Yearly maintenance

[scubafanatic]

Yeah. Good job 300bar! YTMND.

I'm hearing about people who don't bother with the yearly fixing and get 10 years out of regs before they degrade.

...not sure that's a valid statistical sampling......obviously you'e going to be hearing about the ones who survive never servicing their gear...the problem is, you DON'T from the ones who tried to do that and DIDN'T make it!

 

[scubafanatic]

...also, consider this.......being too cheap, not servicing your gear on a reasonable/regular basis is being a bit selfish.....you are offloading your costs onto other divers......remember, you're the type of diver that's gonna be asking other divers to borrow spare parts/gear items from their 'kit'...spongeing off them.....or your're gonna be the guy who delays the group's dive when your gear craps out at the last minute and everyone has to wait on you to get sorted out...or the guy whose gear fails underwater, impacting your dive buddy and/or the rest of the group, as sometimes groups have to surface 'as one'...and you're the weak link in the chain ! ...and do I even need to remind you of the impact on your dive buddy/friends/family/wife/kids if something happens to you due to a gear failure ?

 

[*dave*]

Well, you never know what condition the internals are in till you open it up and take a look. While a problem may exist, it may be progressive and not have any symptoms until it fails. Diaphragms get brittle, O-Rings score and flatten.....

Once a year is a good interval to stay on top of these issues. The warranty on some regs covers replacement parts for the life of the reg for the original owner *if* it receives a yearly maintenance.

Is the service price fair? Probably not on its own, but this is another way the LDS attempts to survive. For me, servicing my own has always made sense, but I've been trained and have the LDS to certify my work as meeting requirements of warranty. If cost were the only issue, I'd be ahead of the game by paying someone else to work on them.

 

[Scott L]

Last time I serviced my grear the charge was outragous IMO representing a figure significant in relation to the purchase price. I contemplated the OP's suggestion of simply replacing the componets in a sytematic fashion quite posiably realizing long-term savings and probaly acheiving better performance. I did not think of selling ultimately selling the regulator in it's entity when the cycle completes itself. As most of you know, most regulator malfunctions occur immediately after servicing.

Does anyone have an opionion on the best facility to utilize for Scuba Pro reg's in S Fla or anyway for that matter?

 

[DA Aquamaster]

Some one want to explain the purpose of yearly maintenance to me and why I should pay $70 to fix something that's working?
Price break down on a mares abyss 22 which purchased last year was $400+:
$34.50 - Labor
$14.00 - Parts 1st stage
$10.00 - Parts 2nd stage
$12.00 - O2 Cleaning.

What amazes me is the O2 Cleaning was discounted, it's normally $50 as per the receipt. Honestly, what the hell.

A normal labor rate is $20-$25 per stage, or in this case, $75 for a first, second and octo. In that regard you got a really good deal if you had 3 stages done and you still saved a few bucks per stage compared to the average if you had 2 stages done.

$24.00 in parts is also pretty normal for a first and second stage.

The only place you got screwed is in the $12.00 O2 clean charge. The current industry practice is that no special cleaning is required for mixes up to 40%. It was not always that way, but if your LDS is still doing O2 cleaning for regs used with mixes up to 40%, they are behind the times.

----

In general the real area for abuse/price gouging seems to be in the area of parts cost. Some regs have some specialty parts that are replaced annually and there is some justification for a $15-$20 annual service cost, but many forst and second stage combinations just use maybe a dozen stock o-rings and a couple of seats and a couple bucks would cover the total manufacturer cost - compared to a dealer cost fo maybe $5-$10 per kit and a retail cost of $10-$20 per kit.

Labor is pretty fair at $20-$25 per stage, and no one gets rich off it when you considfer the time, tools and shop supplies used. And when a reg is really dirty or corroded, I charge the shop extra and they pass it on to the customer.

In the end though a fair and reasonable cost for an annual service of a first second and octo is still going to be $100-$120. On the one hand, that is a significant portion of the purchase price, but on the other, if you do more than maybe 20 dives per year it is cheaper than the gas you put through it and it is no more than the cost of a single 2 tank boat trip. So if you keep it in perspective, it is not excessive in terms of the over all cost of the sport.

 

[Wormil]

It was a single 1st and 2nd stage, no octo, no pressure gauge.

