Rough Treatment of Rental Gear - what's normal?

[miketsp]

That doesn't scare me as much as some places I've been where the DMs unloading cylinders off the boats seem to vie with each other to see who can make the most noise by banging 2 cylinders (AL80) together. In one case 3 different boats were unloading simultaneously and the owners of all the shops were present.
When I commented that this really stresses the metal, I was told not to worry, the cylinders are made to take abuse. :11:

 

[Mark Vlahos]

Hello all.

The rough treatment I am speaking of is from the dive shop not the renter herself. I recently have purchased all my own equipment but my buddy still rents BC and regulator. Recently upon returning from a dive charter she was instructed to rinse her BC/reg (which she did correctly). Upon returning it to the shop the person in the shop took the gear from her and flung it halfway across the room into a pile of other rental gear! Correct me if I am wrong, being fairly new to diving I may be overprotective, but is that anyway to treat equipment that should be responsible for someones life? Or is the gear sturdier than I give it credit for?

I know with my own equipment I am very gentle. What's the real deal? My friend said she lost some respect for the shop after observing that treatment of gear. We had an otherwise good trip out with their charter. Oh, and this wasn't happening in the back room at the shop but rather right out in the main room where people are all around, and presumably the owner/manager too.

Lauren

Hi,

I have never seen any shop employee treat rental gear in the manner you have described. I have however gotten truly crappy rental gear.

When I first started diving I rented everything. I very quickly got the mask, snorkel, fins, booties, and gloves that would fit me, but I continued to rent the rest of the gear. In the first 30 or so dives I did while I was still renting I had almost everything fail at one time or another. I had at least one BC that would not hold air for more than two minutes, I discovered this one while under water. I had a primary second stage failure (EXTREMELY hard to breathe), again while under water, but fortunately for me the octo worked fine. I have had the mouthpiece come off of the second stage. And my personal favorite, right after submerging at the start of a dive the SPG came right off of the high pressure hose. This was a result of a break in the fitting right at the base of the guage, it did not come unthreaded. While none of these incidents were immediately life threatening, each one cut short a dive. Each of these involved rental gear form different shops and each time I had inspected the gear when I picked it up.

Some of the failures might have been entirely random, but I think that some might have been due to poor care by the dive shops in question. I never saw them treating the gear poorly but it is certainly possible.

My solution was to buy my own gear. I am happy that I have. There are costs associated with my choice, the largest cost being time. Since I had such bad experiences while renting I am pretty much a nut about proper care for my gear. This takes alot of time after a day of diving, I usually spend about an hour after the dive with the gear in the bathtub (large things like the BC and wetsuit), or the sink (small things like regulators and computers). Plus since I travel full time for work transporting my gear can be problematic, but the payoff is in the water. I have gear I trust and that I know has been properly cared for. I also dive with the same configuration on every dive.

Best of luck,

Mark Vlahos

 

[nauidiver2004]

Another GREAT reason I bought my regulator as soon as I realized I was committed to diving. Financially it was a bit of a pinch but I bought a huge piece of mind.

 

[wedivebc]

Another GREAT reason I bought my regulator as soon as I realized I was committed to diving. Financially it was a bit of a pinch but I bought a huge piece of mind.

HMMMMM, maybe the rental equipment abuse is a sales ploy by the dive store

 

[sauga]

you wanna see rough gear handling, watch that DIR III video...

 

[DORSETBOY]

He threw the REGULATOR TOO? You said you didn't know how gear is treated elsewhere. I can tell you that our manager would take action immediately if she saw someone throw a BC across the room. A thrown regulator would probably cause a small meltdown.

Bryan

and if it were up to me the next thin being thrown would be the staff member in question, right out of the door. It's difficult enough getting some people to respect rental gear without staff members setting such a bad example - I doubt the staff member in question would have treated her own gear so badly.

 

[mustfajohnson]

I work in a Dive Shop and I assure that if our owner or Manager saw something like this the offender would have been gone in about 1 minute. That clerk has certainly never repaired regulators or tried to fix a BC that's been handled roughly. Since I work on most of the equipment at the Shop I'd want to know what was thrown and who did it. Name the employee and what the piece of gear was to the owner. The owner needs to know how much money to set aside for the rebuild kits.

 

[Outlaw14]

I sent an email to this shop this morning and will let you all know if I find out anything.

 

[DORSETBOY]

good for you outlaw, at some time or another we have all used rental gear or will in the future, it's nice to think that we can rely on the safety of that gear as we would our own. In the worst case scenario, I'm not exagerating but the equipment involved could fail or malfunction putting someone's health and life at risk.

 

[Debraw]

:11: Man I would have a fit if this happened at my shop. I would have a bigger fit if an employee did it when I wasn't there and then I found out someone else saw it and did not tell me. You know it amazes me to hear about really bad rental gear because it is so easy to turn rental gear over after a couple of dive seasons on it. It still looks good, recently serviced and then you sell it and buy new gear to replace. Minimal cost. Minimal headache.