Got my Mares Abyss 22 back from service. 2nd stage doesn't rattle when pressurized..

[danman132x]

Hello, I turned my Mares Abyss 22 in for its first service ever. Received it back today and the gentleman showed me the old parts and also said it was in great shape, almost no wear. He put all new parts in the 1st stage, 2nd stage, and the basically identical version of my Mares octopus.

My octopus does the slight tin can rattle when its pressurized, however my primary second stage does not rattle. Will this be okay, or does it NEED to have the rattle?

Both breath really good, at least at the surface testing them at home tonight. Both purge easily when depressed. The octopus has a very very tiny amount of travel like 1/2mm, and the primary starts to purge wish the slightest push. Dunking them into a 5 gallon bucket filled, neither one free flows upside down or anything, which is nice. Before service my octopus was sensitive near the surface and bubbled slightly if upside down.

If shaking them in the water slowly back and forth, the water flow across the front makes both let some air out as expected.

Breathing in with no pressure, cannot get any air at all, seems well sealed.

So again, just want to see if the primary second stage Needs to have the slight rattle. I'm guessing the demand lever doesn't have any free play, but it's also not free flowing or leaking any air.

Also I just saw this article
Mares 22 Abyss Problems (SEP Issued Regulator) | Office of Marine and Aviation Operations

Is this a big problem with these? I've only been on about 15 dives with mine so far, and just saw this and seems worrysome.

 

[TrimixToo]

I don't know how many dives mine have been on, but it's at least an order of magnitude more than yours and I dive with two of them for back gas regulators. I got the first one over 15 years ago. In combination, they have been on several hundred dives, not counting my recreational reg or my deep supplemental bottom gas reg, and I have had no failures. Mine do not rattle, pressurized or not. It is hard to imagine the lever just falling out on its own unless it was not installed correctly to begin with. The basic second stage design is not unique to the Abyss in this regard, but is in broad strokes common to every single reg I have ever had apart or seen apart. That does not mean that there could never have been a mis-manufactured lot or a service tech who had a bad day.

In my opinion, everyone should do a predive check. For me, that means I have at some time opened my valves to pressurize the regs, closed them, counted the breaths needed to get them down to nothing, and remembered the largest number. For the one with the greatest hose volume (the 7' hose), that's three regular breaths. After my valves are open, I make sure I can get 3 breaths from every reg I'll use on the dive including back gas, both sides, and deco/travel/etc. tanks. I expect most problems to be found in that predive check, as the problems in the linked-to advisory were found.

That said, dive gear is not perfectly reliable and does fail under water. One of my Abysses could perhaps fail on my next dive. I have both seen and experienced regulator failures of one sort or another (just none with those regs so far). A Plan B is essential. It can be a CSA ("blow and go"), a backup gas source you have, or a buddy if the buddy is always within arm's length and paying attention, but *something* should always back up your primary reg.

Just my 2 PSI.

 

[Umuntu]

My octopus does the slight tin can rattle when its pressurized, however my primary second stage does not rattle. Will this be okay, or does it NEED to have the rattle?

Your Octopus has been de-tuned to prevent free flows. But the locknut shouldn't be so loose that the demand lever rattles.

Also I just saw this article
Mares 22 Abyss Problems (SEP Issued Regulator) | Office of Marine and Aviation Operations

Is this a big problem with these? I've only been on about 15 dives with mine so far, and just saw this and seems worrysome.

Worrying. The design is a simple downstream, unbalanced demand lever second stage. Same as the Conshelfs.

Either the locknut was too loose after tuning or service, or it could be the locknut working loose if it's been re-used too often instead of being replaced during service.