What have i gone and done?

[Zung]

The manual is here. It's in German, but a schematic is a schematic. Maybe you can find some after market parts that fit.

 

[BorderCollieSam]

Thank you all for your replies, nice to hear from people offering great advice and helpful information without trying to make money out of me!!

I will wait for the regs to be delivered and will do a visual inspection and will post up some pictures if you woukdnt mind checkibg I would be grateful.

Regarding the pressure tests, I don't have a tank yet, so will have to take them alonf with me to one of the pool dives that the shop runs and see if I can connect it up, but they might not be very happy about that?

 

[ams511]

My recommendation is never mention eBay when talking to dive shops. Tell them the regulators came from your uncle, cousin, or neighbor.

 

[BorderCollieSam]

Received a response today that they have been despatched so should be hear in a few days.

I phoned the shop up today that I joined the club of a few weeks ago and was going to buy some ex club stuff from them and mentioned the regs and can they service them, he said no but they have a technician that they send themaway to, but he said the cost is £90 plus parts!! How is somebody who is passionate about wanting to dive supposed to get into this hobby if they don't have a massive disposable income, seems to be for the rich only!

I asked him if I could use it in the pool without being serviced and he said with his professional head on he would say no, but if I want to then they wouldn't stop me.....

I've read on these forums that some say they don't service their regs all the time they are working fine, and if it isn't broken they don't fix it, due to sometimes getting the regs returned and not working correctly, do you think I can ally that principle with these when they arrive?

If I attach them to a tank on a club pool dive and they hold pressure and don't free flow and I've dine the checks as mentioned above, can I apply the same principle? I've sent the seller a message to enquire when they were last serviced.

 

[TSandM]

Sam, you are the only person who can decide whether you want to service these regulators or not. Since they are old regs, and you have no information as to their use or maintenance, it is highly recommended that they be serviced. The majority of malfunctions in regulators will lead to leaks. Some of these are slow and annoying, and others are very rapid and can lead to you being underwater with no air. If you are in a pool and get a massive freeflow, well, you can surface. The deeper you are and the longer you have been there, the more you have to control your ascent, and you may not make it to the surface before the tank is empty. Whether you want to take that risk or not is something only you can decide, but nobody here (or at least, nobody wise) is going to tell you that it's a really good idea to buy unknown, old, used regulators and just go diving with them.

There are some quick things a shop can do to check regulators a bit better than you can, but your shop may either be unwilling to do this for you, as you bought them used, or may charge you for doing so (which they would be quite justified in doing).

This is one of the things that makes "really good deals" on regulators in the used market sometimes turn out to be not quite so good.

 

[ams511]

Received a response today that they have been despatched so should be hear in a few days.

I phoned the shop up today that I joined the club of a few weeks ago and was going to buy some ex club stuff from them and mentioned the regs and can they service them, he said no but they have a technician that they send themaway to, but he said the cost is £90 plus parts!! How is somebody who is passionate about wanting to dive supposed to get into this hobby if they don't have a massive disposable income, seems to be for the rich only!

Diving is an expensive hobby but no more than some other hobbies. There are some things you do not want to skimp on and maintenance is one of them.

I asked him if I could use it in the pool without being serviced and he said with his professional head on he would say no, but if I want to then they wouldn't stop me.....

I've read on these forums that some say they don't service their regs all the time they are working fine, and if it isn't broken they don't fix it, due to sometimes getting the regs returned and not working correctly, do you think I can ally that principle with these when they arrive?

If I attach them to a tank on a club pool dive and they hold pressure and don't free flow and I've dine the checks as mentioned above, can I apply the same principle? I've sent the seller a message to enquire when they were last serviced.

Sam, I have never read a post where someone says they do not service their regs. What they say is they do not service their regs based on time but monitor their condition and service when necessary. Also when people buy used they usually service the regs so they have a known starting point.

 

[Zung]

Let me do a bit of qualification:

• If your reg is a known long lasting design
• If it has been serviced by someone you trust
• If it is reasonably well maintained (nothing fancy: fresh water rince/soak, dry storage)

Then you reg can go 100 dives or more between services.

If that's not the case, I'd look into it with care. Actually, whenever I buy a used reg, I rebuild it completely out of general principle.

Of course, the cost of a service will impact your TCO. Or, take it as a good entry point to learn servicing it yourself. That requires some mechanical abilities (not a lot), there's a bit of a learning curve, some reading to do, for a total initial investment of maybe £150. And so the break even point in your case would be 2 services.

 

[BorderCollieSam]

Hi Guys, I emailed the seller today to see if they knew when they had last been serviced and received the following:-

Possibly 2 to 3 years ago as there was 20 sets from my uncles dive school. I have used a few sets in the past 2 months in a variety of dives and they have been fine. Also the other 18 units sold were all ok and no complaints. Happy Diving Tim

Also, received a reply back from Seac Sub confirming that parts are still available but they won't provide to me, will only provide to a shop, and have asked me to provide details of a close dive shop who will service them.

So, know I need to find a dive shop who will service them for me, I spoke to one the other day who services in housecharged 80 odd pound, which I'm fine with, but said they don't service Seac Sub as they have problems obtaining the parts, I might phone them again and tell them I've got the parts sorted, I wonder if they would do it now?

Also, how do you know who you can trust to service them?

 

[DevonDiver]

received a reply back from Seac Sub confirming that parts are still available but they won't provide to me, will only provide to a shop...I spoke to one the other day who services in housecharged 80 odd pound.

That's pretty standard in the UK - spares/parts are only sold to authorized dealers. Those authorized dealers have brand-trained technicians.

It's nice to have a machine to print your own money on

I used to get Apeks spares shipped from Gibraltar... no questions asked. Not sure where you could directly source SeacSub spares from... but Google is probably your friend.

Also, how do you know who you can trust to service them?

As mentioned, if an Authorized Brand Dealer, then their technicians will have qualified on a dealer provided course. That's worth as much as you care to value it.

In the UK though... service tends to be OK.... liabilities etc...

 

[BorderCollieSam]

Hi Guys, the regulators arrived today, and first impressions are really great, they look a little dusty, look like they've been laying around for a while, but there is no signs of wear, they are in much better condition than the ones i used during my PADI Open Water out in Greece, there isn't even any chew marks on the mouthpieces!

I realise you can't tell if something works just by looking at it, but from a visual inspection, can you see anything wrong with them?

What does that tag mean thats attached to the first stage? Also whats that cable tie thats been cut off at the end around the mouthpiece? The Octopus has exactly the same thing i.e., cabletie around the mouthpiece of that as well?