Thanks for the feed back so far, love the explaination Damselfish. I am almost certian that I am going to buy it, he isn't looking for much because it is certainly an older model. Haven't looked at it yet, but the guy used to dive for the Navy. I think he would take real good care of his equipement. He did service it a year ago, but it has since been stored so I will need to do it again before I use it. If anyone can think of anything else about this reg, still leave some feed back.
Warning! If you follow my advice, you WILL kill yourself and possibly others.
If a reputable person offered to lend you his/her equipment for a dive trip, would you first take it to a dive shop and have it serviced? If someone you trust has used his/her equipment and has never had any trouble and has taken good care of it, why would anyone assume it automatically needs to be serviced if sold? Why would a used regulator that has proven itself be more suspect than a new in the box one. One might point to the sticky (Regulator Brand X Recall) at the beginning of this forum to see the folly in this assumption.
Now, if you buy a used regulator (or any piece of equipment) does that mean it should not be inspected by someone who knows what he/she is doing? No! So go to the bottom of this thread where I placed my cut and past advice. You should also do a couple of searches in the regulator forum and use the key words "inspection" and "service" to get more information.
Soon (hopefully) a post with more detail by the Usual Suspects will appear in the form of a sticky to to lighten the search load, but first our master (LuisH) must put the finishing touches on it.
Again, I warn you, if you follow my advice a fate worse than death awaits you.
Regulator inspection:
There are a few checks that everyone is capable of doing. One is the intermediate pressure check . Get a scuba regulator intermediate pressure gauge :
Intermediate Pressure Gauge Plugs Into The BCD Quick Disconnect Hose from LeisurePro.com
Find out the what the IP range should be for your regulator (most are ~ 135 +/- 10 psi .)
The intermediate pressure should remain steady after stabilizing within the acceptable range. If it tends to climb (creep) that indicates there is a problem with the first stage that must be corrected.
Another check is the cracking pressure of each second stage. Partially fill your kitchen sink and immerse the regulator with the mouth piece up. Air should begin to flow before the diaphragm gets more than a 1 1/2 of inches deep. You may have to put plastic tubing in place of the mouth piece to do this, but usually not. If you want to get fancy (there is no reason to get fancy) make a simple manometer from plastic tubing and a yard stick
* » * » Manometer
and you can check the cracking pressure with a good deal of accuracy. If you want to get REAL fancy, buy a Magnehelic gage from eBay, but again no reason to do that.
Next, a water tight check is also very easy to perform and checks the integrity of the second stage housing. Hook
the first stage up to a tank and without turning on the air (or if you have a good tight dust cap you can use that instead) draw a breath on the second stage until you hear the diaphragm retract. Do not draw too hard as it will collapse the exhaust valves and cause a leak. Does the regulator hold vacuum? If so, it is probably water tight.
These simple checks can be done by anyone. They should be done prior to any dive trip, not to mention when new out of the box or after shop service.
Check early, check often.
couv
