Not servicing my gear EVER!

[redacted]

You should get your regulator serviced IAW the manufactures written guidelines. Failure to do so could result in voiding the warrantee. It could also result in catastrophic failure in your reg from one of several problems. Dry rotting hoses, a tear in the diaphragm, ripped o-ring there are several different ways it could fail. And depending on the problem you might not be able to tell while conduction your surface checks. Or it might not cause a failure till your under water and working the reg harder.

The main point is that all of your SCUBA gear is life support equipment. Do you really want to risk your life over not properly maintaining your equipment.

Having your regulators served IAW the manufacturers guidelines could also result in failures. And those failures could be catastrophic rather than the degraded performance or leaking regulator from overdue service that are more an inconvenience than a danger. Nothing can cause a serious failure as quickly as a service error such as over or under tightening a connection. An overtorqued connection may not show itself until it fails in the worse way which could well be UW.

If you expect that a scuba regulator failure could put your life in danger, then you better review your training and diving practices. You should always have a readily accessible redundant gas supply. Do you really want to risk the inconvenience of having your regulator fail due to a service error when the service was unnecessary?

 

[duroejc]

My thoughts exactly- I just did annual service on 2 regs- one failed the first dive after service- I ended up in Roatan having to rent a reg. I'll never service a regulator again unless it has a problem. I'll take my money from annual service and buy a back up regulator -

 

[knowone]

Try the vintage minimalist route.





not too many parts




very easy to service




Just sometimes a bit high maintenance.

 

[aquaregia]

The main point is that all of your SCUBA gear is life support equipment. Do you really want to risk your life over not properly maintaining your equipment.

That shouldn't be the main point. The main point is that your brain is life support gear. Do you really want to risk your live over not properly training and thinking about your actions?

Catastrophic regulator failure should not cause a reaction worse than OOG. Considering that the likelihood of OOG is much higher, and is more likely to occur to less experienced divers, I'm way less concerned about regulator failure. I've been around for three different OOG scenarios and no catastrophic regulator failures. I have seen several minor regulator failures, every single one of which was within 5 dives of service.

If you want to talk about equipment failures more likely to cause harm, consider inflator hoses. I've literally never seen a tech even take a look inside of a power inflator.

I'm happy to go through casual failure analysis and be proven wrong, but my main points are as follows: equipment failure has a much safer failure mode than poor judgement, and the failure modes of regulators out of service interval (but monitored) are safer than the failure modes of recently serviced regulators.

 

[copter53]

Whats oog?

 

[Bubbletrubble]

Whats oog?

OOG = Out Of Gas

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

...I'm happy to go through casual failure analysis and be proven wrong, but my main points are as follows: equipment failure has a much safer failure mode than poor judgement, and the failure modes of regulators out of service interval (but monitored) are safer than the failure modes of recently serviced regulators.

Yes.

The regulator failures I'm aware of that were true, CATASTROPHIC failures resulting in immeditate and total loss of air were all post-service.

They were caused by either gross errors and/or omissions by the tech, or by a defective replacement part.

Luckliy, most reg failures, even the tech-induced variety, seem to result in slight "leaks", generally in the form of free-flows.

Best wishes.

 

[scubafire]

So I just wanted to know. If i never service my regs. what are the risks involved?

Uhhh....seeing as how you breathe from those, I would assume that the risk is death if they malfunction. Call me crazy.

 

[redacted]

Uhhh....seeing as how you breathe from those, I would assume that the risk is death if they malfunction. Call me crazy.

Only if you are also doing something else wrong. Or do you really figure that death is a probable outcome of a regulator malfunction?

 

[Downing]

Only if you are also doing something else wrong. Or do you really figure that death is a probably outcome of a regulator malfunction?

He didn't say that. He said that the risk is death, not that the probable outcome of a reg malfunction is death.

Not to split hairs, but I'd certainly agree that a risk of a reg malfunction is death because death would be within the realm of possiblity, especially if you were doing something else wrong.

And would really suck if it happened, which is why it's worth mentioning.