 

[martzak]

...also, consider this.......being too cheap, not servicing your gear on a reasonable/regular basis is being a bit selfish.....you are offloading your costs onto other divers......remember, you're the type of diver that's gonna be asking other divers to borrow spare parts/gear items from their 'kit'...spongeing off them.....or your're gonna be the guy who delays the group's dive when your gear craps out at the last minute and everyone has to wait on you to get sorted out...or the guy whose gear fails underwater, impacting your dive buddy and/or the rest of the group, as sometimes groups have to surface 'as one'...and you're the weak link in the chain ! ...and do I even need to remind you of the impact on your dive buddy/friends/family/wife/kids if something happens to you due to a gear failure ?

That's why one should own a back up regulator...especially if one gets the reg serviced annually. Most regulators melfunction AFTER, NOT BEFORE, the annual service as many can atest to that.
Once again all I'm seeing from the proponents of 'blindly following the annual service schedule' is fear mongering, threat of injury or worse if the reg is not serviced EVERY YEAR, regardless of frequency of use. That is IMO disingenuous to the OP and other people with the same question about regulator servicing. 'Because the LDS/manufacturer said so' is not good enough for me.
Where are the numbers to support the assertion that divers are more likely to be injured/die if the annual regulator service schedule is not followed?

However, to be fair, I do agree with what DA Aquamaster said, that in terms of the overall cost of the sport of diving, the cost of regulator servicing is relatively low (for most regulators).

 

[redacted]

Well, you never know what condition the internals are in till you open it up and take a look. While a problem may exist, it may be progressive and not have any symptoms until it fails. Diaphragms get brittle, O-Rings score and flatten.....
.

I can tell a lot about the internal condition of my regs with little or no disassembly.

If it is not leaking, then all seals are sealing pressure. If IP is correct & steady, then the HP seat and orifice are OK. If the cracking pressure is good then the LP seat & orifice are OK. If the filter is still clean and I pull a couple hoses and there is no verdigris then I have not had a serious water incursion. If I can pull and hold a vacuum, then all seals are holding water out. Visual & physical check for loose connections and damaged parts. If no problems, I'm pretty confident the reg is OK to use.

 

[scubafanatic]

That's why one should own a back up regulator...especially if one gets the reg serviced annually. Most regulators melfunction AFTER, NOT BEFORE, the annual service as many can atest to that.
Once again all I'm seeing from the proponents of 'blindly following the annual service schedule' is fear mongering, threat of injury or worse if the reg is not serviced EVERY YEAR, regardless of frequency of use. That is IMO disingenuous to the OP and other people with the same question about regulator servicing. 'Because the LDS/manufacturer said so' is not good enough for me.
Where are the numbers to support the assertion that divers are more likely to be injured/die if the annual regulator service schedule is not followed?

However, to be fair, I do agree with what DA Aquamaster said, that in terms of the overall cost of the sport of diving, the cost of regulator servicing is relatively low (for most regulators).

....if you'll notice my post....I'm not blindly defending the holy 'annual'...there's nothing magic about the 12 month period.....I said 'reasonable' basis......also, while your suggestion about having a back-up reg is wise.....I didn't suggest that option as the OP appears very budget-conscious, and somehow I'm not seeing the OP springing for multiple reg sets if he complains about the expense of just keeping one reg set operational.

 

[scubafanatic]

Last time I serviced my grear the charge was outragous IMO representing a figure significant in relation to the purchase price. I contemplated the OP's suggestion of simply replacing the componets in a sytematic fashion quite posiably realizing long-term savings and probaly acheiving better performance. I did not think of selling ultimately selling the regulator in it's entity when the cycle completes itself. As most of you know, most regulator malfunctions occur immediately after servicing.

Does anyone have an opionion on the best facility to utilize for Scuba Pro reg's in S Fla or anyway for that matter?

.....if you really couldn't care less about having a nice, high-performance reg, and are just fine with a relatively disposable, cheapie one...then it may make more sense to trash/trade it than service it. (although I still stand by my prior post about my pet-peeve on such 'free-loading' divers shifting their gear failure costs onto everyone else). However, if you like having very nice high-performance regs, then the cost of servicing represents a much lower percentage of the purchase price, and it makes more financial sense to service those.