Cozumel Scuba Repair

[DjDiverDan]

I have been "that guy" on a boat twice - both times with a Reg that was just serviced by my Local Dive Shop less than two weeks before heading out to Cozumel! Once, it was a case of the Dive Shop replacing a perfectly serviceable part on my Oceanic Delta Reg with a bad part (a part that was provided by Oceanic in its Refurb Kit) that resulted in a constant positive airflow; it was breathable, but really annoying. Luckily, that reg has an adjustment valve that will allow you to completely shut off air flow, so I could finish the dive with my Octo without a free-flowing primary, and if the Octo failed, I could have easily switched back to the primary. Second time, I asked that an old high pressure hose be replaced, and got a bad fitting, with a real slow leak. Not enough to call the dive, but a constant flow of small bubbles from the pressure gauge connection. So just getting the Regs serviced is no guaranty that something won't go wrong.

 

[redacted]

So just getting the Regs serviced is no guaranty that something won't go wrong.

In fact, it appears to be much worse than that. Right after service is a period of time where the failure rate seems to noticeably increase due to service errors.

Eventually all regs will need to be serviced. But the longer you can put it off while enjoying good performance, the less likely you will be to experience regulator problems due to service errors. And, when they must be serviced, you should try to leave a good time period where you can prove the service out during local diving before you take it on a trip.

 

[nodakdive]

Only reg failure I've had was after I had it "serviced" here in the US. It was a first stage failure, so my octo was of no use. Took it down to Javier at Scuba Repair and he fixed it in less than 5 minutes and charged me $5.