Your opinion regarding regulator service intervals

[rsingler]

Too bad Sherwood SR2's can't get no love.
Dry sealed piston. HUGE piston shaft bore.
Elegant engineering from a company that's been around longer than Scubapro.

Ah, well. Life's inequities.
I don't disagree with you about the PITA factor of SPEC sealing, @Eric Sedletzky .
I'll be tearing my Mk10 down in a few weeks, and we'll see if it's any different from what appeared here:

DIY SPEC Boot

First, halocline was absolutely right - I looked at the wrong invoice. Tribolube 66 IS cheaper - $176/lb vs $210/lb for the Tribolube 77. Now I'll feel a little better about trying it. :) Will probably try both silicone and Trib on two Mk10s. Second, to answer couv, your description of...

scubaboard.com

And oops!!! It's been TEN years since it was serviced. Not seven.
We'll see if I left any air pockets that are now filled with salt water which has completely destroyed my beautiful Mk10.

I wish @Couv were still around to see the unveiling of our little project from all those years ago...
I miss him.

 

[lowwall]

I wish @Couv were still around to see the unveiling of our little project from all those years ago...
I miss him.

I barely knew him outside of reading his posts and I miss him. I can only imagine how his actual friends and family feel.

 

[johndiver999]

You can probably get away with longer service intervals with diaphragm regs as opposed to piston regs, especially unsealed (non spec) piston 1st stages.
It’s not that the HP seat and O-rings get worn out in pistons, it’s that they get grimy, especially in dirty salt water as in doing beach dives where sand and grit from agitated surf can get into the ambient chamber and it’s the grit that get in and sticks to the lube, then works it’s way under the piston head O-ring and the HP dynamic O-ring and can wear the metal away.
So, theoretically the soft parts in a piston design should last as long as the soft parts in a diaphragm model but the piston needs more periodic cleaning. However once you tear it down to wipe it clean and re-lube you may as well just change the parts while you’re at it. This is how and why pistons get serviced more.
For me, SPEC pistons kinda scare me, and they seem like a bigger PITA to deal with. What if the packing wasn’t done thoroughly and there are air pockets? What happens when salt water gets into one of those air pockets and sits there?
I’ve seen to much erroneous crap happen with diaphragm regs to fully trust them. The only one I truly like and trust are the AL Conshelfs because they have a captured and bullet proof HP seat.
The piston design is super simple and extremely reliable just because of it’s internal simplicity and lack of too many parts, plus the way the HP seat is captured. Regardless of the open ambient chamber, I’m still a piston fan and don’t believe an open chamber is the end of the world. A quality brand piston reg can handle a hell of lot of abuse and still be fine. If it couldn’t then Scubapro wouldn’t be at the top with their flagship MK25 and also the MK2 evo.
But yeah, for ocean diving pistons need more service, unless it’s perfectly pristine clear fresh water.

I've run a Scuba Pro MK2 (piston) as a pony bottle first stage for probably 10 years, mostly in the ocean. I don't dive in the surf or sediment laden water so it doesn't get sandblasted in turbulent shallow water, but most divers won't either. It gets soaked & rinsed well and checked once a year or so, maybe it won't ever come apart if the regulator guru is right. LOL.

 

[Nemrod]

I have one clone Mark V still in rotation purchased in 1980 and never serviced. It has a Jetstream for a primary second stage and either a SP R190 or a new DGX BCI as a second stage. IP was adjusted to 124 psi for the Jetstream a little while back and it is rock solid. And is pretty and very clean on the piston knife edge and internals. I just serviced for the first time my wife's Legend purchased in 2006. It was getting stiff and needed some TLC and it got salt water in the first stage (whistling Dixie, how could that happen, hmmm). It cleaned up nice and is ready to go to Cozumel in a couple of weeks.

Over servicing is as bad as under servicing, possibly worse if the person doing the service only has pliers, adjustable wrenches and screwdrivers and a large rock to pound it with. On condition service, leave it alone otherwise. I am of the mind that a few regulators, for example a Mark 2 (Evo), actually does not have a service interval except as required by lawyers. It could go decades if rinsed off once in a while.

