Can someone explain to me why a reg manufacturer would care who services their regs?
Unfortunately the low profits of dive shops results in poorly paid techs who don't really care, hence my experience with multiple shops screwing up my Apeks and Scubapro regs.
It isn't rocket science but it is important to be meticulous. People have to care to be meticulous.
If I'm wrong, please explain why/how.
That is a legitimate question -- especially in light of how widespread inept maintenance has become. The sheer number of accounts of regulators failing upon their annual overhaul, usually while on a pricey trip, are legion on SB.
Provided that he or she has some proper tools; a modicum of mechanical ability; an attention span greater than that of a budgie, they could do no worse than those supposed "techs" who have routinely sent out regulators without proper IP adjustment; or in some cases, even missing parts, such as the accounts of missing exhalation diaphragms.
Years back, during a move and without sufficient time to service my own gear (as I had for years), I had a local shop, with a decent reputation, overhaul three regulators, to the tune of several hundred dollars. All three were
way off, not even close -- including two torn diaphragms, one after the other; rampant free-flows from a FFM; and IPs off the charts. How they ever allowed that gear to leave the bench was beyond me. I eventually browbeat them into a full refund and to supply me with the necessary service kits,
gratis, so I could correct what they had done, during the course of one afternoon.
Never again.
Scubapro and Apeks are just among the last hold-outs of that model of manufacturer, who jealously guard service kits; and if you once told me, that Poseidon would, one day, eventually sell their service kits on the open market, I'd be asking you what you were smoking and not sharing. That only took the Swedes sixty years.
Independents such as
@rsingler, to their great credit, offer exhaustive courses on regulator theory, overhaul and maintenance, which far outstrip any manufacturer's courses at the local Sheraton, over stale coffee and danish.
My last physical manufacturer's refresher course, by way of comparison, had us disassemble and reassemble a few pre-loosened regulators; but there was never a requirement to tune anything in front of an instructor; or to even verify our work, at all -- only a brief demonstration of adjustment techniques on a portable bench via an overhead projector . . .
