Servicing your own regulator.

[Medicdiver0125]

Hi
Thought I would ask what other people do or think about servicing your own regulators. My dive buddy and myself are very mechanically inclined in fact he is a mechanic. So we were thinking we could do it ourselves due to the fact neither of us have the warranty on our regs anymore. From what I gather depending on the reg all you need is a IP gauge, the proper grease and a rebuild kit with the reg rebuild manual.

Thanks.

 

[udtfire]

sure save that 30 dollars and dont have a guy with years of experience rebuild your life support equipment and should it fail due to negligence and you die your family will have no way to collect the money due them from the service guy or mfg that have millions in insurance for that reason. should you dive for the next 20 years you will only have 20 rebuilds under your belt and i would not want someone that in experienced working on my life support equipment. is it safe? does it make sense? will it work in the worse case senerio? but look on the bright side we in the fire service are lucker than most lol PS would you rebuild your scba

 

[Teamcasa]

sure save that 30 dollars and dont have a guy with years of experience rebuild your life support equipment and should it fail due to negligence and you die your family will have no way to collect the money due them from the service guy or mfg that have millions in insurance for that reason. should you dive for the next 20 years you will only have 20 rebuilds under your belt and i would not want someone that in experienced working on my life support equipment. is it safe? does it make sense? will it work in the worse case senerio? but look on the bright side we in the fire service are lucker than most lol PS would you rebuild your scba

OTOH, Why, when I am perfectly capable of servicing my own gear would I entrust it to some shop where it's likely the guy doing the service may have passed a test but my regulator is only his 4-5th one?

 

[udtfire]

go for it sb staff way to support the dive world that is great advice you are rite thank you
I am sorry for the post upon reflection i think we should just go to buddies teaching budies to dive and no real certification to teach or rebuild equipment is really needed I am sure most people are capable we can all just learn it on line and when iphone comes out with the new app we can get air fills on line as well .lol really

 

[Jim Lapenta]

I'm not sure what you all have in mind as to what it takes to service a reg but it is a bit more than having "a IP gauge, the proper grease and a rebuild kit with the reg rebuild manual." But fear not, it is not much more than that. Many divers with no formal factory training successfully service their own regs. BUT they do so after getting some kind of education on just how regulators work, how they are designed, and knowing what tools to get. And then you have to get the parts. For some models it's easy. For others not so much.

If you really want to do this then before you even start looking for tools or manuals get copies of "Regulator Savvy" by Pete Wolfinger from Scubatools and Vance Harlow's "Scuba Regulator Maintenance and Repair". The first goes more into the actual theory and the latter the nuts and bolts so to speak.

Read and study them. Short of taking a factory course these are the best siurces of info for the do it yourselfer. Then you need to get a manual. They are out there. www.frogkick.dk - / has many on line and downloadable for free. You may find that you need specialized tools for some regs. And if it calls for it get it. Don't try to make do with stuff from ace or even sears. Scubatools can again meet most if not all of your needs for this.

Then find the parts. Some dealers will not sell you parts unless they really know you and know you won't kill yourself and others will tell you to go pound salt. Most are prohibited from selling you kits by the manufacturers they represent. Some allow sales to individuals.

Servicing your own regs is possible, can save you money in the long run (very long if you only have a couple regs by the time you invest in the books I noted and the tools) but if like me you have 8 regs then servicing them myself is just smart money. I am a factory authorized tech for one major mfg but not being affiliated with a shop I need to get parts for some of my regs on the downlow. Which is why I am switching them out for ones that will sell me parts,

But keep in mind that if you do screw up and die you have no one to blame but yourself. You need to ask yourself if you and your buddy are ok with that. If so have fun. It is very saitisfying for me to take a reg that I worked on and dive with it. Knowing who serviced it and that it was done right by me is a good feeling.

 

[knowone]

This thing I did yesterday, from the early eighties, required no parts or O rings.

Ugly looking thing, anyone know what it is?

It did however, require a couple of specialist keys, both of which I made.

I have NEVER opened a reg book and those reg diagrams look scarier
than the reg.


And as people say:

IT'S MY REG, AND I'M USING MY LEFTHANDED SCREWDRIVER ON IT.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Has nothing to do with supporting the "dive world" ( I think industry is the more correct term but hey), it has to do with recognizing that some want to do more than just swim around. We choose to take responsibility for every phase of our diving - including servicing our equipment. We like to see how wha twe are using works instead of blindly trusting someone else. The "dive world" will not be thrown into chaos because some divers choose to service their own gear. It may in fact increase the amount of dives they do and by example bring more people into the sport!

There will always be those who don't want to service their gear. When I was working in a shop there were those who obviously didn't think rinsing was necessary! And like Teamcasa I want to know who did my gear. I saw enough crap come in- recently serviced by other shops- that convinced me doing my own was the best way to guarantee the job was done right.

 

[herman]

sure save that 30 dollars and dont have a guy with years of experience rebuild your life support equipment and should it fail due to negligence and you die your family will have no way to collect the money due them from the service guy or mfg that have millions in insurance for that reason. should you dive for the next 20 years you will only have 20 rebuilds under your belt and i would not want someone that in experienced working on my life support equipment. is it safe? does it make sense? will it work in the worse case senerio? but look on the bright side we in the fire service are lucker than most lol PS would you rebuild your scba

Please, these things are not rocket science, they are in fact simple mechanical devices. Using the "life support" argument here does not cut it here, we know better. Any one who can rebuild a small engine carb can do the work. The "guy with years of experience rebuild your life support equipment " may well be the kid who also washes the wetsuits and cleans the toilet, just because they work at a shop means nothing. Attending the no pass or fail course is a big advantage I guess. And if your shop does charge $30 for a complete rebuild, you might want to ask yourself why the real pro techs charge $25-30 per stage or $75 to $90 for a reg, you may just have the toilet kid repairing your life support equipment. And I have no one standing over my shoulder insisting I get out 15 reg today and scrub the toilet before I leave, I can take the time to do the job right.


Medicdiver, before doing your own service, I do suggest you spend some time learning about regs, how they work and how to service them. There is more to it than just installing a kit and going diving but it is certainly something you can learn to do yourself. A great place to start is getting copies of "Regulator Savvy" and "SCUBA REGULATOR MAINTENANCE AND REPAIR" these 2 books will teach you pretty much you need to know about reg repair.

 

[Teamcasa]

go for it sb staff way to support the dive world that is great advice you are rite thank you...

Servicing gear is not for everyone. I think I was pretty clear when I said "I am perfectly capable". I did not say everyone is perfectly capable.

 

[udtfire]

yes with the training and experience all things are possiable and that is quite ok the problem I see is this system on line and the walmart approach that lead people with limited skills and knowledge attempting thing that they dont know could be dangerous thanks to the dumbing down of entry level scuba that in my opinion are killing the industry and making it unsafer by the day.