Reg's & Stage warranties, worth it or not??? (sorry if this question had been hammered)

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Marty Bess

Contributor
Messages
125
Reaction score
11
Location
Utah
# of dives
100 - 199
I'm sure it's been addressed much but I think I will start a new thread and ask: Is the warranty even worth it, what does it cover? (I realize that will differ per brand but.....what are the pros and cons of warranties verses maintenance fees)? If I do a good job keeping my gear clean and with proper care are they worth taking in yearly so the warranty is honored?? (I don't know if there's a good place here in Salt Lake City that I can trust to service.... really, I'm new).
 
Personally, I think it's a suckers bet. (referring to Aqua Lung) You have to have yearly maintenance on an item that really only needs it every 4-5 years. The warranty seems to be a way for the manufacturer to justify the "authorized dealer" fees by getting reg owners to take their regs in for service more often then really necessary. Parts cost $25 to $50 for a few o-rings (costs the manufacturer a couple dollars at most) which they give to you free. But, you have to have your regs checked EVERY year and full service every other year. That's about $300-$500/5 year then I think I should be paying. I could buy new regs every 5 years and sell my old ones on eBay for that much.
 
I'm sure it's been addressed much but I think I will start a new thread and ask: Is the warranty even worth it, what does it cover? (I realize that will differ per brand but.....what are the pros and cons of warranties verses maintenance fees)? If I do a good job keeping my gear clean and with proper care are they worth taking in yearly so the warranty is honored?? (I don't know if there's a good place here in Salt Lake City that I can trust to service.... really, I'm new).

Well..... this is how I see it.

I'm assuming you're thinking about buying second hand gear and are wondering if not having a warranty is going to hurt you.

In terms of warranty, I HAVE made warranty claims before but that was on new gear that failed almost directly after buying it, most recently a drysuit. If that gear is a couple of years old and hasn't failed yet then the chances are (a) very good that you can get it for a good price and (b) it's unlikely to fail under normal use until it has reached its natural life span.

There is always the chance that recall will be issued for a bit of gear you have but in that case you do not need to show proof of purchase to have recall repairs made. This does not factor into it.

So on the whole I think if you buy second hand and the hive-mind doesn't have a lot of negative things to say about a bit of gear that paying full price just to have a warranty is a waste of money.

R..
 
There are warranties and then there are things usually referred to as extended warranties. What regulator does NOT come with a standard warranty against defects in materials and workmanship? None. I think what you're referring to is some kind of extended warranty. That sounds like wasted money to me. If you take care of your regulators, they could go several years without needing maintenance/service. Take care of them by rinsing after diving in saltwater, and then every few years--not necessarily every year or even every two--take your regs in to a local dive shop or send them by mail for service. If you don't have a local dive shop, there are various shops and individuals around the country who service regs sent to them, and the cost may very well be the same as or lower than a local dive shop would charge.
 
Personally, I think it's a suckers bet. (referring to Aqua Lung) You have to have yearly maintenance on an item that really only needs it every 4-5 years. The warranty seems to be a way for the manufacturer to justify the "authorized dealer" fees by getting reg owners to take their regs in for service more often then really necessary. Parts cost $25 to $50 for a few o-rings (costs the manufacturer a couple dollars at most) which they give to you free. But, you have to have your regs checked EVERY year and full service every other year. That's about $300-$500/5 year then I think I should be paying. I could buy new regs every 5 years and sell my old ones on eBay for that much.

I guess the question boils down to how much the person is going to be diving. If you can accrue enough dives, Aqua Lung's schedule might work for some people. Year 0: Purchase, Year 1: Inspect, Year 2: Service, Year 3: Inspect, Year 3: Service---repeat. The inspection is not much...I want to say it was like $30 at my LDS. So if you can rack up enough dives in 2 years time, it could be fine. If I had to throw out a number....200+ dives? What do you all think or suggest? (That is another question...how long or how many dives until you should service?)
 
Are we referring to this Aqualung warranty?

