Stoo
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I had an interesting experience recently and thought I would pass it along in the hopes that it might save someone some "excitement"... I'll apologize for my long-windedness!
My primary regs are Apeks DS4s and XTX 50s. I have been using them for three or four years and found them to be bombproof and very good in our icy water in Tobermory.
I was in Belize a few weeks ago, and when I got back, I did a little shore dive in front of my house. I noticed that one of my second stages was "farting" now and again... Not freeflowing, but frequently letting out a few bubbles even when it was dialed right back. I figured that maybe it was time to have it serviced anyway and that maybe it just had a little salt or sand in it from Belize.
SInce I was going there anyway, I took them to a shop which is not an Apeks dealer. I asked the owner if he could get Apeks parts and he assured me he could. He called a few days later and said it looked like the first stages had been flooded with salt water (I chalked this up to the "valets" in Belize not being familiar with DIN regs and perhaps allowed some rinse water into the regs... ) Anyway, no harm done, and I picked up the regs a few days later.
When I got them home, I started packing for the weekend and stuck the regs on my tanks. They breathed beautifully, but when I went to remove them, I discovered that I had no purge function on either reg... I breathed them down and removed them, then texted the shop guy to set a time to come back in in the AM.
When I got there the next day, we opened them up and I was surprised to see the second stage lever flapping around even when the regs were under pressure. I questioned the shop guy about the parts again. At that point he told me that he has used parts for a HOG reg (or Hollis?) but that they were identical. I said "Really?" as this struck me as odd. I was again reassured. At that point my cell rang and I left to take the call. When I was finished, my regs were back together and and I was immediately out the door an on my way out of town to dive for the weekend.
Suiting up the next morning, we were over the site of the Vickery in the St Lawrence River. This is a great old schooner that lies on a steep incline to about 130'. The current was extremely strong and so I opted to leave my camera behind as I would need both hands to haul myself down the mooring line and across a tag line to the wreck at about 60'. When I checked my regs, they breathed great, but I noticed that the purge function was still weak. I decided to dive and then take them to a different shop near to the dive site.
I hopped into the water, and dumped the air in my suit and wing (and lungs!) and started to haul! At about 5' depth, I took a breath... and got about 90% river water! I tried to purge... and you guessed it... nothing. By this point, I was hauling myself back up. When my head cleared the water, I exhaled, then inhaled and the reg bust out in a full-blown free-flow. I couldn't stop the flow and the boat dude began turning off my valve. I switched regs for fun and it did the same thing... massive free-flow. I wasn't happy as I figured my dive day was done.
Back on board, I opened up my seconds and fiddled and diddled some. I noticed that one exhaust diaphragm was folded in on itself which explained the water coming in. The other one seemed ok. I dialed back the IP a bit and decided to head down again. The regs worked "ok" but it was hard to relax. The purge function was barely working, so I stayed shallow and cut the dive short since everyone was finishing their dives. I pretty much repeated this on the second dive... short and shallow.
Later that day, I took them into the local shop near Rockport and explained my predicament. The owner there, opened them up and asked if I'd like the regs reset the "best he could do" using the parts installed or would I liked them fixed "properly" with correct parts. I opted for the later (duh!) but explained that the other shop said he had used parts that were a different brand but "identical". New guy said that the parts were "similar", but not "identical". He then added that the parts found in a Home Depot Universal Plumbing Repair Kit were also "similar"... Ugh.
Anyway, fast forward to the next day... fast drift dive to 130'... Perfect. Second dive, 115' wreck penetration... Perfect.
So digesting all of this, the obvious question that comes to mind is why would an "excellent" shop substitute parts that were not right? My guess is that he was mistaken in his understanding, or possibly that the parts were mis-labelled from his supplier. He showed me the bag when I was there, and I seem to recall that it had a number of regs stamped on the label. This is a great shop and the owner was horrified when he found out what had happened.
The second thought I had was that for those of us that dive with "redundant" stuff, does it make sense to service regs at different times. My one reg was working fine when I took it in. Had I only serviced the one that was "farting" and it failed after servicing, then my primary would have been fine.
Obviously this was far from a brush with death since I was 5' deep and hanging on to a line. In other circumstances and perhaps a less experience guy, it may have gotten messy.
I mentioned earlier that I'd had these regs for three or four years. I had these in to the original dealer for an annual service once before. On my first dive following that service, my primary free-flowed at 100' requiring a valve shutdown and shortening of the dive.
