Is this leak fast enough to worry about short term?

[awap]

Well, now I know what's like to be accused of spousal abuse. I took the regulator to my secondary dive shop. The tech guy was in:

Him: "So, did you drop your regulator?"

Me: "No. Never! I would never..."

Him: "Yes. They all say that."

Me: "I swear, I didn't. Maybe it was out walking by itself and fell down the stairs..."

Seriously though, he hooked it up to his air supply on the bench, and said, "no hiss." I insisted he take it out to the pool, and sure enough, thin bubbles. He asked me agaain might i have dropped it, and i told him it was fine when it left me for its overhaul. So he looked again, and finally, finally found it:

The chromium plating on the top surface of the yoke-ring nut had lost its adherence to the top of the nut, so under pressure, there was an imperfection which lets air out. i.e. you could peel the top metal surface of the nut up, it is a very very thin metal of a different composition than the rest of the nut, i.e. some form of plating. (ANd the leak may be more audible at lower pressure, possibly, since it may actually seal better at higher pressure). They're ordering a new yoke-ring nut, i should have it in time for my trip.

He said that if the strip came off completely, the leak might have gotten larger, but it certainly wouldn't have gone catastrophic. But everyone here said exactly the right thing: i just can't dive the regulator without knowing what it is.

So while it turned out to be none of the things anybody thought, thanks for all the good advice.

What you describe is a "damaged sealing surfaces on the yoke retainer". As I said earlier, the shop should be able to remove that part from another reg of that brand to repair yours if they don't get the part in time from their supplier. Thanks for the feedback.

[blue steal]

Off topic.
This is why I love SB so much.
Always something to learn from so many folks.
Thanks.
Now back to our regular program.

[davidbaraff]

Well, kinda. If you recall several of us suggested yoke face damage, which this is. We suggested scratches or dings but still we were in the right place. There is an easier, quicker and cheaper fix for this is you don't mind a less than pretty reg. All that is needed is to polish off the face of the yoke nut with fine sand paper unit you get a solid brass face, clean it and reassemble. I do that to old regs all the time. If your tech could (should?) have done that so you could dive it while waiting on parts he should have , this takes all of 2 minutes to do. Personally, I would just polish it off and use it.

I stand corrected; several people did call out yoke face damage, and I looked for scratches but didn't see any. Given that he could get the part in time and replace it, i'm happiest with that solution, personally.

[Tigerman]

Agree that using gear known to be marginal is not a good idea. We're on the same page.

I plan my dives so if any single regulator (or tank) fails it's an inconvenience rather than life threatening.

Dive long enough and you WILL get failures. I prefer that failure not kill me!

I have seen a few failures although I havent dived for THAT long. However only one of them was potentially life-threatening and if the person it happened to had noticed it sooner it would have been only inconvenient (Stuck inflator button).
Another nasty one is a blown o-ring on a yoke first stage while submerged, but thats why you have redundant air sources - in that particular case, my octopus. (Both these incidents are described in more detail somewhere on this board btw).

And as for the original topic. Glad your regulator gets fixed in time and that it was only a minor problem. I know what its like when gear fails at the wrong time. My HP hose (unexpectedly, or maybe not as the gear was just serviced) gave me the "screw you" in the middle of my last vacation. Fortunately the dive shop had spares for me to use untill I could get it fixed the same evening.

[davidbaraff]

And the story ends happily. Got the reg back, hooked it up to my tank. Opened the valve and...

Dead silence.


I like being able to trust in my gear. That's why I own it.

ScubaBoard rocks.