Problems with serviced regulators

[josb]

MK25 regulator problem

OK,

your schrieking noise is a well know issue that can occur on your MK25, there is a solution given from Scubapro, I wonder if your technician is aware of this?
It's not the 2 O-rings on the piston that cause this noise, although they should be well lubricated especially under the antifreeze bushing (no 28) and between the 2 O-rings there should be Christolube.

the problem sits in the 2 plastic rings (no 21 and 23) they both should be (how do you say it in English?) cut / slit with a knife very carefully before mounting. The O-ring (no 22) should be well lubricated with Christolube.
This should solve the schrieking noise from your 1st stage.





The "wet air" from your R395 I can't explain without having it in my hands, there can be a lot of things wrong from a little dirt on the exhale valve to a tiny hole in the membrane, a leaking O-ring somewhere or a small crack.
I don't think it's wet air coming from the tank, if it's so humid that you "taste" it it would have probably damaged your 1st stage already.
And that's easy to check by putting it on another tank.

 

[flots am]

Some 10 years ago I had the idea of cutting down on the annual servicing cost of my Apeks T20 regulator. Since the second stage leaked air for a couple of dives after each service I naively thought I can procure service kits directly from Apeks and do a better job myself. Needless to say Apeks did not agree and told me to take my regulators to a “qualified service technician” since I did not have all the expensive testing equipment required for the job. Since I have worked at a shop that repaired truck air brakes I know the value of a test bench but if scuba regulator service is such an exact science, then why was mine leaking air?

If you dive with a pony bottle or doubles, make sure you never have two recently serviced regulators at the same time. If you don't, you should.

Regs that fail, do so either very soon after service, or way down the road when things start getting stiff, worn and cracked. They hardly ever fail after 6 months or a year of normal use.

If you have alternate service cycles, you can be nearly certain that even if one fails, the other will be OK.

Also, never trust that any equipment will work perfectly after service, no matter who serviced it. Even if it was you. Or the guy who invented the regulator. People aren't perfect and make mistakes. Even really good people.

flots.

 

[drcolyn]

Thanks Zung for that reply - I was about to go do that "not so deep" test dive tomorrow but after seeing that damaged o-ring you have saved me from a potentially very bad diving situation. The tech did mention that an o-ring might be nicked so I will rather have it re serviced first.

Thanks Josb for the wet air clarification - the R395 was re opened by the tech and declared fine so I will test it tomorrow with another cylinder from the same fill date just to make sure the air was dry and that it was probably some debris under the exaust valve seat (although I cannot imagine what since I used it for the first time after the service)

Thanks flots am for that staggered service strategy advice and doing my own QC checks at the shop - I will definately remember that next time after having to make a 300km round trip to this shop again.