I purchased a brand new Aqualung LX in October and went diving in Cozumel later that month. After I got back I took it to the dive shop where I bought it to have it serviced and he did a complete overhaul for $65. I have no problem with paying this amount at all if that's what it takes to keep it safe. My question for you veterans is does it sound right to have to do that much after one dive trip (3 days, 2 dives per day)? I thought a full overhaul annually and replace o-rings after each trip, still in learning mode. Thanks in advance for your help.
Question in regards to regulator overhaul.
- Thread starter kiphall
- Start date
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rescuediver009
Contributor
You should only have the reg serviced annually unless you dive maybe over 100 times. Other than that the overhaul parts are designed to last that long. Certainly longer than one trip anyways.
The warranty only requires that you have it 'looked' at annually by an authorized technician. He doesn't even have to overhaul it every year.
The warranty only requires that you have it 'looked' at annually by an authorized technician. He doesn't even have to overhaul it every year.
The Lx is like most modern regs, take a bit of care with it and it could be years before you actually had to go into it....but....having it checked out once a year is a safer thing to do...diving it regular will keep it going much better than letting it set as not making it work will lend itself to "taking a set" on the HP seat....so there you have an excuse to dive and dive often....
Yarg
Yarg
yknot
Guest
kiphall:
First, $65 sounds a little high but YMMV. Locally, it would be $15 a stage or so. Why did you take the reg in for service? After a trip into salt water for a few dives, an accumulation or salt in the threads could occur. If nothing else, taking it in for a service (inspection, not rebuild) would involve disassembly, ultrasonic cleaning, and I would throw in a rebuild kit anyway because they're free for life. What you paid for was the labor, not parts. Incidently, replacing the o-rings is a lot of what an annual service involves.
It shouldn't need an overhaul that quickly. Maybe a little adjustment but not a complete overhaul unless the first stage got water in it or some other problem.
cyklon_300
Contributor
on a new reg after 6 dives?
Unless there was some compelling reason (i.e., performance was compromised, reg was damaged, etc.) my opinion is that you threw 65 bucks away.
Unless there was some compelling reason (i.e., performance was compromised, reg was damaged, etc.) my opinion is that you threw 65 bucks away.
R
redacted
Guest
Asking to have your reg "serviced" usually means an annual service to most shops, and that appears to be what you got. $65 for labor is not unreasonable for the annual service. I'm surprised that the shop did not recognize you or discuss what you really needed and then realized that an annual service was far from being duw unless you were having a problem. You will need to be clearer about what "service" you are requesting. At most, all you should have needed them to do was "check it out": Inspect overall condition and cleanliness, leak check, IP and cracking pressure check, adjust if necessary.
Ask for a "flow check" next time. They will check the flow rate, the IP and the inhalation effort and adjust things if they are in need of a little tweaking. It will also identify any potential problems such as a leaking high pressure seat. The charge for a flow check is about $10 to $15.
This is actually a pretty good thing to have done before a yearly dive trip to ensure things are working properly. This is even preferrable to an annual service as any adjustment problems or other issues following an annual service will occur in the first few dives and/or after a few weeks on the shelf or in the dive bag after the service. So if you have the annual service done just before a trip, any problems are likely to occur early in your trip - an inconvenient time at best. It's better to do the annual service well in advance of a trip and discover any problems on a local dive or during a normal predive regulator check a month or so after the annual service.
Then, after a yearly dive trip, and presumably before at least a few months of storage, get the annual service done as it will ensure the reg is fully cleaned and any moisture or salt that may have found it's way into the reg will be eliminated rather than sit in your reg all winter and cause corrosion.
The fact that many people follow this pattern may have been part of the problem if the tech was not aware the reg was recently purchased but was aware it was just returned from a trip as in that case an annual service would be pretty normal.
Of course, ideally when bringing a reg into the shop in person for "service" the customer will be assisted in filling out a service form where it will be specified exactly what is wanted in terms of the "service" and also whether the customer likes the way the reg is set up and whether they want it tuned the same way, lighter, heavier etc. This form is then used by the tech to record the reg's performance numbers before and after the service and to show how it performs and is set up after the service. And finally, the sheet gives the tech something to staple the bag of used parts to.
If your LDS is not using a service form, they should be. To be honest, I am still trying to get the LDS I work for to do this consistently rather than just taking regs from customers and leaving them on my bench with vauge sort of general guidelines about what they want done.
This is actually a pretty good thing to have done before a yearly dive trip to ensure things are working properly. This is even preferrable to an annual service as any adjustment problems or other issues following an annual service will occur in the first few dives and/or after a few weeks on the shelf or in the dive bag after the service. So if you have the annual service done just before a trip, any problems are likely to occur early in your trip - an inconvenient time at best. It's better to do the annual service well in advance of a trip and discover any problems on a local dive or during a normal predive regulator check a month or so after the annual service.
Then, after a yearly dive trip, and presumably before at least a few months of storage, get the annual service done as it will ensure the reg is fully cleaned and any moisture or salt that may have found it's way into the reg will be eliminated rather than sit in your reg all winter and cause corrosion.
The fact that many people follow this pattern may have been part of the problem if the tech was not aware the reg was recently purchased but was aware it was just returned from a trip as in that case an annual service would be pretty normal.
Of course, ideally when bringing a reg into the shop in person for "service" the customer will be assisted in filling out a service form where it will be specified exactly what is wanted in terms of the "service" and also whether the customer likes the way the reg is set up and whether they want it tuned the same way, lighter, heavier etc. This form is then used by the tech to record the reg's performance numbers before and after the service and to show how it performs and is set up after the service. And finally, the sheet gives the tech something to staple the bag of used parts to.
If your LDS is not using a service form, they should be. To be honest, I am still trying to get the LDS I work for to do this consistently rather than just taking regs from customers and leaving them on my bench with vauge sort of general guidelines about what they want done.
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