Sherwood Avid leak

Hey all,

On my last dive I noticed my right shoulder dump valve had a small leak. Tightening it fixed it for the dive but the leak was back with the next tank.

So I took it to the LDS I bought it from. The owner gave it the once over and said that I had stripped the threads. It'll hold air if it's turned just right but leaks if it's off just a bit.

He said he could order some parts - at my cost. I asked him if it was under warranty and he laughed and said it most certainly was not.

Then, he tore the tag that was inside the pocket and tossed it in the trash. Turns out this was the tag with the serial number, but he said 'you won't be needing that'.

Given that I have all of 27 dives under my belt I felt decidedly uncertain. Am I feeling unwanted smoke being blown into certain places or is this par for the course for a Sherwood dealer?


Thanks in advance!



m.

He was completely wrong for tearing your serial number tag off. That's not his BC, why does he feel he can do what ever he likes to it.
I'll say it right now, he's an a** for doing that.
If it happened exactly as you said it did, I'd say he wants you to pay him for the repair instead of calling the warranty. His profit, your loss.
When I had a problem with my BC, all it took was a phone call to Sherwood to check whether warranty covered it or not. Did your LDS even bother doing that?

Did you ever register that serial number on the Sherwood website? Because that's the only way you can even settle your warranty.

I was just looking at the manual because I wanted to add my own crotch strap (w/o voiding warranty)
It says quote:
"All non-wearing valve parts and welded seams of the BCD air cell are covered under this warranty [2 year limited warranty]. Should any part of your Sherwood BCD be found defective, Sherwood Scuba, at it's discretion, will repair and replace the component at no charge to you"

What is not covered:
"This warranty does not extend to damages caused by improper use, improper maintenance, neglect, unauthorized repairs, modifications, accidents, fire, or casualty."

So at Sherwood's discretions, you may have been covered.
Depends if they think you rinsed the dump valve well, or if you caused the leak by neglect etc.
If you only hose your BC down, that's a part most people forget to hit.

Hope you're able to work it out.

I made sure that I registered the BC with Sherwood so I'm covered there. As for the damage, it must have happened when I took the valve off for rinsing. But if that's the case, the threads got damaged with a fairly light twist. I wasn't cranking on it whatsoever but the threads are still slightly stripped.


This should be interesting!



m.

Yes indeed. In the future, do not twist the valves off. It's very easy to accidently tighten the valve cover off center.

Instead you can just fill the BC from the inflator. Just remember to push the deflate button only.
Then you can fill the BC with a little air, slosh it around, and then dump it through the butt valve.
If you want to be extremely neat, then be sure to rinse the butt valve exterior a bit as well after this process.
The inside of your BC will never be clean after it's first dive ;]
The plastic doesn't deteriorate as fast as the springs inside the dump ports. That's mainly the part you have to worry about.

"Then, he tore the tag that was inside the pocket and tossed it in the trash. Turns out this was the tag with the serial number, but he said 'you won't be needing that'."

Why did he do this? This makes me suspicious. I hope you retrieved it from the garbage. Did he get this BCD black market? I'm asking this because a while back there were some BCD (I don't remember if they were Sherwood) that were produced with some flaws and were suppose to be destroyed. Instead they made it to the market and were sold as if they were the genuine thing. They were "genuine" - but not really. If you don't want to believe this, I have a Rolex that I will give you a really good deal on.

Anyways, he had no business doing any destruction of your property and I would go right back there and demand a refund on the equipment. If not, I'd file a claim with the better business bureau and go to small claims court. No one has the right to deface anyone else's equipment.

P.S. I'm not a suit happy person. Only once in small claims court and I won and received payment from a lair. My goal was to received just compensation and to stop him from doing this again.