Does this really ever happen? How often has /does a regulator actually fail?
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Which reasons would those be? Redundancy is for dealing with malfunctions and a single with two valves and regulators allows for that. Even cave courses can be done with singles. Running out of air is a different matter.
flots am
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When your burst disk blows or you got a bad air fill or the tank valve fails or the o-ring extrudes or you find that you were dumb and thought you checked the tank pressure, but didn't, you'll find that a single tank is quite different than two tanks.
Also, what anybody will "let" you do is quite often different than what is best for you.
flots.
Don't have burst disks 
But agree, it can make a difference for those who have.
A bad air fill could be the same for both tanks, or it could even be good for the main tank and be bad on the pony...
The mentioned system uses tanks with dual valves. Not sure they can both fail at the same time. I guess if there is something inside the tank that blocks the passage... But when does that or an o-ring problem happen during a dive?
Not checking tank pressure is not something I'd consider. Then we'd say that divers in twinsets are not redundant as they are using gas from both tanks...
But agree, it can make a difference for those who have.A bad air fill could be the same for both tanks, or it could even be good for the main tank and be bad on the pony...
The mentioned system uses tanks with dual valves. Not sure they can both fail at the same time. I guess if there is something inside the tank that blocks the passage... But when does that or an o-ring problem happen during a dive?
Not checking tank pressure is not something I'd consider. Then we'd say that divers in twinsets are not redundant as they are using gas from both tanks...
Redshift, I think you'll find that everyone using a compressed gas cylinder has a burst disc in it somewhere. Most of these problems occur during filling, however.
SeaRat
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flots am
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Tanks have an o-ring in the neck. They've been known to extrude and/or fail. There's another o-ring between the valve body and the regulator, and these have been known to fail in both yoke and DIN models.
Manifolded doubles are "mostly redundant" although they do rely on the diver remembering training in case of a failure. If you're slow or have restricted movement you can still lose most or all of your gas.
GrumpyOldGuy
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In the end its not a simple idea of what is more redundant or that more redundancy is better or needed or not.
Its balancing a redundancy vs complexity for your dive profile and training level.
Its balancing a redundancy vs complexity for your dive profile and training level.
I've had a reg "blow out" on me. Early 1990s, as I recall - back when young & dumb(er?) & hadn't serviced equipment in years. Was diving by myself & had bounced to ~130-150ft & *wham* it blew out.
It just free flowed horrendously. First blast of air thought something had stuck in it (again stupid/lack of exp), saw something in mouthpiece & banged on it think something suck - but turns out that was some piece inside the reg.
Then noticed my pressure guage dropping like crazy & made a hasty retreat.
Anyhow, survived that one, hit surface & shouted to buddy nearby to turn off my tank (about 150psi left) & learned valuable lesson to service my gear ( in this case - reg rebuild ) before something goes wrong...also, of course, that regs can fail & at depth.
As far as "how often" - I'd venture to say "amost never" if you keep 'em serviced.
It just free flowed horrendously. First blast of air thought something had stuck in it (again stupid/lack of exp), saw something in mouthpiece & banged on it think something suck - but turns out that was some piece inside the reg.
Then noticed my pressure guage dropping like crazy & made a hasty retreat.
Anyhow, survived that one, hit surface & shouted to buddy nearby to turn off my tank (about 150psi left) & learned valuable lesson to service my gear ( in this case - reg rebuild ) before something goes wrong...also, of course, that regs can fail & at depth.
As far as "how often" - I'd venture to say "amost never" if you keep 'em serviced.
R
redacted
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Anybody ever wonder why these kinds of things tend to occur with "scuba industry professionals"? And the way to avoid such incidents is to pay them more!!!!
Not that such an event can't happen, but.... So, what was the part that failed? What was the IP before the failure?
Funny thing bout that "scuba industry" thing...I've also found it's almost more likley for someone who (thinks?) is trained/pro to jump off the boat & start to drop with their air turned off.
Seriously though, I do think there's like a curve of danger that starts with inexperience and rises again (for a while?) with a lot of experience - basically, getting lazy/cocky/working on auto-pilot but something causes a slight miss/distraction with one step.
Re: "pay them more"
I hope my comment was misconstrued about spending money (service/service contracts/warranty or any such) - I meant to emphasize care (cleaning/testing) & maintenance (eventually any reg should be rebuilt, whether on your own[order rebuilt kit online/manu] or someone your trust). I think it would be risky to plan on diving with reg for 10-20-30yrs and never rebuilding it.
Anywho - regarding what failed.
I honestly can't say. I don't know if I even asked when I took it into the shop & sheepishly said, "yeah, maybe I should'a listened to the 2-3yr out of service notices."
I did see something inside the mouthpiece, full confession here I was also pretty narc'd ( that was the reason to bounce to 130-150 off that ledge: admit young & stupid ) but I kept thinking "something's in there" & bang'd on it for a minute, before I realized the free-frow wasn't gonna stop. It had been breathing fine on the way down & just "popped" at depth (somewhere 120-150, probably 130'ish).
Also, for what it's worth - this was really low-end/entry-level reg (my 1st set I'd bought second hand). It was effort to breathe off at depth.
Real culprit - care (& maintenance)
I got certified in late 1980s, and by that time kind'a thought I knew everything about equip/diving. Arrogantly (cocky youth) was diving beyond experience/training at the time (alone, diving air, no redudancy w/buddy sitting at surface, down to ~150ft), and had become beyond lackadaisical with care and maintenance.
I had hardly done a fresh water rinse on the old reg in a year at that point. [ Side note: I've had BCD/drysuit inflators stick, hoses blow-out, o-rings, etc... so lots of things can fail. ]
Often tossing salty/sanding gear in my gear bag, driving home & leaving it sit (smelly) until the next dive.
[ ...sheesh, now I'm feeling like a support group confessional
Moral of the tale - [ OP - "Regs fail?" ]
Answer - Yes, a reg can fail.
Frequency - I really have no idea about "real world" occurences, for me it was once in 25yrs+ (~2000'ish dives).
Avoidance - Take care of your equipment (rinse/lube/inspect/test), maintain it ( recommended service - either w/shop your trust, or better yet, learn it yourself ), and just don't do stupid things.
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