What is "servicing" a regulator?

[Caveeagle]

It's not really apples vs oranges unless you'd trust your life to an apple but not to an orange.

You ever notice how many auto parts stores you drive past every day? AAP, AZ, O'Reileys etc.

I've been working on my own cars since I was 16. They used to teach auto shop in most high schools. ...what's your point?

Most typical failures in a car will leave you stranded on the roadside. True, a catastrophic brake, or suspension failure could lead to a safety issue, but fortunately, those are rare.

One commonality is that most failures are from a lack of service, vs faulty service.

In the case of scuba regulators, they are far more likely to fail 'open', so even if a failure occurs, the diver should be able to survive as long as proper gas management is in place. *exceptions exist, but not worth digging into here.

I will say, that I think most divers should be much more competent in basic regulator trouble shooting and testing. I had a recent interaction with a diver who held several advanced certifications. Somehow the conversation wandered to the topic of regulators, and recommended intermediate pressure for a given 1st/2nd stage combo. It only took a couple minutes to talk him through checking IP and how to properly adjust, and identify if/when there was an unacceptable level of 'creep' and to "red tag" that reg as unsafe for diving.

I wonder how many thousands of dollars have been spent on advanced diver training for divers who cannot do this simple safety check on their gear.

There seems to persist a veil of forbidden knowledge around scuba regulators. Do I think every diver should be rebuilding regs? Heck no! But I insist that anyone competent enough to set up their own gear, should be able to test and trouble shoot something they are depending on for life support.

So, let's start there! Then anyone with the desire and motivation will probably seek out training and resources to maintain their own gear.

 

[Norwegian Cave Diver]

You help/teach someone how to adjust their first stage and your not an instructor. And we will say to taught him correctly but he/she adjusts it incorrectly and dies. Good luck.

 

[northernone]

Here's what's done:


You can learn how to do it well by yourself, from a person or from materials. I recommend #2 and #3 if you do want to.

Cameron

 

[txgoose]

You help/teach someone how to adjust their first stage and your not an instructor. And we will say to taught him correctly but he/she adjusts it incorrectly and dies. Good luck.

I am curious if there are certifying agencies that qualify a person to be a regulator service instructor. What legal protections are offered by said agency? When is the last news report of a diver having died from regulators rebuilt by the diver?

Fear is a powerful thing. Knowledge even more so.

 

[tbone1004]

@txgoose manufacturers issue their own instructor certifications, though with Deep6 and HOG you can get certified by TDI. Everything else is manufacturer authorized and usually mfg employees teaching the courses

@Norwegian Cave Diver is striking fear, nothing more. To me it's no different than rotating your own tires or doing your own brake jobs. There is no "certification" to do any of that and it can cause a helluva lot more consequence than a regulator failing.

 

[txgoose]

@txgoose manufacturers issue their own instructor certifications, though with Deep6 and HOG you can get certified by TDI. Everything else is manufacturer authorized and usually mfg employees teaching the courses

@Norwegian Cave Diver is striking fear, nothing more. To me it's no different than rotating your own tires or doing your own brake jobs. There is no "certification" to do any of that and it can cause a helluva lot more consequence than a regulator failing.

I think that we are on the same page. My point would be that sound advice is defendable regardless of the source. Negligent advice isn’t. Because sound advice has been presented in this thread, and poor advice would be called out quickly, I like asking probing questions about the feared threat of pending litigation due to advice that was not followed or applied incorrectly (in the example given).

OP, There are also a couple of good books you can find mentioned here on SB. “Regularly Savvy” by Pete Wolfinger and “Scuba Regulator Maintenance and Repair” by Vance Harlow (Airspeed Press). You didn’t ask about rebuilding your own, but if you wanted to know what your tech should be doing, these books would still probably be valid reads.

 

[KeithG]

I think that we are on the same page. My point would be that sound advice is defendable regardless of the source. Negligent advice isn’t. Because sound advice has been presented in this thread, and poor advice would be called out quickly, I like asking probing questions about the feared threat of pending litigation due to advice that was not followed or applied incorrectly (in the example given).

OP, There are also a couple of good books you can find mentioned here on SB. “Regularly Savvy” by Pete Wolfinger and “Scuba Regulator Maintenance and Repair” by Vance Harlow (Airspeed Press). You didn’t ask about rebuilding your own, but if you wanted to know what your tech should be doing, these books would still probably be valid reads.

Agreed. And as I indicated above, you do not have to go whole hog at the start. It is not an all or nothing proposition.

Start with learning how to inspect your regs and do minor cleaning. I believe the majority of divers are capable of doing this correctly and safely.

If you want more, Then learn some theory about how they work. Then if you decide to progress you can learn how to service your own regs.

 

[KeithG]

@Norwegian Cave Diver is striking fear, nothing more. To me it's no different than rotating your own tires or doing your own brake jobs. There is no "certification" to do any of that and it can cause a helluva lot more consequence than a regulator failing.

Agreed. in my experience many "certified reg techs" are incompetent and should not be allowed to touch your reg.

I learned this by taking my regs to a different dive shop - one that was not certified to service my reg. The unqualified tech quickly identified that my first stage was faulty since it "did not leak" and that I would have to go back to my prior dive shop to get it repaired since it needed parts they could not get. So I took my reg back to the first shop, told them "my reg has stopped leakng" and the certified reg tech laughed at me and called me an idiot for thinking regs should leak.

I went away feeling confused and stupid. But I started to research about my reg. Turns out it IS supposed to leak. So I took it to a different certified shop, told them the issue, told them the part that needed replacing and left it with them. They also screwed up the repair since it did not leak when I got it back. Sigh...

I now do my own service work and all of my first stages leak just fine, thank you.

 

[Bob DBF]

I now do my own service work and all of my first stages leak just fine, thank you.

Those Sherwood's sure confound a lot of people.


Bob

 

[sh1513]

service is a complete disassembly, cleaning, and reassembly of the regulator. Rather involved process but is what it is.
there is no middle ground in servicing. You pretty much fully disassembly/clean/reassemble, or leave it alone. It's more like an engine rebuild vs. a tire change.

To reduce the frequency, you basically have to keep it really clean.

With all due respect, you missed out a word between cleaning and reassembly...inspection.

May seem obvious but you should always check for damage/wear and tear/corrosion when servicing regs.