Why you should, or should not, service your own regulator

[tbone1004]

if your shop has guys in there rebuilding regs constantly then that add yourselves to the list, but most of the other shops in the industry while "authorized" as service centers, are the types that the owner or manager is certified or certain employees are, but they aren't "regulator technicians", they are shop monkeys that happen to have learned at one point to service a reg. Few shops have dedicated service techs, and that causes the issues where divers have bad experience and is a huge reason for me to be skeptical about the way this whole thing is structured in the US. I firmly maintain that for any technician to be anywhere near proficient at servicing regulators, they have to be doing it all the time. I can rip apart an Apeks first stage and do it in my sleep, but my Poseidons take me a lot longer because I don't service them that often and I have a bunch of Apeks style first stages. Unfortunately with reg service, most shops don't have enough volume to justify keeping all of the parts in stock and their technicians up to speed. Conveniently for you, Air Tech is swamped because people from all over the country send their regs there because they are one of the best regulator service centers in the country, DuSS had quite a few of the locals going through there and as you took quite a few of their customers I'm sure you're keeping at least one guy busy in there on the main brands of regs you service which is good. Most shops can barely remember how to service the few regs they keep on their rental fleets....

 

[NC Air Hog]

But I have my Frogkick manuals and each and every regulator is exactly the same. Why would I hire someone to be dedicated to service when it is soooo easy to begin with. Talking in circles sure is fun.

 

[tbone1004]

ahhh, there-in lies the main issue with paying for servicing regulators. You charge $90 to service a standard regulator set, as does AirTech and the $30/stage seems to be the standard rate. What I would like to see on your site is the list of regulators you are authorized to service, but your website is getting updated continuously and I'm sure that was low priority.

If you charge $90 just for labor, and you factor in all sorts of things for expenses, paying the guy to do it, tools, keeping the lights on, ultrasonic, etc. You are realistically in the $40/hour range for cleaning and assembly dis-assembly. Factor in profit for the shop at 30% and you've got about an hour and a half to service two seconds, and a first. Takes about 30 minutes for full break down, stripping o-rings, wiping things down prior to ultrasonic, etc. Takes about half an hour for proper assembly, and another half hour for proper tuning. Give or take, if you are the one servicing and you own the shop, you can do it a bit cheaper obviously since you are paying yourself.

Now, if the layman were to do his regular service, and if he's like me that happens when the first regulator stage has issues, that set comes apart. So my two stage regulators are a "set", my two deco regulators are a "set", and my two backgas regs are a "set". With the use they get, and the fact that I usually just service all three sets at the same time, that happens every 2-3 years, this is also assuming I don't help my buddies when they need theirs serviced and am just doing my own. That is 12 stages, $360 in labor, so call it a almost a full day in a shop. It easily takes me 1.5 days to service all 12 of them because I'm not nearly as efficient as those guys that do it all day every day.

So for a shop, you have to have a guy doing it regularly to be efficient enough to safely and properly service them knowing that you're not going to have issues with it coming back. If it comes back you're losing money because of the labor, if the shop doesn't have a guy doing it efficiently but is still doing it right, you're still losing money because it is too many hours of labor so it's impossible to make a profit, so what usually happens is they try to get the done quickly and mostly right, then the reg comes back and game over on the money you thought you made, and usually lose a customer because he shouldn't have to bring a regulator back after it was just serviced....

 

[kelemvor]

The real shame is that if somebody has not had a bad experience in a dive shop, they are probably not certified.

There's more than a little truth to that statement. The first time I ever had a regulator serviced the tech broke some plastic part in it. It was a scubapro reg at a scubapro "platinum" shop which has been in business probably as long as I've been alive. <BR><BR>That said, I'd much rather have someone else do the work for me. Combination of laziness and it's not worth all the trouble to save... maybe $50 or $100 a year. Just my opinion... everyone has their own. The only thing that bothers me about the whole process is how long it takes. Shop 1 (that broke the aforementioned part) has a 3 day turnaround most days. I don't use them anymore. Scubapro shop 2 in town has a 3-4 week turnaround. So far I've not had a problem that I can recall... and they tend to throw in free parts. Last time my regs were in they decided they didn't like my off brand 6" miflex HP hoses. They replaced the hoses with genuine miflex hoses for no charge. Shop2 really wants my business I think!

Come to think of it, shop2 has been around for a long time. My dad's wife went to high school with the owner.

 

[NC Air Hog]

I will let you in on a secret to my dive shop, as I cannot speak for the others because I do not own them. We do not service regulators to make a huge profit margin. To be honest, I do not really care if I make a huge profit on annual service because that is not my main focus. That said, you better believe that when you bring your set in, you will get it back as close to brand new as possible. I have two service techs in this shop and I am one of them. Both of us take a great deal of pride in the service we provide. I am not here to outline problems, I am here to solve them. I do not list the regulators that we are authorized to service because we are authorized in almost all of them. Beuchat, Tecline, UTD and I am sure many others are not on our list. I know that guys at Air Tech and they are just great. They have been in business for 30ish years now. Why would I try to compete with that at this stage? I would rather, and do, work alongside of them and reach for common goals. That is the true business that happens behind the scenes that you may not be aware of.

I do not know everything, and I am certainly not going to portray myself as a "Scuba Board Expert". However, if I were to service regulators solely to make money then I would bolster that part of my shop all around. My motivation comes in that I can take a dirty or malfunctioning piece of equipment and make it work again. Not only will it work, but it will keep someone alive during their dives so they can go back to their families. I could personally service 12 regs in 1.5 days as well. I do not though because I spend a little bit more time with each set. Honestly it takes me all day to service a first stage and two seconds to my standard. I guess I am just not as skilled as some others though. Maybe one day I will win that SCUBA trophy I keep hearing about.

 

[TONY CHANEY]

I will let you in on a secret to my dive shop, as I cannot speak for the others because I do not own them. We do not service regulators to make a huge profit margin. To be honest, I do not really care if I make a huge profit on annual service because that is not my main focus. That said, you better believe that when you bring your set in, you will get it back as close to brand new as possible. .

I'll take you up on your offer. Care to quote me a price and turn around time on a a first and second stage Poseidon Odin reg set?

 

[NC Air Hog]

Sure thing,

Just fill out the Service request form HERE and I will get all of that info over to you.

 

[Bigd2722]

Geez.... what in the world happened?

Just the last time for example. Service my Atomic and dove it twice before going out of country. You guessed it, broke down on the 2nd dive. Finished the week with a loaner. Took it back to the shop, was told that an oring was backwards and did I try to service my reg. Told the owner of the shop that he was the only person to ever service the reg. He laughed and said he would have to rebuild the reg and then had the gall to charge me for it. I later sold the reg and the person who bought it had it serviced and it turned out it had the wrong piston in it. By the way that shop is out of business.

 

[redacted]

Just the last time for example. Service my Atomic and dove it twice before going out of country. You guessed it, broke down on the 2nd dive. Finished the week with a loaner. Took it back to the shop, was told that an oring was backwards and did I try to service my reg. Told the owner of the shop that he was the only person to ever service the reg. He laughed and said he would have to rebuild the reg and then had the gall to charge me for it. I later sold the reg and the person who bought it had it serviced and it turned out it had the wrong piston in it. By the way that shop is out of business.

There is no "frontwards" and "backwards" with an o-ring. Did you really pay him to fix his error?

 

[NC Air Hog]

I later sold the reg and the person who bought it had it serviced and it turned out it had the wrong piston in it. By the way that shop is out of business.

How old was this Atomic?