Hello all. How often should gear be serviced by a technician? I'm talking about BC and reg set. This gear will only get about 12 fresh OW dives per year and about 25-30 chlorinated pool dives per year.
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Most manufacturers recommend servicing equipment annually. Some actually demand it in order to keep any warranties valid.
R
redacted
Guest
If you are the type of diver/instructor who believes "I don't get into detailed gear discussions because there are many more important and interesting things to talk about that involve diving" then it is probably best if you just pay the man every year for that annual service. If you would rather spend some time and effort learning about your gear, you could easily go 2 or more years between services.
BDSC
Contributor
I have Scubapro regs and I have them serviced every year. No matter if I do 10 dives a year or 50 dives a year. It's just what I do. And as long as I have them serviced on an annual basis, then the parts are free.
I am very particular with my stuff and always rinse the regs well with fresh water after every dive and soak them in warm water when I get home. Could I get by with not servicing it yearly, I'm pretty sure I can. But I figure what is a few bucks each year to have it done and in 17 years of diving, I've never once had a reg problem. So having an annual service is working well for me.
BDSC
I am very particular with my stuff and always rinse the regs well with fresh water after every dive and soak them in warm water when I get home. Could I get by with not servicing it yearly, I'm pretty sure I can. But I figure what is a few bucks each year to have it done and in 17 years of diving, I've never once had a reg problem. So having an annual service is working well for me.
BDSC
OP
I get the feeling that you think I don't care about my gear and somehow pass that attitude on to my students. That's not the case at all. I have had training in very detailed equipment maintenance including overhauling regs. It has been 5 years since I took that training and I have done very very little with gear repair or servicing since then. So...I'm a little rusty and wanted to hear everyone's opinions.
As far as my profile goes...that statement in my profile does not mean that I don't care about my gear. It just means that if another diver comes up to me and wants to talk diving and all they talk about is what brand and model of gear I use and how their gear is so much better than mine, I get turned off very quickly. If you want to ask me a question like that out of curiosity, then that's fine but don't come up to me and try to stroke your own ego by telling me why my gear sucks and yours is the best. If you want to talk diving with me, talk to me about experiences, locations, scares....you know, interesting stuff.
R
redacted
Guest
In that case and with your experience servicing gear, you must be able to determine what your particular manufacturer recommends and you probably know that most gear will go much longer than the recommendations between servicing with good care. Planning only 35 FW/pool dives per year, along with the ability to make minor adjustments when needed, I would expect you could go at least 3 years and would not be surprised if you went much longer than that before your regs required servicing. And your BC may wear out before it needs to be professionally serviced.
beanojones
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Apeks lists a recommended service interval of as little as 3 months if you dive in chlorinated water. (!)
Chlorinated water does irreversible damage to rubber, or something.
As an instructor, your gear's service interval pretty much has to meet or exceed recommended service intervals for liability reasons. Unfortunately, diving in chlorinated water results in some pretty silly recommended service intervals. Much less than the 1 year/100 dives which is pretty much boilerplate language.
Interestingly, gear manufacturers who offer 'free lifetime parts' almost never honor their own warranties when you attempt to get them to properly cover their gear as an instructor. You can even carry the service manual with the clear language to them, and they will usually still only give you one overhaul kit a year, regardless of how much you dive.
So there is what they say: 3 months if you dive in chlorinated pools, or 1 year/ 100 dives if you don't. And there is what they do: Only give you one service kit a year, even if you dive 4 dives a day seven days a week. (That's 112 dives in a month.) I never managed to get 12 service kits a year for free for my 'one set' of keyman gear, even though that's what their warranty said.
So I would say to take the 1 year seriously, and ignore the chlorinated water=3 months setting with a 'grain of salt'. (pun.)
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