Why you should, or should not, service your own regulator

[ams511]

They certainly could be, no different from a reg manufacturer who let parts kits wind up on eBay. Hopefully it'd be thrown out and sanctioned for filing a frivolous claim, but who knows.

Anyone can sue someone for anything. It costs money to defend even frivolous claims; however, I could easily sue a manufacturer for not selling me parts if my regulator dies. I would probably have a better case because of the scuba industry having unusual practices compared to other industries such as auto parts.

As far as professional regulator technicians, some are actually experienced, professional, and know what they are doing. Others not so much, so there is a wide variability of the quality of regulator technicians.

 

[Nemrod]

The ONLY reason that parts are not available is that the industry players attempt to drive the consumer to the retail dive store so they can sell you stuff including service you do not need and whatever. It is a method of creating traffic. It has nothing to do with these mythical lawsuits, that is just BS, a smoke screen.

And, yes, I agree, the rest of the world is much more sane and normal than here in the USA, land of the free who are not free to do and land of free speech but who are censored and controlled.

N

 

[Dr. Lecter]

Anyone can sue someone for anything.

Oh look, an echo.

 

[Pao]

You do not necessarily save anything by servicing your own regs. At least where I live. Parts and tools are not locally available and your shipping bills could pile up. You also need to do a bit of digging to get the latest info, particularly service bulletins. It is more an issue of self reliance and having peace of mind that your reg was done right. I too had service issues and the shop I trust has a very long waiting list.

Sent from my Underwood typewriter

 

[ams511]

Oh look, an echo.

Please point out where in your post you said that.

 

[Peter69_56]

Well my experience has been about 50% of the time badly serviced regs. Seen a local shop charge for regs not serviced which sucks. Had regulators fall apart under water after servicing. Here in Oz the cost of a kit for each reg is about $35 AUD ($30 USD). For my regs the hold the following components, not, washer, 2 O rings, zip clip, poppet seat. If I bought them as individual items they are worth about $5, yet we are charged $35, and then I find that often they have not put a kit in it (poppet seat turned upside down), and possibly generic O rings, so being ripped off.

Now that's not to say there are quality technicians out there as I know there are and have used them to my satisfaction. In the end I spent significant money to become certified so I have the understanding to service my own regs (I (and wife) have about 10 sets of regs and other odd pieces) to my standards. I also have all the tools required to do a proper setup rather than just guessing as I suspect some tech's do. Since servicing my regs I have found in a number of cases less than ideal work has been done on them in the past. The cost for a standard reg service here is about $150-$200 with parts, with a full O2 clean its more like $350. I have all my regs O2 cleaned (by me), and only pump Nx grade air to all my tanks. All tanks/valves are O2 cleaned as well. Whilst I am probably being anal, I like having things as right as I can, rather than the "she will be right mate" attitude.

I also find it disappointing that in the kits for my regs they don't supply all the O rings in the regs. Given that the O ring cost is so small, one would think replacing ALL the O rings would be the norm in a OEM kit, but apparently not. I replace all the O rings as a matter of course, even if some are static and not subject to wear, as to me its a principle, cost is low and the job is then done properly.

Now I know some people like to have their kit serviced by a competent" technician, and there are others who should NOT open a reg ever due to their incompetence. There are however people who are competent who have their ability to service regs limited by not being able to obtain parts, why? Because as people have said here, the manufacturer is trying to keep a closed shop for all those LDS who sell their merchandise. I am certified, and yet cannot to date obtain parts in OZ. I spent 2 weeks completing a recognised training course, and yet am told that to be able to get parts in OZ I must do a manufacturers course (around $400 per reg model) and work for a LDS before I can obtain parts.

 

[NC Air Hog]

You sure can, and you sure can get the sued out of you for doing so negligently and thereby proximately causing accidents/deaths. Next ill-considered comparison, please.

No problem,

Servicing your own reg set could be compared to treating your dog or cat when they get sick. While some may know just what to do, others may find themselves guessing the whole time and just make things worse.

 

[Peter69_56]

No problem,

Servicing your own reg set could be compared to treating your dog or cat when they get sick. While some may know just what to do, others may find themselves guessing the whole time and just make things worse.

And I do take your point. An example would be for the untrained to think they can add to a compressor assembly, buy standard brass fittings as they have the right thread size and shape. Not realising that perhaps the fitting is only rated to 100-200 BAR. Then one day pump the fitting up to 300 BAR, have it blow off and the hose whips about killing someone. This is not an unlikely scenario, and one can see how with the best intent, some mechanical ability how one could do the best they know and still hurt someone.

On the other hand, someone well versed in pressure fittings, although not actually trained in compressor repair and rebuild, could safely perform the same operation with the correct fitting because of their knowledge. Having unwittingly bought a Chinese special and losing a fair amount of money in the process, I can say from a user point of view, "Often you don't know what you don't know until you get there, and often its then far too late". In my circumstance, had I completed my Dive tech course 12 months earlier, I would have been far more knowledgeable and not gone down the path I did and saved a lot of money. Now I am much wiser, although somewhat poorer.

This however does not get around the issue I mentioned above, where being trained, I am still locked out of the spare parts I need. I will again approach the local manufacturer and see what reasoning they have for not supplying me. If its considered unreasonable I will consider approaching the ACCC for restrictive trade practices.

 

[letterboy]

This post applies if the following conditions are met; A if you are competent and B own several regulators without manufacture warranties

IF A and B are met self service makes sense.

It only takes a couple hours to maintain regulators.

I did the math, the shop by me wants nearly 60 dollars PER stage.

I have a total of say 10 stages.

That is 600, just for "labor".

not including out of warranty parts because I want a regulator serviced yearly vs every two years . . .(as an example, not necessarily accurate)

I enjoy tinkering, I don't have the tools to tinker with my car, plus I only have one so when I screw it up I cant set it aside and use a backup until I fix it. That and the G/F would beat me senseless if I broke the car...

Scuba could be so much less expensive for some if they weren't "forced" to take gear to shops for maintenance.

Expense should not be the biggest factor when deciding on gear maintenance.

I don't buy the a vacation divers gear that is used a few times a year is not life support equipment(LSE). Anytime you are submerged and breathing what you are breathing from is LSE. Both a snorkel and regulator are LSE.

If I know my life depends on something, I will take more care when tinkering with it. The hungover diveshop monkey, not so much.

Granted there are some reg techs that might be worth it. I have not found any.

 

[NC Air Hog]

So what I am seeing here is that dive shop guys just do not know what they are doing, it is all a money scam, no one does it like I do it, etc, etc etc....

On behalf of the entire dive industry - I apologize if you have had a bad experience inside of a dive shop at some point in your life.

Again,
If you want to service your own set, then more power to you (insert slow clap here). I think it is very unfair to classify all of the dive shop technicians as being bad at their jobs. I would venture to say that if all of us knew absolutely nothing then there would be a few more deaths and incidents caused by gear malfunction. Regarding every regulator being same, it is true that some of the 1st stage systems are similar. There are pistons out there as well and the second stages can vary widely. Most important - please understand your set before taking it apart.

I know that I am not the best technician in the world, and do not claim / want to be. The minute I think I am, I will stop caring and then bad things happen. What I find most interesting is that certain people speak ill of dive shops, can fix any problem, blame manufacturers for defective gear and then seem to be surprised when no one wants to help them out because no matter what they do, they will have made a mistake somehow. In the words of Sweet Brown, "aint no body got time for that"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFEoMO0pc7k