What to look for and ask when your equipment needs servicing

[cerich]

It seems there are many questions from divers on what gear to buy, where to buy, what to look for in an instructor and which agency to get certified from and the list goes on.

However one thing that isn’t often discussed is where to get service for your equipment from.


What I want to do with this article is outline for you the diver some things to look for and questions to ask when selecting who to service your dive equipment.


Ask to see the service area. Is it clean and organized?

Ask how long the service will take. Anything over a week is unacceptable. A competent technician will enjoy doing regulator work. Often a long delay means they don’t enjoy working on them, it’s hard to enjoy something you aren’t good at!

Are they a dealer for all the equipment you have to be serviced? If not and your gear is in warranty that will affect the warranty. It would also be unlikely the technician will have taken a service clinic on the brand recently or ever. They won’t have access to the latest service manual and bulletins and worse yet it also means that they will have to get the parts thru another source thus increasing cost to you.

Ask if they always use complete service kits from the manufacture. If they don’t stay away! The manufactures do not supply the specs of materials used in the service kits. Some shops just buy bulk o rings to use (and increase profit) and do a visual match up of the size. The match may be wrong or the o ring material wrong.

When you first drop off your regulator for service there are certain things a good technician will ask for. He/she will ask

• How long since last serviced?
• How has it been working, any things you’ve noticed?
• Where is your BCD? Some feel this is not needed to be looked at every year. I disagree; a common equipment malfunction is the BCD, more so than regulators. A unit that auto inflates can cause an out of control assent which can lead to injury. A BCD that does not hold air is unsafe.
• When do you need it?
• Do you dive nitrox or deco gasses with this regulator?

See what they do with the reg when you hand it to them. Is it a “coat closet” type tag that is attached? If yes then avoid them!

Ideally the shop will have a form and do some pre-service checks that will assist them in proper servicing of your gear. These checks include;

• Checking the Intermediate Pressure
• Perform a vacuum test on all second stages
• Perform a Magnehelic test to determine cracking pressure of all second stages
• Perform a baseline flow test
• Inspect and note any obvious problems. (Corrosion, bad mouthpiece, bad hose etc)

Ask if the shop has a flow bench. Many shops do not see the need, a good tech sure will and enjoy using it as well!

Ask if the shop uses a “Quick Set ™” machine. This machine will set your regulator after service and greatly decrease the chance of having to have the regulator retuned between service periods. Many inexperienced technicians will set a regulator too finely causing slight free flows after the first few dives, use of this machine will decrease that and show an understanding of how it all works.

Ask what warranty they attach to their work. If they aren’t confident enough for a one year warranty should you be confident in them?

When you get your equipment back it should look as new as possible. The shop should have a detailed list of work performed, parts used and testing results pre and post service. They should show you the old parts and throw them out after. At the time of pickup they should put the regulator back on a tank and check the IP and have you breathe from the regulator so that you are satisfied.

This is a “quick and dirty” list (and I could have worked on the grammar....)and by no means exhaustive list of recommendations.

Hope this helps next time annual service rolls around!

Best,

Chris

 

[Juls64]

Ask how long the service will take. Anything over a week is unacceptable. A competent technician will enjoy doing regulator work. Often a long delay means they don’t enjoy working on them, it’s hard to enjoy something you aren’t good at!

This is often untrue. In our area, 10 days to two weeks is the norm. Also, with smaller shops, the tech(s) may be in charge of other areas. They may be instructing, managing the shop, etc. They may not be able to service as many regs in a day as a shop which has the luxury of employing full time techs. This does not mean they enjoy the work any less or are any less qualified. Quantity doesn't necessarily equate to quality.

 

[cerich]

This is often untrue. In our area, 10 days to two weeks is the norm. Also, with smaller shops, the tech(s) may be in charge of other areas. They may be instructing, managing the shop, etc. They may not be able to service as many regs in a day as a shop which has the luxury of employing full time techs. This does not mean they enjoy the work any less or are any less qualified. Quantity doesn't necessarily equate to quality.

