O-Ring Missing from hose??? Just bought it from LP

[rcasey]

Novice here and had a situation arise on my last dive. Going into the second dive of the day, my wife assembles everything, turns the air on to check pressure and notices a leak between the hose fitting and the second stage on the Octo. I also notice that the fitting was loose. Third dive total by the way on this piece of equip purchased and assembled by LP.

I took it to the shop on site (spring dive), and he took it apart and the O-ring was cut and nicked. He replaced it and off we went and everything was fine.

I get home and noticed that my hose was loose between the same fitting and 2nd stage on MY Octo (same set-up as wife's). Yes assembled and purchased at LP. I unwind the Octo and look in the fitting. No O-Ring?

I am concerned about our equipment/safety. I purchased everything (BC, computer, Reg, etc.) from LP times 2 for my wife.

I do not want a LP vs. LDS debate, that has been played.

Question 1. Is there supposed to be an O-Ring at that end of the hose? I assume so.

Question 2. Should I have my equipment serviced by an LDS. Maybe give LP a call and ask what the deal is.

What suggestions do you have.

Thanks,
Ryan

 

[LUBOLD8431]

Well, Yeah there is supposed to be an o-ring there!!!!

I would suggest that you get your gear checked out by a service technician at your LDS...

And, as a side note... thats what you get for buying gear at LP!!!

 

[gmbaker]

no bias here hugh

If you are not comfortable checking the hoses yourself, then I would agree with LUBOLD8431 and go get it checked out.

I am glad the situation was indentified before a serious problem arose.

As a side note, If you take it to your LDS, even the price to check the regs will still be cheaper that what you would have paid.

LUBOLD8431 once bubbled...
And, as a side note... thats what you get for buying gear at LP!!!

 

[LUBOLD8431]

I'm sorry but, that was too easy... he left himself wide open for that!!!

 

[redacted]

Were these Scubapro R190 octos by any chance? A friend of mine just bought 2 kits of Mk2/R190/R190 octo (also from LP) which I assembled for them. On both set, the hose connection at the octo was loose and could be undone by hand. While a good LDS or anyone else assembling such equipment should catch and correct that problem, the source of the deficiency should be attributed to the factory assembly by Scubapro. When I found the first one, I though it had slipped thru the quality control check at the factory. When I found the second one I had more cynical thoughts. Like could this be another attempt by SP to undermine unauthorized internet sales. The thought is scary but, unfortunately, fits with the engineering of those connections to require special tool in an attempt to prevent owners from doing minor maintenance. But the cure is simple if you use a soft-jawed pliers. Diver should be able to check their equipment and make minor corrections without a trip to your "dive professional". Put it in the same league as checking your car's oil and adding a qt. when necessary. This should be part of BOW but then that might decrease the dependency of new divers on their LDS.

 

[Genesis]

that SP would pull something like this.

Frankly, this is stuff that every diver ought to be able to handle. Hoses and O-rings on them are not difficult to deal with, and there is no reason whatsoever to pay some monkey at a dive shop to take care of things like this.

 

[MikeFerrara]

As much as I dislike Scubapro I don't think they are booby traping equipment to make divers reliant on techs.

As far as the need for special tool lots of manufacturers do that. I have seen it most often in the automotive industry.

Regardless of ones opinion of online sales or LP traditionally the seller of scuba equipment has been responsible for setting up the equipment and testing it. With more and more merchants who have no diving/servicing qualifications selling dive equipment as any other commodity divers must take more of a hands on approach. Right or wrong according to current industry practice LP not being an authorized SP dealer or service center should not service SP equipment.

 

[runvus4]

For pre-assembled gear, there is no excuse for you to be missing an o-ring entirely on one regulator setup and get a cut/nicked o-ring on another. I don't know what kind of satisfaction you can get from Leisure Pro, but I would hope that it would at least be a free equipmeint breakdown/checkup, but that will require you sending your regs back to them, if you still trust them enough.

Buying parts piecemeal, while not common, it isn't uncommon either to be missing o-rings.

Anyway, regulator assembly isn't rocket science. I would reccomend that you at some point assemble a travel tool kit, spare parts - including o-rings and spare batteries for any gear that needs batteries. Also learn the basic gear assembly/breakdown so that you can "field" service your gear yourselves on dives, should a dive shop not be near by the next time you have an equipment failure. Until you are confident in your field repair skills, always bring any field repaired gear into the shop after the dive for a checkup by a pro before the next dive trip.

I would recomend buying a "beater" regulator on the cheap and using it as a sacrifice test subject for you to break down and re-assemble a few tiems to get comfortable with the parts and assembly. It doesn't have to be the same model as your regulator, but it should be a similar design (piston vs balanced, etc). The closer to the actual model you have the better.

As for the computer/bc that you bought from LP, since there is no user or dive shop assembly required, they are probably stock and as safe as the next computer/bc off of the assembly line, though you may want to carry a spare battery for the computer in your dive kit.

 

[My-way]

I have to agree with Genesis about this.

Just check you gear, if it feels odd or not right then check it again.

Regs and BCDs are not rocket science.

Know you gear and you will be fine.

 

[rcasey]

Thanks for the replies, especially the latter. I spoke with LP and shared my concern via a detailed email. I received a phone call about 1 hr. later and suggested that I ship back my 2 regulator set-ups and have their service department go through it.

I don't feel comfortable with that so I am going to have a LDS go through everything. They charge I think $100 per set (reg, computer, bc). So that will cost me $200.

I saved a ton of money by going through LP on these high priced items. So, even after I have the LDS service everything for $200 I am still up.

The reg set up is...

Mares Abyss, MR-22, Atmos Octo, Suunto Cobra

LUBOLD8431 - you mentioned "thats what you get for buying gear at LP". You are right, my last 4 dives in Florida were paid for with the savings from LP. And I have a little left over for a couple of more.

Thanks again,
Ryan