Octo serviced and hph leaking. Am I right to be pissed?

[VikingDives]

I took my octo into one of my three choices of LDS for service. I'd had it serviced years ago, and took a long break from diving, so erring on the side of caution (it hadn't been used, but it had been sitting for years) I took it in to have it checked out. Some 5 weeks later I got it back after a call from the equipment guy who said that everything checked out, looked good, etc. That was last week.

Today, I went out for a few training dives, and upon entering the water, my buddy immediately points to my spg and says, "That doesn't look good." The back of the spg is leaking air like a sieve.

There's no denying that this is older gear, and these things do happen, but am I right to be pissed about this? Could (should?) an SPG over-pressure valve blow out on dive one after being serviced?

FWIW, I've since discovered that I'm not the first customer of my new/former dive shop who's had the same problem in the last six months. I'm the fifth or sixth...

My assumption is that the guy who's doing the equipment service isn't doing his job, and now I'm questioning what he actually did for my money.

I was able to salvage the dives with the help of a friend, but as you all know, annual service isn't cheap, and I think we should expect that life support equipment should be generally good-to-go on dive 1 after being serviced, but there's a part of me that worries that I'm over-reacting. Am I?

 

[cerich]

the back of the spg? may not be the shops fault, the back of the SPG is not a service part.(many have a Over pressure relief valve there that will spew air if there is an internal SPG failure) The HP spool where the hose and the gauge meet is the only serviceable part. It is possible that your gauge just failed after service.

 

[cerich]

I don't however have any idea why that shop would e seeing so many post service SPG failures, they are really pretty uncommon.

Only postulation I can make is maybe he is cleaning the hose fitting of the spg with something corrosive that is getting into the gauge and eating away the tube. That is a WAG and he may be doing absolutely nothing wrong.

 

[VikingDives]

I really want to believe that it was just the blow out disc, and that it is coincidence, but otoh, if what I've heard is true (and I have good reason to believe it is) then occam's razor seems to point elsewhere, don't you think?

 

[KeithG]

maybe it failed before the service? could you actually hear anything above water?

neither you nor your buddy noticed it above water nefore the dive. it was only noticed once bubbles could be seen underwater. so the leak must have been very small (every thing looks bigger underwater!)

does a normal service include dunking the spg (console?) into water? i do not know, but i doubt it.

 

[cerich]

I really want to believe that it was just the blow out disc, and that it is coincidence, but otoh, if what I've heard is true (and I have good reason to believe it is) then occam's razor seems to point elsewhere, don't you think?

if it was leaking from the HP spool area where hose meets the gauge I would just guess that this tech doesn't service the HP spools, I know a few that don't and I've seen that pretty often...

If it is the OPV on the back of the gauge....it makes no sense that one tech/shop would have a high failure rate post service of something that isn't a service item.

do I think foul play? not really, I more lean to my earlier postulation

 

[EricTheDood]

I really want to believe that it was just the blow out disc, and that it is coincidence, but otoh, if what I've heard is true (and I have good reason to believe it is) then occam's razor seems to point elsewhere, don't you think?

What's the max pressure on your SPG?

I wonder if the shop's bench pressure is excessively high, like 4500-5000 psi. Possible if it's connected directly to their compressor tanks.

 

[gfaith]

I recently had an o-ring problem on a brand new SPG noticed while setting up my SM rig at the first of the dive. The SPG is from a real high quality company (HOG) and it was purchased in a set from another high quality seller (DRIS). Why did this happen? Probably me spinning the SPG around both when it was not pressurized and when it was. Anyway, got out my save-a-dive o-rings and changed that little devil (dang they are hard to get back on that spool.

 

[Nemrod]

The gauge has probably been leaking water internally and the mechanism has failed. As much as I am leery of scuba shop techs, this sounds like a piece of equipment looking to fail and did.

N

 

[uncfnp]

Anyway, got out my save-a-dive o-rings and changed that little devil (dang they are hard to get back on that spool.

After having spent quit some time myself changing out those tiny o-rings I resorted to just buying the spools and replacing the whole unit. Costs a little more but for me its money well spent.