I have noticed over the past few days that more and more people seem to be considering servicing their own regulators. While the industry has determined that only authorized / certified technicians should be allowed to perform this task, I believe in personal responsibility. If you are an adult and can take care of yourself, then who has the right to tell you what you can and cannot do with your own gear? In the coming days, I will be positing service kits for sale through the webstore. I will add a disclaimer of course.
So why should you?
Saving money is always the "go to" answer for this. Everyone knows that the dastardly dive shops want nothing more than to rip you off. This is especially true if you are talking about your local shop. All they want to do is pad their pockets so they can go out on their SCUBA yachts and keep banging their 20 year old girlfriends (riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight). The other reason individuals want to learn how to service their own regs is to find out just how they work. The first step is to get a copy of Regulator Savvy and just read the thing. From there, everything will make a lot more sense. Once you learn more about your regs, you might just find that you are able to notice minor breathing differences as time goes by. It is just like you can always tell when your car or truck is not right somehow I guess. While there are many out there that will tell you that servicing your regulator is easy, anyone can do it, all regs are the same (my personal favorite), or that you are just stupid if you actually pay to have that done; please keep in mind that you should seek training and at least take your set to get tested after your first service prior to jumping into the water.
So why should you not?
There are a few reasons why servicing your own reg set might just not be for you. Here is, in my mind, the top three reasons:
If you fit into one of these categories, then you might not want to service your own regulator set. While there is nothing stopping you from learning, there is certainly no requirement to do so. Believe it or not, some people are very comfortable with just saying, "you do it and in return I will give you this Federal Reserve Note you call money".
No matter if you do it yourself or not, just dive safely and be happy doing it. Also next time someone tells you that you are stupid for letting those greedy dive shops take all of your money for something that you could just do yourself, remind them that some guys pay good money to hookers for some of the same reasons.
Norris, out
So why should you?
Saving money is always the "go to" answer for this. Everyone knows that the dastardly dive shops want nothing more than to rip you off. This is especially true if you are talking about your local shop. All they want to do is pad their pockets so they can go out on their SCUBA yachts and keep banging their 20 year old girlfriends (riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight). The other reason individuals want to learn how to service their own regs is to find out just how they work. The first step is to get a copy of Regulator Savvy and just read the thing. From there, everything will make a lot more sense. Once you learn more about your regs, you might just find that you are able to notice minor breathing differences as time goes by. It is just like you can always tell when your car or truck is not right somehow I guess. While there are many out there that will tell you that servicing your regulator is easy, anyone can do it, all regs are the same (my personal favorite), or that you are just stupid if you actually pay to have that done; please keep in mind that you should seek training and at least take your set to get tested after your first service prior to jumping into the water.
So why should you not?
There are a few reasons why servicing your own reg set might just not be for you. Here is, in my mind, the top three reasons:
- You do not want to purchase the tools needed.
- You do not mind paying to have someone else do it for you so you are just not bothered with it.
- You just don't feel like learning because you have better things to do with your life and SCUBA is a hobby that you do for fun, and you are not consumed by it with every waking moment.
If you fit into one of these categories, then you might not want to service your own regulator set. While there is nothing stopping you from learning, there is certainly no requirement to do so. Believe it or not, some people are very comfortable with just saying, "you do it and in return I will give you this Federal Reserve Note you call money".
No matter if you do it yourself or not, just dive safely and be happy doing it. Also next time someone tells you that you are stupid for letting those greedy dive shops take all of your money for something that you could just do yourself, remind them that some guys pay good money to hookers for some of the same reasons.
Norris, out