homo maris
Contributor
I am interviewing service shops. I would appreciate you help in improving my list of questions. Thanks, JL
I am interviewing dive shops to assess their capability and competency to have my regulators (Apeks ATX100, Apeks ATX50 Octopus, Dive Rite depth gauge) serviced under lifetime warranty from Aqua Lung. Please fill in the following questionnaire:
Do you service the Apeks ATX100 regulator, Apeks ATX50 Octopus, and Dive Rite depth gauge?
Are you familiar with servicing a 7ft long hose setup?
I
f so, approximately how many long hose setup with the above regulators do you service annually?
Are you familiar with an upside-down first stage configuration?
How many Apeks service returns from customers do you have per year?
When was the last training your technician received from Apeks?
Do you use complete kits from Apeks?
How much does the service cost?
What is the turn around?
Can you accept transactions with mail order, telephone or the Internet or must I go to your store?
Will you provide a detailed list of the work performed, parts used and testing results (see below)?
Do you offer a one year warranty on your work?
Will you do all the work yourself or ship my regulator to another repair shop?
EQUIPMENT
Do you use a heated ultrasonic cleaner?
How often do you change the cleaning solution?
Do you have a flow bench with chatter-free flow testing?
TEST AND REPORTS
Will you test the regulators at depth of 7 ATA?
Will you certify the cracking effort using a Magnehelic gauge and give the precision of the measurement?
Will you certify the intermediate pressure measured ±1% of the full swing (±3psi)?
Will you give a graph that measure the amount of demand effort required to generate any specific flow rate up to 90liters per minute?
Will you check and measure the IP recovery?
Will you dynamically measure and report the Venturi Performance, including identifying at what flow level venture crossover occurs?
Will you dynamically measure and report any decrease/increase in intermediate pressure while the regulator is under flow conditions?
Will you evaluate the flow performance of the first stage depending on supply pressure and certify the ability of the first stage to deliver air flow volume over the entire tank pressure spectrum (50psi to 5000psi)?
Will you measure and report the dynamic intermediate pressure (i.e. IP during flow)?
If so, can you produce a graph at flows up to 90 liters per minute?
Will you check, measure and report the flow restriction characteristics of the long low pressure hose? This test is usually done by first checking a standard length hose and then comparing those results with the data produced by flowing the extra long hose.
Will you measure and report the flow through disconnect couplers and Schrader valve connectors?
Will you measure and report the flow characteristics of "preferred ports" and compare with the flow through standard ports to evaluate the difference between the output levels?
Will you perform a vacuum test for an hour on all second stages?
Will you inspect the hoses for cuts, holes or splits, particularly on the ends?
Will you report all obvious problems?
I am interviewing dive shops to assess their capability and competency to have my regulators (Apeks ATX100, Apeks ATX50 Octopus, Dive Rite depth gauge) serviced under lifetime warranty from Aqua Lung. Please fill in the following questionnaire:
Do you service the Apeks ATX100 regulator, Apeks ATX50 Octopus, and Dive Rite depth gauge?
Are you familiar with servicing a 7ft long hose setup?
I
f so, approximately how many long hose setup with the above regulators do you service annually?
Are you familiar with an upside-down first stage configuration?
How many Apeks service returns from customers do you have per year?
When was the last training your technician received from Apeks?
Do you use complete kits from Apeks?
How much does the service cost?
What is the turn around?
Can you accept transactions with mail order, telephone or the Internet or must I go to your store?
Will you provide a detailed list of the work performed, parts used and testing results (see below)?
Do you offer a one year warranty on your work?
Will you do all the work yourself or ship my regulator to another repair shop?
EQUIPMENT
Do you use a heated ultrasonic cleaner?
How often do you change the cleaning solution?
Do you have a flow bench with chatter-free flow testing?
TEST AND REPORTS
Will you test the regulators at depth of 7 ATA?
Will you certify the cracking effort using a Magnehelic gauge and give the precision of the measurement?
Will you certify the intermediate pressure measured ±1% of the full swing (±3psi)?
Will you give a graph that measure the amount of demand effort required to generate any specific flow rate up to 90liters per minute?
Will you check and measure the IP recovery?
Will you dynamically measure and report the Venturi Performance, including identifying at what flow level venture crossover occurs?
Will you dynamically measure and report any decrease/increase in intermediate pressure while the regulator is under flow conditions?
Will you evaluate the flow performance of the first stage depending on supply pressure and certify the ability of the first stage to deliver air flow volume over the entire tank pressure spectrum (50psi to 5000psi)?
Will you measure and report the dynamic intermediate pressure (i.e. IP during flow)?
If so, can you produce a graph at flows up to 90 liters per minute?
Will you check, measure and report the flow restriction characteristics of the long low pressure hose? This test is usually done by first checking a standard length hose and then comparing those results with the data produced by flowing the extra long hose.
Will you measure and report the flow through disconnect couplers and Schrader valve connectors?
Will you measure and report the flow characteristics of "preferred ports" and compare with the flow through standard ports to evaluate the difference between the output levels?
Will you perform a vacuum test for an hour on all second stages?
Will you inspect the hoses for cuts, holes or splits, particularly on the ends?
Will you report all obvious problems?
Seriously there will be a very small decrese in performance but nothing a diver will notice and if you want the long hose you need to live with it. For instance on my backgas I have my long hose on a side port, not the end port on my PX3, the performance on the end port is higher (Bob Hollis and I were talking abouth this two days ago...) but I like the routing more the way I have it. )
