When.. is it time to get that first stage serviced?

[Geo7]

Pretty much every piece of gear is “life support” does anyone change fin straps every year? Replace b/c valves, hoses exposure protection? Regulators are pretty simple devices, carry a bailout pony if you need but for the most part there is a huge reserve of air not to far away and any given time, drop lead and swim for it. Caught in a strong current with a broken fin strap or a blown b/c can be more life threatening than a free flow.

I completely agree. If the risk we want want to mitigate is running out of air underwater, then obviously maintaining the gear in working condition is part of it, but this aspect of risk mitigation should not be blown out of proportion. Any piece of gear has to be expected to fail at any time (because they do), and we have to remind ourselves of the procedures we have trained for to mitigate such failures. In OC recreational single tank diving, the buddy swims alongside with my completely independent reduntant air source, and I consider the last 500 PSI in his/her tank my reserve air, and monitor my buddys air supply as well as mine. So buddy awareness becomes as critical as reg servicing schedule.

It would be a mistake to neglect the procedural risk mitigation and rely on the equipment entirely, thinking that if serviced every year we can't run out of air underwater. Fatalities due to equipment failure could be intepreted as a failure to anticipate such failure and plan an escape to safety. A space suit is a completely different category of life support equipment, I imagine if that fails there is hardly any backup possible.

I am not writing this to critize a frequent servicing schedule, just as a reminder that no matter what, we have to anticipate equipment failure. I think the manufacturers are doing a good job, largely suggesting 2 years or 100 dives. That seems to be the state of the art for major manufacturers though some go higher. I would not want to buy a reg nowadays that does not meet this standard. Within that range of 2 years/100 dives, risk is extremely low, and covers a broad range eventualities, environments and (mis)users. Under better conditions, you can increase these values to more years. For a resort reg doing 400 regs over summer, it will need service every six months. But service likely induces wear and those regs might not last for 2 decades.

Also, as some of the engineers on the forum (@couv if memory serves?) pointed out in previous threads, the failure rate distribution through time follows a bathtub shape due to "infant mortality". So servicing a reg each year that only does 20 dives, will increase risk on the first few dives after service. Personally, the only reg failures I have witnessed in 30 years were a handful of ocasions after service by a shop. I don't want to bash the techs, it is just the nature of risk distribution. Does that mean it is wrong to service every year just for piece of mind? Not in my mind, but it is wise to expect failure anyway.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Unless you are doing a couple hundred dives and year and not taking very good care of your regs they don't need serviced annually. In fact many mfgs now have 2 year recommended intervals. I don't service mine until they need it. I teach divers to service their own regs and tell them the same. If it ain't broke, don't do anything that may break it.
Taking in regs for service when they don't need it risks having them screwed up. Just because the shop says to bring them in, doesn't mean you should. They might be looking out for their bottom line as a reason for it.
When my customers send me regs for service I do an evaluation and if they look good, the IP is steady and locking up where it should, and there's no leaks I don't take them apart. Especially 1st stages. 2nd stages now may require a rebuild when the 1st doesn't . That's just the seats or the way the seats are treated by the diver. If I only need to do the seconds, that's all that gets done.
I have one customer that rebuilds or asks me to rebuild their regs about every 6 months and they usually need it. But, these regs (5 sets) get used by multiple people who exercise various levels of care and they are used up to twice a day, 7 days a week, in the aquarium. So they see as much as 500 to 700 dives a year in salt and fresh water, from tropical to near freezing conditions in the polar bear tank.

 

[Centrals]

I use IP gauge to check the first stage at the beginning/end of every diving trip. As I serviced the reg myself I do know the initial setting so if the IP has drifted towards the upper range after yr or two then I know it is time to service.

Look after them properly especially after diving in salt water.