davidbaraff
Contributor
I brought my regulator (XS-Scuba Trimetal) to my shop for its annual check, prior to going on a dive trip to hawaii. They called me and said it passed, the technician said its safe to dive with (or he wouldn't be returning it).
But they cautioned me that the second stage is at the "high end" of its pressure, measureing 148 PSI. (The highest acceptable range being 150.) I'm not sure what the lowest range is. They're saying I should have it overhauled after my hawaii trip. (Due to timing constraints, I brought it to a place that doesn't service XS-Scuba, and they were very upfront about telling me if it had a problem, they wouldn't service it for me since they can't get the parts. I told them that's fine, I want to know if its safe --- if not, I'll use something else in hawaii). So I'm not questioning at all what the LDS is doing, just trying to get a translation into English of what's going on here...
Can someone explain what it is they're trying to tell me? The first stage is supposed to reduce things down to 150 PSI above ambient, so why is measuring 148 at the second stage at the high end?
Also, the shop said that when you do an overhaul of a regulator (they called it a rebuild) you should expect to pay around $100. (I assume that's mostly labor -- seems like the parts are around $25?). Seems like i could buy a brand new second stage (not first stage) every two years and always have a new regulator and never have it overhauled? (The way i dive, i think an overhaul of once every two years would be plenty, with a bench check of once a year.)
Anyway, just trying to understand what's going on here... Thanks for any advice.
But they cautioned me that the second stage is at the "high end" of its pressure, measureing 148 PSI. (The highest acceptable range being 150.) I'm not sure what the lowest range is. They're saying I should have it overhauled after my hawaii trip. (Due to timing constraints, I brought it to a place that doesn't service XS-Scuba, and they were very upfront about telling me if it had a problem, they wouldn't service it for me since they can't get the parts. I told them that's fine, I want to know if its safe --- if not, I'll use something else in hawaii). So I'm not questioning at all what the LDS is doing, just trying to get a translation into English of what's going on here...
Can someone explain what it is they're trying to tell me? The first stage is supposed to reduce things down to 150 PSI above ambient, so why is measuring 148 at the second stage at the high end?
Also, the shop said that when you do an overhaul of a regulator (they called it a rebuild) you should expect to pay around $100. (I assume that's mostly labor -- seems like the parts are around $25?). Seems like i could buy a brand new second stage (not first stage) every two years and always have a new regulator and never have it overhauled? (The way i dive, i think an overhaul of once every two years would be plenty, with a bench check of once a year.)
Anyway, just trying to understand what's going on here... Thanks for any advice.