maintainence on regulator worries

[kenh2o]

I am wanting to have my regulator taken to my dive shop for regular maintainence (its been over a year and 80 dives without any problems), but I'm a worry wort. What can go wrong? Am I putting my life in the hands of somebody I don't trust? Or are regulators designed to be taken apart and assembled with little risk of them making an error?

What qualifications do these people have? What do they regularly check for? What do they lubricate and/or change?

I guess I am being a bit paranoid, but I paid a lot of money for my regulator and I am the kind of person who would rather wait until something is broken before mucking with it, because sometimes the mere process of taking something apart can make the it worse.

I understand that the point of preventative maintainence is to avoid problems before they occur, which is very important for a device you are trusting your life with. I just need to know if I can take my reg. to any old dive shop and expect the same level of care.

 

[LUBOLD8431]

You should call your LDS, and ask if they have an authorized service technician for the brand of regulator you own...

These people are trained and know how to service your particular regulator. They also should be using service kits from the original manufacturer, and use the service guidelines provided by the manufacturer.

Find someone you trust to service your reg. Or, you can always send it back to the manufacturer...

What brand of reg is it? I might be able to help you out with that...

 

[MikeFerrara]

It's kind of like having your car worked on. There are good mechanics and lousy ones. You need to at least know enough about it so you can make sure you're not being cheated otherwise you might be.

 

[livestodive]

Just recently I went on a boat dive. One of the divers on the boat was having real problems assembling his gear. I went to help and realized pretty quickly that his hoses were not placed correctly on his first stage.

He told me that he had just gotten them back from his yearly servicing. I thought, and cringed, and was very thankful for this board. I always do a shallow dive with newly serviced gear.

I did not offer to fix it, the whole idea of diving with those newly serviced regs gave me the creeps.

To err is human, but you need to make it to the surface to forgive

 

[chrpai]

Checkout http://www.njscuba.net/dive_gear/eqpt_regulators.html

and let me know what you think. Personally I don't service my regulators, but admitting that tends to get me flammed.

 

[annie]

>>I am the kind of person who would rather wait until something is broken before mucking with it<<

You can't be serious. What you're saying is you want to wait until it malfunctions before you have it serviced - that could kill you.
I've posted elsewhere here about the first stage failure I had underwater - have it serviced every 50 dives or every year!

 

[redacted]

annie once bubbled...
>>I am the kind of person who would rather wait until something is broken before mucking with it<<

You can't be serious. What you're saying is you want to wait until it malfunctions before you have it serviced - that could kill you.
I've posted elsewhere here about the first stage failure I had underwater - have it serviced every 50 dives or every year!

Are you more likely to have a life threatening incident because of service or because of lack of service? I suspect that, unless you have found a known good tech, it is probably the former.

I generaly do not service my regs until they show some sign of a problem either in the form of an IP change, leak, or breathing performance change. Unless you really abuse your system, I would expect lack of service problems to reveal themselves in non-life threatening manner. I suspect that catestrophic mechanical failures are probably service error related or due to gross neglect and ignored waring signs.

Ken - It looks like you have already lost the warranty (not that it is a big deal) so you might as well do the research and find a tech you trust. If you can't find that in an LDS, then you might want to look at some of the service centers that you will have to ship your gear off to. And even with the trusted tech, start out with some simple check dives before you venture into anything too serious with that just serviced reg. I do my own and they always go from the kitchen table to the pool before OW. I expect regs to go 2 to 4 years before required service which is often simply a clean & lube and maybe a couple o-rings to get another year without wasting hard to find parts like HP & LP seats.

 

[redacted]

annie once bubbled...
>>I am the kind of person who would rather wait until something is broken before mucking with it<<

You can't be serious. What you're saying is you want to wait until it malfunctions before you have it serviced - that could kill you.
I've posted elsewhere here about the first stage failure I had underwater - have it serviced every 50 dives or every year!

Are you more likely to have a life threatening incident because of service or because of lack of service? I suspect that, unless you have found a known good tech, it is probably the former.

I generaly do not service my regs until they show some sign of a problem either in the form of an IP change, leak, or breathing performance change. Unless you really abuse your system, I would expect lack of service problems to reveal themselves in non-life threatening manner. I suspect that catestrophic mechanical failures are probably service error related or due to gross neglect and ignored waring signs.

Ken - It looks like you have already lost the warranty (not that it is a big deal) so you might as well do the research and find a tech you trust. If you can't find that in an LDS, then you might want to look at some of the service centers that you will have to ship your gear off to. And even with the trusted tech, start out with some simple check dives before you venture into anything too serious with that just serviced reg. I do my own and they always go from the kitchen table to the pool before OW. I expect regs to go 2 to 4 years before required service which is often simply a clean & lube and maybe a couple o-rings to get another year without wasting hard to find parts like HP & LP seats.

 

[chrpai]

annie once bubbled...
>>.
I've posted elsewhere here about the first stage failure I had underwater - have it serviced every 50 dives or every year!

I read your thread and its very interesting. I notice it starts off with the techician claiming both of your 2nd stages failed at the same time because of a low pressure seat. People in the thread point out this is unlikely and it must be your 1st stage, valve or no air left in the tank. Then you go back to the tech and he discovers your first stage is crusted.

How could he have ever missed that in the first place? God I certainly wouldn't want him "servicing" my reg.

Read the link I posted above. It talks about the fallacy of the buddy system ( as you found, you weren't near your buddy and you had to swim to get to him.... time that might have been better spent doing a swimming ascent but you made it ) and the fact that although you have an octopus you really don't have a redundant air supply.

You could service your regulator after every single dive and it doesn't mean it'll never fail. The reality is the true solution is a completly redundant air supply. This could be a pony or it could be manifoldd doubles.

 

[kenh2o]

annie once bubbled...
>>I am the kind of person who would rather wait until something is broken before mucking with it<<

You can't be serious. What you're saying is you want to wait until it malfunctions before you have it serviced - that could kill you.
I've posted elsewhere here about the first stage failure I had underwater - have it serviced every 50 dives or every year!

I am completely serious, otherwise I wouldn't have posted. I have worked on all kinds of machines and electronics and know that a working machine can be made worse when it is disassembled and reassembled. This is a fact of nature inherent in any complex machine: cars, computers, washing machines, etc.... Why should this be different for regulators.

I want to live and be safe so I am posting here to learn something that might reduce my risk of dying. I am not the kind of person who ships his regulator off just because somebody told me to do so. I need to know first-hand what the risks are in my decision.

As I initially stated in my first posting, I understand the value of preventative maintainence, as anybody who flies in an airplane can appreciate. Who wouldn't be concerned if the airlines policy was to wait until something was broke before fixing an airplane?

But for preventative maintainence to be successful it has to be backed up by research and rigorous procedures to ensure that the cure isn't worse than the disease.

Thats what I would like to learn more about before blindly shipping my regulator off to joe-blow dive shop.