Doh! Well, I did it. I made a newb mistake

Went diving yesterday early in the morning(6:30 am) with a buddy and we ended up spotting two turtles. We had only planned an hour dive but we got busy playing with and taking pics of the turtles and decided to extend the dive a bit. Well that caused us to rush once we got out of the water so that we could get back, get cleaned up and get to work. Since I didn't have time to throughly clean my gear I figured I'd leave it all in the dunk tank and give it a good break down and clean when I got home from work. So, I get to the house, throw all the gear in the dunk tank, rush into the house, and the wife tells me to get the film out of the camera so she can get it developed. I run outside real quick and am digging for my camera when I notice I didn't put my dust cap on my 1st stage :eek5: Now I'm pissed. So I take it out of the water, and hang it upside down but I have to get to work, I'm pushing my time to close.
Thankfully I work part time at my LDS so I was able to get my reg up to the store afterwork and got it inspected and serviced for free. Of course, I had to listen to EVERYONE in the dive shop give me sh!t about it. I don't have a top of the line but a mk25/s600 combo still isn't cheap by any means and would have been hard pressed to get a new system.

I talked with the service guy and he said they normally charge about 50 bucks to do the inspect and service + cost of parts if any are needed. Not a lot of money but money is money.
So for all you new divers out there, don't be a dumb***** like me. Make sure that dust cap is on.

Personally, I'd take all the hoses out of the first stage, give it a thorough blasting with the hose, and give it a couple days to dry out. If, after that, it works fine, I go diving.

BTW, depending on the reg, the "dust cap" might not do much of anything to keep water out. Rinse with the tank hooked up.

There are much worse mistakes you can make as a beginner. Just be happy that it wasn't a life threatening mistake, and only potentially a money mistake.

I'm sure you won't do that again.

$50 to $75 is the norm...standard service fee...that's part of being a diver...properaly maintaining your equipment and planning for these expenses.

Ideally, your regulator shoud be rinsed still hooked up to the tank. Putting the dust cap on the first stage and leaving it submerged for hours will not prevent water from entering the first stage. I hope the service they did included a thorough cleaning and changing or blowing out hoses.

You're not the first one to mke this mistake...it's very common actually.

The MK25 + S600 is what I would call top of the line. That's a fine reg.

Christi:

Ideally, your regulator shoud be rinsed still hooked up to the tank. Putting the dust cap on the first stage and leaving it submerged for hours will not prevent water from entering the first stage.

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I've been told the same thing so I just rinse my first stage with the dust cap on, I don't let it sit submerged

That's not a newbie mistake. A newbie mistake is submerging with a snorkel instead of a reg.

Yet another reason to keep the snorkel in your pocket until you want to go snorkeling.

Terry

Tigern:

Went diving yesterday early in the morning(6:30 am) with a buddy and we ended up spotting two turtles. We had only planned an hour dive but we got busy playing with and taking pics of the turtles and decided to extend the dive a bit. Well that caused us to rush once we got out of the water so that we could get back, get cleaned up and get to work. Since I didn't have time to throughly clean my gear I figured I'd leave it all in the dunk tank and give it a good break down and clean when I got home from work. So, I get to the house, throw all the gear in the dunk tank, rush into the house, and the wife tells me to get the film out of the camera so she can get it developed. I run outside real quick and am digging for my camera when I notice I didn't put my dust cap on my 1st stage :eek5: Now I'm pissed. So I take it out of the water, and hang it upside down but I have to get to work, I'm pushing my time to close.
Thankfully I work part time at my LDS so I was able to get my reg up to the store afterwork and got it inspected and serviced for free. Of course, I had to listen to EVERYONE in the dive shop give me sh!t about it. I don't have a top of the line but a mk25/s600 combo still isn't cheap by any means and would have been hard pressed to get a new system.

I talked with the service guy and he said they normally charge about 50 bucks to do the inspect and service + cost of parts if any are needed. Not a lot of money but money is money.
So for all you new divers out there, don't be a dumb***** like me. Make sure that dust cap is on.

Click to expand...

That's not a newbie mistake. A newbie mistake is submerging with a snorkel instead of a reg.

Thats funny terry.........

Mr. Brown/Scuba:

That's not a newbie mistake. A newbie mistake is submerging with a snorkel instead of a reg.

Thats funny terry.........

Click to expand...

Done it. :lol:

Who me? No, I've never done that.