Yearly maintenance

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The reality in most cases is that if a reg fails, it will fail open and freeflow - stillproviding the diver with air for ascent. Failures where the reg fails closed are very rare and if they occur usually involve the second stage, where the octo can be used to avoid a life threatening situation as you can still get air.

I have encountered two second stage "fail closed: situations in 25 years of diving. One was due to ice forming in the second stage during an ice dive and occurred in a full face mask. The second involved an R109 I had serviced where the lever slipped off the poppet - a very rare event in what is a bullet proof reg. But it was probably caused by a 30 year old lever that had had seen too much use and had prongs that were too easily bent out of alignment.

I have never encountered a first stage that has failed closed. The most common failure mode is a slow leak, and if you ignore them long enough, they can get big.

So in 99.9% of the cases where a reg failure occurs, it is inconvenient rather than dangerous if the diver is properly trained and diving with a buddy or is redundantly configured. Even in cave diving, if a diver has a failed reg, they train to deal with the failure to prevent/limit gas loss and switch to a backup, so again it is an inconvenience, not truly a life threatening situation.

That does not mean you can play fast and loose with regulator maintenence, but it does take it out of the "oh my god yer gonna die!" category.

Personally I got into reg repair as I was tired of the LDS screwing it up where I lived (poor adjustment one year, damaged piston and resulting HP seat leak the next and a tear in the diaphragm in the third annual service - they NEVER got it done right). And as I was advancing into techncial diving, I wanted more reliability (and could forsee the huge costs of relying on a shop to do them all - especially with the outrageous rates charged for O2 cleaning for O2 regs.)
 
I get my reg. back from servicing tomorrow, just in time for 2 out of the 3 day weekend diving. I'll post how much it winds up costing me for a complete overhaul. Now I'm paranoid it's going to fail.
 
Follow the regulator check guidelines that were posted earlier, it beats being paranoid. Since you likely do not have an IP gauge, set the reg up on a tank and leave it turned on for an hour or two, if it does not blow the second stage open in that time, you should be fine.
 
I get my reg. back from servicing tomorrow, just in time for 2 out of the 3 day weekend diving. I'll post how much it winds up costing me for a complete overhaul. Now I'm paranoid it's going to fail.

No reason to be paranoid. You can run through most of the checklist and be confident nothing is seriously wrong. (Tightness checks on all connections, vacuum check, and leak check) Then just be extra cautious on the first dive or 2. Stay shallow and/or close to your buddy. Try both your primary and alternate. Enjoy.
 
No reason to be paranoid. You can run through most of the checklist and be confident nothing is seriously wrong. (Tightness checks on all connections, vacuum check, and leak check) Then just be extra cautious on the first dive or 2. Stay shallow and/or close to your buddy. Try both your primary and alternate. Enjoy.

:thumb: 1+ what Thal and awap said.

And as strange as this sounds, I think a brand new reg needs to be treated with the same level of caution for the first couple dives as a just-rebuilt reg. While pretty darned rare, there have been assembly errors at the factory that go undetected... but no reason to be paranoid, just be aware there can sometimes be problems after a reg is serviced and stay vigilant.

Best wishes.
 
Red Sullivan ( BlueWaterDiving) is a regular poster here on Scuba Board. They are located in Daytona Fl. http://www.bluewaterdiving.com

On the strength of that, I would throw my business his way if I needed it.


c
 
I have read a lot of the posts here and deciding on when to maintenance my gear. It really will only be used a dozen times a year max.

I understand that o-rings / seals can degrade with time even if not used. My questions are why don't new regulators and regulator rebuild kits have expiration dates?

O-rings / seals used in other important applications commonly do [aviation and medical] and if these seals can degrade in my closet, why can't they degrade on the shelf at the LDS?

It pretty easy to imagine a kit for many less utilized older model regs sitting on a shelf for a long time.

What do you LDS guys think about expiration dates for regs and reg kits since this stuff is life support equipment?
 
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Some one want to explain the purpose of yearly maintenance to me and why I should pay $70 to fix something that's working?
Price break down on a mares abyss 22 which purchased last year was $400+:
$34.50 - Labor
$14.00 - Parts 1st stage
$10.00 - Parts 2nd stage
$12.00 - O2 Cleaning.

What amazes me is the O2 Cleaning was discounted, it's normally $50 as per the receipt. Honestly, what the hell.

My future plan is to buy regs, use them till they stop working, and toss them in the trash.
Constructive Thoughts, comments, explanations are more than welcome. I'd really like a solid explanation.

Sounds like a good plan EXCEPT what if when it stop working while you were doing a 100ft cave dive?? Probably not work saving $100. If all you will do is 30ft shallow water dive, I think it should be fine, but I am a newbie, what do I know!!!
 
You could learn to work on them yourself...Something I plan on doing but haven't yet.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

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