Adjusting IP and replacing a second stage seat and then tuning a regulator is not a full service but it can extend the service intervals greatly if divers would or could (be trained) to do such minor simple things that do not take much more than a few open end wrenches, a screw driver or Allen wrench and a Swiss Army knife (for the toothpick to remove the seat) and a cheap IP gauge.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Well, I dived this reg just yesterday with only one second stage and an SPG in 53 degree water in a 7mm wetsuit with no BC. Yeah I’m going to die, blah blah blah, whatever…
This is a late 60’s Conshelf 11 with a 1085 second stage. Two LP ports and one 3/8” HP port with an adapter. When it was given to me the guy figured it was just going to go up on a wall in my dive cave, but I use it. I first dived it without rebuilding it, and the guy forgot the last time it was rebuilt, he thought maybe in the 70’s?
So I hooked it up and tried it on a shallow shore dive and it worked. More recently I decided to rebuild it just for fun, first time I ever tore it down. The diaphragm was so crusty I had to carve it off the land and it kinda fell apart handling it.
The rest if the innards looked Ok but the O-rings were hard and cracked and no resilience left at all. I soaked it, cleaned it up, put a kit in, and use it.
So the OP asked how long can a reg go with out servicing? This is an extreme example, but in this case 45 years, give or take.

 

[rsingler]

Funny how the Freedom Plate snuck into the "regulator" picture, isn't it?
You still making them, Eric?

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Funny how the Freedom Plate snuck into the "regulator" picture, isn't it?
You still making them, Eric?

Uh, yyyyyeah…kinda
But forget about that, look at the reg, isn’t it a thing of beauty?!
It also has provenance. It was used to help land the biggest jade boulder in history out of Jade Cove in Monterey Co.
9000 lbs.
That jade boulder resides in the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco.

 

[ElizaDoolittle]

Even though I thought I'd always rent all of my equipment (except for the mask and snorkel, which I've already got, and the computer I got some time ago), I've just got the regal present of an Apeks regulator. It's an Apeks ATX40/DS4 plus the matching octopus. And I've already bought a pressure gauge and, just in case, a hose for the BDC.

Unluckily for me, this present has been sort of a cheer-up present. I haven't been able to dive for several months owing to some health issues. And it'll be some more months until I can do it again.

Does inactivity affect the regulators more than use? Right now, as mine is brand-new and unused, I don't think it will make a huge difference, but is it the same once they've been used? When I think of regulator maintenance, I always think of disassembling it and having a look at all the mechanic parts, but do hoses need to be replaced periodically, even if there is no further maintenance?

I've heard some people claim that the best way to store regulators is putting them on a hanger (first stage up, second stage down), but others say that this puts too much stress on the hoses, and that it's better to keep the regulator in a bag, as long as the hoses aren't folded so as to create acute angles. Is it so? I've already ordered a regulator bag, because I'll need it to carry it around, and I'm hoping it will also serve as a permanent storage bag.

 

[Nemrod]

Even though I thought I'd always rent all of my equipment (except for the mask and snorkel, which I've already got, and the computer I got some time ago), I've just got the regal present of an Apeks regulator. It's an Apeks ATX40/DS4 plus the matching octopus. And I've already bought a pressure gauge and, just in case, a hose for the BDC.

Unluckily for me, this present has been sort of a cheer-up present. I haven't been able to dive for several months owing to some health issues. And it'll be some more months until I can do it again.

Does inactivity affect the regulators more than use? Right now, as mine is brand-new and unused, I don't think it will make a huge difference, but is it the same once they've been used? When I think of regulator maintenance, I always think of disassembling it and having a look at all the mechanic parts, but do hoses need to be replaced periodically, even if there is no further maintenance?

I've heard some people claim that the best way to store regulators is putting them on a hanger (first stage up, second stage down), but others say that this puts too much stress on the hoses, and that it's better to keep the regulator in a bag, as long as the hoses aren't folded so as to create acute angles. Is it so? I've already ordered a regulator bag, because I'll need it to carry it around, and I'm hoping it will also serve as a permanent storage bag.

I would be more concerned about your inactivity than the regulator, hope your condition improves rapidly. As long as it is rinsed clean and dry and stored in an indoor environment suitable for human habitation the regulator will be fine. I keep my regulators in their bags. Others may disagree on that but I have been doing it for decades and with no harm. The hoses can take a mild set, try as you say, to avoid acute angles, a loose coil is what you want.

 

[lexvil]

My opinion on service, if it ant broke don’t fix it, check the IP and don’t fool with it until it asks for it, that’s how I do my stuff.

the Zeagle F8 I bought used continues to function perfectly as does my SR2, sealing is the game for shore diving, keep the gunk out.