Two service episodes, two failures.
I think it's time to take do service tech clinic and start doing them myself!
My primary regs are Apeks DS4s and XTX 50s. I have been using them for three or four years and found them to be bombproof and very good in our icy water in Tobermory.
I was in Belize a few weeks ago, and when I got back, I did a little shore dive in front of my house. I noticed that one of my second stages was "farting" now and again... Not freeflowing, but frequently letting out a few bubbles even when it was dialed right back. I figured that maybe it was time to have it serviced anyway and that maybe it just had a little salt or sand in it from Belize.
SInce I was going there anyway, I took them to a shop which is not an Apeks dealer. I asked the owner if he could get Apeks parts and he assured me he could. He called a few days later and said it looked like the first stages had been flooded with salt water (I chalked this up to the "valets" in Belize not being familiar with DIN regs and perhaps allowed some rinse water into the regs... ) Anyway, no harm done, and I picked up the regs a few days later.
When I got them home, I started packing for the weekend and stuck the regs on my tanks. They breathed beautifully, but when I went to remove them, I discovered that I had no purge function on either reg... I breathed them down and removed them, then texted the shop guy to set a time to come back in in the AM.
When I got there the next day, we opened them up and I was surprised to see the second stage lever flapping around even when the regs were under pressure. I questioned the shop guy about the parts again. At that point he told me that he has used parts for a HOG reg (or Hollis?) but that they were identical. I said "Really?" as this struck me as odd. I was again reassured. At that point my cell rang and I left to take the call. When I was finished, my regs were back together and and I was immediately out the door an on my way out of town to dive for the weekend.
Suiting up the next morning, we were over the site of the Vickery in the St Lawrence River. This is a great old schooner that lies on a steep incline to about 130'. The current was extremely strong and so I opted to leave my camera behind as I would need both hands to haul myself down the mooring line and across a tag line to the wreck at about 60'. When I checked my regs, they breathed great, but I noticed that the purge function was still weak. I decided to dive and then take them to a different shop near to the dive site.
I hopped into the water, and dumped the air in my suit and wing (and lungs!) and started to haul! At about 5' depth, I took a breath... and got about 90% river water! I tried to purge... and you guessed it... nothing. By this point, I was hauling myself back up. When my head cleared the water, I exhaled, then inhaled and the reg bust out in a full-blown free-flow. I couldn't stop the flow and the boat dude began turning off my valve. I switched regs for fun and it did the same thing... massive free-flow. I wasn't happy as I figured my dive day was done.
Back on board, I opened up my seconds and fiddled and diddled some. I noticed that one exhaust diaphragm was folded in on itself which explained the water coming in. The other one seemed ok. I dialed back the IP a bit and decided to head down again. The regs worked "ok" but it was hard to relax. The purge function was barely working, so I stayed shallow and cut the dive short since everyone was finishing their dives. I pretty much repeated this on the second dive... short and shallow.
Later that day, I took them into the local shop near Rockport and explained my predicament. The owner there, opened them up and asked if I'd like the regs reset the "best he could do" using the parts installed or would I liked them fixed "properly" with correct parts. I opted for the later (duh!) but explained that the other shop said he had used parts that were a different brand but "identical". New guy said that the parts were "similar", but not "identical". He then added that the parts found in a Home Depot Universal Plumbing Repair Kit were also "similar"... Ugh.
Anyway, fast forward to the next day... fast drift dive to 130'... Perfect. Second dive, 115' wreck penetration... Perfect.
So digesting all of this, the obvious question that comes to mind is why would an "excellent" shop substitute parts that were not right? My guess is that he was mistaken in his understanding, or possibly that the parts were mis-labelled from his supplier. He showed me the bag when I was there, and I seem to recall that it had a number of regs stamped on the label. This is a great shop and the owner was horrified when he found out what had happened.
The second thought I had was that for those of us that dive with "redundant" stuff, does it make sense to service regs at different times. My one reg was working fine when I took it in. Had I only serviced the one that was "farting" and it failed after servicing, then my primary would have been fine.
Obviously this was far from a brush with death since I was 5' deep and hanging on to a line. In other circumstances and perhaps a less experience guy, it may have gotten messy.
I mentioned earlier that I'd had these regs for three or four years. I had these in to the original dealer for an annual service once before. On my first dive following that service, my primary free-flowed at 100' requiring a valve shutdown and shortening of the dive.
Two service episodes, two failures.
I think it's time to take do service tech clinic and start doing them myself!