A good tech will service 99% of regs in 45 mins to a little over an hour. One week should give a shop that hour somewhere. It's also an indicator of how much the shop values the cust. In a small shop they may have additional duties, however it's just that, a small shop with less gear coming in for service. A larger shop will have more gear in for service and more staff accordingly.

Nothing really happens in my day until after 11am because shops aren't open by and large any earlier, go in at 10 and service.

Quantity does not equate to quality, however small quantity does equate to less experience.

I can argue the "qualified" statement all day! I teach techs and sometimes the lack of skill and knowledge is scary!

PS-you are in IL, the old base of DACOR before Mares got involved, if you get lots of Extreme Plus/Quantum/Enduro regs I can see it will take longer! Take advantage of Oceanic trade in program and get those off the street!

 

[cerich]

Does the silence mean that people agree with this post or is it just not important?

I push my shops to be better at service, I hope that it's worthwhile and that the cust. sees the value.

Best,

Chris

 

[redacted]

I'd also look for an ultrasonic cleaner.

I wouldn't mind the use of generic o-rings and even seats (or the reuse of inspected parts), agreed to in advance, as long as the charge is adjusted appropriately and the service warrenty is acceptable.

A small shop may still do an excellent job without the fancy, time saving, gadgets found on a proper flow bench. It is really dependent on the tech.

 

[cerich]

I actually gave the ultrasonic a given...should have known better!

The "gadgets" IMHO seperate the professional from the also ran. I don't take my car to a mechanic without a diagnostic computer, modern wheel balancer etc. Yes the backyard mechanic can do a good and sometimes excellent job but I prefer to know what I get and pay accordingly.

 

[BSea]

I'm not a certified tech, but I do enjoy the mechanical aspects of my dive gear, and how things work. My LDS will let a customer assist or watch their regulator being serviced. When I watch, I get to ask questions about how things work, and what to look for if I might have a problem down the road.

I disagree on the 1 week period (at least to a degree). During the spring months there is more gear being serviced that at other times of the year, and sometimes there could be a back log. That's why I always get my gear serviced in Dec or Jan.

I would never get my gear serviced at a shop that wasn't a dealer for my regulator.

I agree that they should use service kits for all the reasons stated. My LDS also returns all the parts that were replaced. I don't know if that's standard practice or not, but for a customer that knows the workings of his/her regulator, at least they know what was replaced.

 

[TimAZ]

I prefer to know what I get and pay accordingly.

What do you consider an appropriate cost for this (Great) level of service? I usually service my own gear, but that kind of treatment (if I can find it) might be worth paying for.

 

[Phreak]

Really good post Chris.

I have noticed MANY dive shops here in Puget Sound don't actually service the gear at all, but simply send it out to another dive center for the service (I only know this because I see the regs/octos/ computers and BC's come in from these other stores with the 'coat tags' on them).

And by itself thats not really an awful thing. But it does mean they *might* be telling their customers something different, and yes it typically lengthens the time that gear in 'in service'. These dive centers get a significant price break if they send in 20 regs for annual service at the same time...vs. sending in 2 or 3.

"Over a week is unacceptable" for service...nah, I disagree it comes down to how may regs are in the pipeline before yours- and how many certified techs are in the repair shop working all the incoming jobs to begin with. First In First Out is the usual protocol.

My LDS has 4 guys actually qualified to work on many different mfg's - Scubapro, Apex, Aqua Lung are the most popular.

They have a flow bench there, and it's a really clean and well lit working space. Customers can look right into their service department, and yes ask questions. I'm pretty happy with it. When I get my regs back it shows exactly what was replaced. They put all the old crusty o-rings in a little zip lock and actually staple it to the work order so I know it really happened. It's funny because now that I see these things - I rinse my gear off much better now post dive.

 

[Cacia]

I look at the repair bench. This says 90% of what I need to know. Then I smell their breath and look for signs that they don't have their act together.

I went two years without service but now I have a guy that passed the eyeball sniff test and he does a good job. Another good sign is someone who likes what they do and is still yacking about regulator engineering as you pull away in your car----that is very positive sign. Funny, the older I get, the simpler navigating life is becoming.