should know his/her equipment inside and out and learn how to do service and or repairs,some folks are not up to this task=so then don't do it!
But hose replacements,swapping hoses will not kill you if done properly.
see fun link,

YouTube - Cutting a Scuba Divers Regulator Hoses

Life support equipment is your (regulator sets ) and every thing else is (IMO) baggage and with regulators your life support as you are in a environment that you cant survive with out compressed gas =AIR, ol 21%, O-2, they need to be serviced annually,inspected IMEDITLY if anything seems amiss! That said I am a firm believer if up to it ,,you should learn how to break down,inspect and clean , and service your regulators if you can,,,
Your dive equipment is mostly basic and with the many great books,
SCUBA REGULATOR MAINTENANCE AND REPAIR by Vance Harlow
DIY videos,web sites and some user friendly forums you can learn allot

but just don't ask a basic OW question if you have some dives under your belt other wise you may get beaten to a pulp by the arm chair divers core!
Dive safe,
have fun man that's what its all about!

 

[deepwater]

I think this entire life style started out as DIY. In the first days of diving there were no superstores, sporting goods, or dive shops. DIYers are the inventors of everything we have today.

 

[wedivebc]

This may be an unpopular opinion but regulators are life support yes, but they are pretty simple devices. Most work pretty much the same way. There are a few variants but for the most part if you can service one you can service many.
There is a good book by Vance Harlow on servicing regulators. Buy the book, buy a cheap second hand practice regulator play with it and become failiar with the workings. Then you can confidently service your own. Servicing others' is a different matter but as long as you take your time and are careful it will be fine and you will learn a valuable lesson about scuba gear. It's not rocket surgery.

 

[ams511]

I think a lot of the naysayers were brainwashed by their instructor when they first started diving. remember that diving is a business and the key is profitability. You will hear all sorts of BS in dive shops when they are looking to make the sale. My opinion is that the manufacturers don't want people servicing gear for 2 reasons. The first is to get people to go to the dive shop, while the second it that they really don't want you to know what is inside your reg. Lets take for example Apeks, you take a TX-20 and replace a plastic tube with a metal one then you have a TX-40, the difference between a TX-40 and 50 is the metal adjustment knob. I was bored today and looked up what the difference between a G-500 and an S-600 was. As far as I could see was that an S-600 is nothing more than a European G-500 with a new cover plate. The difference between the US and the EU G-500 is the balance chamber. Things could have changed because the reg diagrams where 10 years old but still most of the innovation is just cosmetics and hype. Don't take my word for it read the posts from DA Aquamaster and Sludge, there techs and they know.