Hog D2 Environmental Seal Burst

[DenbyS]

This past weekend, as I was positioning my doubles rig to dive from a charter boat, there was a surprisingly loud crack. We discovered the environmental seal on one Hog D2 was burst. This reg was purchased new in late 2014, and has maybe 20 dives on it. I went ahead a put a few dives on it as it seemed to function fine although showing a very small leak a depth.

What failed and what needs to be done to repair the reg?

 

[guruboy]

I think at one point some Hog regs had issues with IP creep due to HP seat issues. Don't know the details though.

 

[tbone1004]

sounds like you had a catastrophic hp seat failure that blew the diaphragm due to IP creep. A full rebuild with the new parts kit should fix it. I'd have the other one done too

 

[Pao]

It's the main diaphragm that has the slow leak. Pressure built up enough in the environmental chamber to pop the environmental (external black silicone) diaphragm. IP will still be compensated at depth as you are now bypassing the hydrostatic transmitter with the water pressure acting on the main diaphragm which is similar to the non-environmentally sealed ones. It will still work but you now have no "environmental/icing protection" and the main diaphragm might give "big time" so it's service time . As to the cause, this may be due to failure of the diaphragm material or washer or inadequate torque during assembly.

 

[DenbyS]

Thanks for the replies. Confirmed my suspicions. I think its time to learn how to fix these. Looks like service kits are readily available. Not seeing the seal replacement part availble. Suggestions?

 

[tbone1004]

call one of the dealers. It isn't considered a consumable part since it is intended to be reused essentially indefinitely so any of the dealers can get them for you, just have to call. Cave Adventurers should have them in stock, same with Dive Right in Scuba

 

[Doby45]

Thanks for the replies. Confirmed my suspicions. I think its time to learn how to fix these. Looks like service kits are readily available. Not seeing the seal replacement part availble. Suggestions?

As it is classified as a "Class B" part you will not find it in the service kits. But, if you contact Hog they can get you one to replace it. Just did the class this weekend and it was great. Learned a bunch.

 

[rjack321]

I've seen quite a few of these regs go bang with a HP seat failure, not all that uncommon unfortunately.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

I've had only one HP seat failure that went pop in many thousands of dives with a wide variety of regulators.

The failure occurred at depth and it was from a cheap generic first stage i bought from someone on this board for only like $45 new. The shop wanted $40 to fix it. They seemed happy when I went to pick it up and I asked them if they wanted to buy the essentially new first stage from me for $20 or something. I didn't trust it after that... it was not a Hog reg.. but it might have been a clone - don't really know.

No problems like this for me ever with sherwood, scuba pro, Oceanic, USeless Divers, Parkway, Dacor or even the old Sportsways regs (from 40 yrs ago) - probably a few other brands i can't remember too.

 

[tbone1004]

I've seen quite a few of these regs go bang with a HP seat failure, not all that uncommon unfortunately.

this is true, I've had 3 of them go on me. BUT what we have to remember is that the big mfg's have had bad batches of parts kits come through, Apeks, Scubapro, etc. and HOG just happens to be the most recent one and also occurred at the time that they were getting a lot of publicity for straying from the norm with service as well as the prevalence of the internet so it got blown way out of proportion imho