regulator service questions

[lobbolt]

I have a set of Mares proton metal regulators that are almost a year old. A few months ago I noticed the sintered filter on the first stage oriface was slightly black and there were small spots of green corrosion. So I took the regs to the shop to have them looked at and the guy told me they were pretty new so nothing needs to be done and he can't disassemble the regs because doing so I would have to replace the parts :thinking: which sounds dubious to me. Anyway my regs have about 20 dives on them and I was wondering if they need their annual service from so few dives. Thanks for the replies.

 

[Nut Bubblefish]

I tend to think that the number of dives is not the main factor for the servicing. The best friend of corrosion is time.
I also find the reply from the shop pretty dubious.
So my advice: have your regulator serviced on an annual basis, especially if you plan a dive trip in the near future. It is your life line after all...You might want to try another shop for the servicing?
Also, have your BCD checked at the same time. Funny things can happen with a defective jacket....
Have a nice day.

 

[scubapro50]

I would take it to a another shop and see what they say ......

 

[lobbolt]

I was also wondering about the gauges, if salt water got into them through the first stage could that be fixed?

 

[DiverBuoy]

If they have to take the regulator apart there is a level of legal obligation. So this stance is not an unusual position for a dive shop to take. That is to say, if they become responsible for taking it apart and thus in turn take responsibility for putting it back together, by De Facto they have given their stamp of approval that the regulator has checked out and is safe to dive. Therefore, most will apply the blanket statement that they would not be willing to take this responsibility only part way, they would thus need to do a full servicing in order to take responsibility for thier work and the approval of the regulator to perform safely - a full servicing with parts replacement and labor.

This dive shop is not pulling the wool over your eyes or attempting some flim flam racket, it's a very normal practice with life-support equipment.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

The black stuff on the filter is probably carbon from a less than healthy filter on a compressor. The chances are good you also have a fair amount of carbon inside the regulator as well. The green spots of corrosion are another indicator that you want to have someone take a look inside the regulator.

And I agree, if a tech goes to the trouble of dissassembling a regulator, it only makes sense to install new parts. Part of it (a large part) is liability, but part of it (the part that leads to the liability) is that parts that are working together inside a reg all have certain orientations and working relationships with each other and once they are broken in and are familiar with each other, dissasembly screws that all up and this can cause problems.

For example, all high pressure seats develop a seating groove within a short period of time by the action of the orifice against the seat. It is not uncommon, due to normal machining tolerances in the piston or orifice for this groove to be very slighty off center on the seat. So if you dissassemble the regulator, the odds are that you will not get the parts reinstalled in the exact same orientation with the result that a new seating groove will form that overlaps the old one. These two grooves will overlap in two spots and a slight leak will occur in each of these spots which will result in intermediate pressure creep.

So personally, if I dissassemble a first stage for any reason, it gets an annual service kit installed.

 

[scubatoys]

I was also wondering about the gauges, if salt water got into them through the first stage could that be fixed?

The Spherical core seat mares normally only need service every 2 years, but based on the question above... it sounds like maybe you flooded this reg?? In salt water?? That is normally how water gets into the pressure gauge. Blown in up the HP hose from a flooded first.

If you are seeing green, that is another sign the internal brass is corroding, and I'd vote for a service on the reg. It's about $40 - $60 that could make a huge difference down the line.

 

[Al Mialkovsky]

You need to service them every year, at least, regardless of the number of dives.

 

[oxyhacker]

The a sintered metal filter serendipitously acts as a tell-tail for the internal state of the regulator. So what the tech told you is sort of like a mechanic telling someone who drives into a garage with the engine knocking and the exhaust pouring out black smoke that "It's only a year old, it must be supposed to run like that".

On the other hand, that tech may just be familiar enough with that model that those symptoms don't bother him, and be trying to save you some money. Hard to say.

My inclination would be to have it serviced, then take a long hard look at how you have been treating your regulator.

 

[lobbolt]

I'm gonna get it serviced. I treat my equipment pretty well; I rinse it after every dive even if I'm gonna be diving later the same day. I even pour fresh water over the first stage before disconnecting it from the tank. I think the black stuff came from a tank of bad air that smelled like grease and the corrosion was from dive boat crews not turning on the tank valve to blow out accumulated water before mounting my reg.