Regulators:
Limited Lifetime Warranty
This warranty will cover the original owner of the regulator against defects in parts or workmanship for the lifetime of the regulator if the regulator is:

  1. Purchased from an Authorized Aqua Lung America Dealer
  2. Inspected or serviced annually by an Authorized Aqua Lung America Dealer as outlined in the "Free Parts for Life" Program.
If so, it seems to me that it differs from a standard limited warranty only in that it extends the warranty to the "lifetime" of the regulator, instead of the typical, say, two-year limited warranty. And of course you get "parts for life." But if you service a regulator often enough, it's going to last a "lifetime." Except for the minor benefit of getting the parts for free, this doesn't seem like a big deal to me. As ljpm said above, a parts kit is only $25-50.


. . . If I had to throw out a number....200+ dives? What do you all think or suggest? (That is another question...how long or how many dives until you should service?)

I won't venture a guess, but I will say that whether the dives are saltwater or freshwater is going to make a huge difference. Not speaking from personal experience, but I would bet a reg used in only freshwater could go for a decade without needing service.
 
Alec Pierce gave a short and informative talk about warranty. Click on the link:
Only once have I had to send a reg back for warranty. There have been numerous (lots) of threads pertaining to service and cost. Some balk at paying for service, labor and parts, and claim regs can go much longer intervals between service than what the manufacturer states. While there is a degree of truth to this, the one question no one can definitevly answer is 'how long can YOUR reg go without servicing before it fails.' Everyone treats their regulators differently in terms of rinsing, cleaning, storing, diving, etc, which means no one can give you an accurate answer. At a minimum the manufacturers have given an interval. It is up to you whether or not you want to go with the manufacturers time line or stretch the interval between servicing.

On another note, back in the '90s it cost me around $100, labor and parts, non-nitrox compatible, to have my regs serviced each year. Today, some manufacturers state the reg should be serviced every two years, or more often if the reg is used a lot. The average cost, around here, to have a reg serviced is $150 for parts and labor. That comes out to an average of $75 per year. So, I'm not sure why some people want to balk at paying for a reg to be serviced; twenty years ago it was higher, especially if it was to be nitrox compatible.
 
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The parts for life interval only makes sense in a select situation where you do quite a bit of diving (100+) per year where you actually need to service the reg every two years or more often and you are paying a shop that is a aqualung dealer to do the servicing and they will inspect on off years for a small fee. In that case, it saves you a little bit to follow the manufacturer schedule so you don't pay for the parts. If you pay for more servicing than actually necessary, it becomes less worthwhile.
 
Probable reality, if a person is asking these kind of questions they likely don't have the experience, technical ability, or confidence to go against the sport's firm and persistent advisories, even more so if the 'annual warranty' is tied to it.

Who are you going to believe, what criteria are you going to use, and why? You have to come up to a certain functional level to even do that.
 
Probable reality, if a person is asking these kind of questions they likely don't have the experience, technical ability, or confidence to go against the sport's firm and persistent advisories, even more so if the 'annual warranty' is tied to it.

Who are you going to believe, what criteria are you going to use, and why? You have to come up to a certain functional level to even do that.

There have been numerous (lots) of threads pertaining to service and cost. Some balk at paying for service, labor and parts, and claim regs can go much longer intervals between service than what the manufacturer states. While there is a degree of truth to this, the one question no one can definitevly answer is 'how long can YOUR reg go without servicing before it fails.' Everyone treats their regulators differently in terms of rinsing, cleaning, storing, diving, etc, which means no one can give you an accurate answer. At a minimum the manufacturers have given an interval. It is up to you whether or not you want to go with the manufacturers time line or stretch the interval between servicing.

Excellent points. Frankly, I don't care to find out how long I can go before it gives me a problem. It's not a risk that I'm willing to take and I never want to think "I should have just spent $150 to service it sooner". It's likely if I think that I either had a really close call or don't have the luxury of thinking that because I'm X_X. People are always touting regs as "life support equipment" and to not skimp on money when purchasing one....I hope the same people feel this way about servicing to maintain that "life support equipment". From a simple cost-benefit analysis, it's a no-brainer for me. But, I also dive enough a year (100 dives consistently scheduled each year for at least the next 2 years) to justify the schedule, so there's that.
 

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