If reassembled properly and adjusted to factory specifications, followed by several COMPLETE atmospheric inhalation tests afterwards, testing through the complete flow range of the regulator, I see no reason why you couldn't immediately take it on any dive you choose. When it is done correctly, it is done correctly. I don't get this business of regulators not working AFTER they are rebuilt. There must be some really bad regulator technicians running around. We do dozens of them that are sent in from places very far away. They never have to send them back for "readjustment" or anything of the sort. We wouldn't send them out if they weren't done correctly. Oh well.
Phil Ellis
You are not wroing, but you are not entirely right either.
If a customer mails me a reg for service, it gets set to the low end of factory specs in terms of inhalation effort - and consequenlty often breathes significantly worse than the same model of reg brought in by a local customer who wants more performance and is also ok with the possibility (maybe 5%) of having to bring it back in if we fail to properly anticpate the changes that occur in the new seat over the first several dives.
"Adjusted to factory specifications" is the key phrase here. Most factory specs are a bit (to a lot) on the a hard breathing side, which ensures that even after a seating groove develops in the soft seat in the second stage, the reg will not freeflow. Regrettably, "factory spec" also often means that the reg will breathe like a comparative rock if it is of the non-adjustable second stage variety, especially if it meets EU standards.
The irony here is of course that suitably high inhalation adjustment specs will compensate for a lot of sins committed by less than proficient techs so your assertion regarding tech compentence is equally ironic - techs who try to deliver better perfomance near the mechanical limits of the particular regulator for their customers will have a higher number of regs that need post service adjustment several dives after they are serviced and will end up with more customer complaints. That pretty much removes the incentive to try to please the customer or maximize the performance potential of whatever regulator they own.
On the other hand, many non adjustable regs can be adjusted to a significantly lighter inhalation effort, if the customer is willing to accept a slight risk of a slight freeflow once the seat breaks in with a related need to bring it back in for an adjustment. If you are headed off on a big trip or are a mail order service customer, that is not really an option open to you.
From the LDS and manufacturer perspectives, the preferred solution to a harder breathing non adjustable second stage is to have the customer buy a new balanced and adjustable second stage for a lot more money - so there is not much incentive to deviate from the breathe-like-a-rock factory specs.
If the reg is adjustable it is more or less a non issue as any slight freeflow due to the seat breaking in can be compensated for with the inhalation adjustment knob. Consequently the tech can set the inhaltion effort for peak performance with the adjustment knob all the way out without having to worry about a seating groove developing or about Case Geometry Fault effects causing a freeflow. This allows a reduction of inhaltion effort to the mechanical limits of the regulator with no real risk of customer dissatisfaction.
