Why don't most brands sell service parts?

[MrVegas]

These threads are always interesting to me. When I first looked into it, I realized that I probably could service my own regulators, but when I thought about the time and tools it would take to do it right, I really didn't mind the idea of the service charge. (Not sure if the service kits are overpriced for what they are or not, but, again, it's probably more about paying for someone's time to assemble the right stuff in one package.)

What I find utterly bizarre is the inability to have a schematic and a list of parts for most regulators. It really discourages people from even doing basic adjustments or having an amateur interest in how their stuff works. Most things can be found online eventually I suppose, but still . . .

 

[admikar]

For the record, I blame USA justice system. You people like to sue like nowhere else in the world. Unfortunately, most of your trends tend to spill over to the rest of the world.
Even though most reg manufacturers are outside of USA, they just don't want the hassle of having to deal with sue-happy people.

 

[Etmutt]

For the record, I blame USA justice system. You people like to sue like nowhere else in the world. Unfortunately, most of your trends tend to spill over to the rest of the world.
Even though most reg manufacturers are outside of USA, they just don't want the hassle of having to deal with sue-happy people.

I thought as well that it might be something like this but I haven't been able to find a single law suit where the manufacturer was charged on a reg that wasn't working and maintained...

Also dgx is a us brand and do provide the spare part (although they might less of a target as they're smaller?)

I'm not a lawyer, neither leaving in the us, so I might have missed something though

 

[tridacna]

For the record, I blame USA justice system. You people like to sue like nowhere else in the world. Unfortunately, most of your trends tend to spill over to the rest of the world.
Even though most reg manufacturers are outside of USA, they just don't want the hassle of having to deal with sue-happy people.

Total nonsense. This is done purely as a protectionist measure. Authorised dive stores get a “monopoly” on servicing those regulators. No one is suing Deep 6 or any of the other manufacturers that sell service kits.

People resell those kits constantly on Fleabay. Go look. Ocassionally a dive shop will bitch about it to the manufacturer and they will kick up a fake fuss but generally do nothing.

It irks me no end that Europeans complain bitterly and smugly about the “awful” litigative nature of the US all the while deriving benefits of safer products.

 

[Cthippo]

Hmmm, just got off the phone with the LDS that has my regs and the manufacturer has sent them the wrong kits.

Twice.

Appearently SEAC has four different regs, each requiring different parts, all called the Syncro and can't figure out based on the serial number which one is needed to service my gear.

 

[admikar]

Total nonsense. This is done purely as a protectionist measure. Authorised dive stores get a “monopoly” on servicing those regulators. No one is suing Deep 6 or any of the other manufacturers that sell service kits.

People resell those kits constantly on Fleabay. Go look. Ocassionally a dive shop will bitch about it to the manufacturer and they will kick up a fake fuss but generally do nothing.

It irks me no end that Europeans complain bitterly and smugly about the “awful” litigative nature of the US all the while deriving benefits of safer products.

I thought you knew how GA industry was almost killed in the USA by litigation and introduction of GARA?
Yes, it is different now, but model was established long ago and now it will take considerable effort to dismantle.

 

[lexvil]

There is no liability in selling service parts and despite common “knowledge” suits have nothing to do with this in the scuba industry, it’s just an old outmoded protectionest business practice.

people repair and service the brakes on their cars everyday, if your ford crashes into a bunch of people because of brake issues ford isn’t going to suffer suits for someone else’s work, the dealer may if the repairs were done there but the auto parts store won’t if you did the work yourself.

overall regulator manufacturers will have less liability if they stepped away from this model provided they don’t sell defective parts.

 

[Bigbella]

These threads are always interesting to me. When I first looked into it, I realized that I probably could service my own regulators, but when I thought about the time and tools it would take to do it right, I really didn't mind the idea of the service charge. (Not sure if the service kits are overpriced for what they are or not, but, again, it's probably more about paying for someone's time to assemble the right stuff in one package.)

What I find utterly bizarre is the inability to have a schematic and a list of parts for most regulators. It really discourages people from even doing basic adjustments or having an amateur interest in how their stuff works. Most things can be found online eventually I suppose, but still . . .

The parts are, indeed overpriced, for what they are -- a few o-rings; a flat diaphragm for most; a sintered filter; maybe a washer or two; that and a tiny nylon HP seat.

Dirt simple.

Your inability to find thorough schematics was, what I believe, a conscious dumbing down of consumer manuals, beginning in the early 1980s, perhaps out of some fear of litigation. Who knows? Prior to that, many manufacturers provided exhaustive documentation, which also included instructions for the partial disassembly and swapping out of regulator bodies for full face mask uses; even some simple tuning, etc. That topic, in part, was covered on another thread:

Basic gear from mid-twentieth-century Sweden

Here is a slightly more "recent" ad -- Sweden, by way of Germany -- well in excess of three decades ago (considering the regulators shown) -- and probably among the earliest example, I had seen, of the true dumbing-down of both product advertisements and that of user manuals. Nowadays, it's not...

scubaboard.com

The owner's manual pages below date from the mid-1970s and identify every conceivable part for the Cyklon 300, along with their relevant catalogue numbers and a thorough explanation of function. Just a few years later, along with the newer model, the 5000, those consumer manuals became the barest of bare bones, with very little useful information.

Back then -- to counter that ugly trend -- we typically just copied a few relevant pages of the service manuals, for those customers who had some further curiosity . . .

 

[Etmutt]

Fleabay

Fleabay? What is that?

 

[tridacna]

Fleabay? What is that?

Perjorative term to describe Ebay.