servicing old regs vs buying new?

[mslise]

Hi all :)
First time poster- am an Australian living in UK (dont hold it against me!) and have only just stumbled on these forums.
I've been diving for about 7 years and have had my regs since then (oceanic 1st/2nd + mares occy) I haven't used them much since the last service 18 months ago and on a recent trip to the red sea the 1st stage wouldn't seal properly on the tanks so I'm not willing to use them again unless they're serviced.

Now, dive gear in aus is fairly expensive and so servicing is always a cheaper option, and I had friends who were service engineers and could do it for me. I had a quote here for a service of 'up to 110 pounds' from a shop in London. Now looking around other threads on here it would seem a new apeks set can be had for 150-200ish. I only need something easy, light and basic, I dont do tech or cold diving.

So does anyone have any opinions? Do I abandon my old faithful regs and get a new set or pay what seems a pretty hefty fee to get them serviced? Is servicing a lot cheaper outside of London perhaps, is there something I'm missing?

Any help or opinions gratefully accepted! Cheers, Lise.

[DarrenA]

Hi,

Dont know about your regs in particular but the local dive shop here in the North West quoted a friend of mine £75 for a full service (whatever that means...) for a Mares set of regs.

I use Apeks regs and send them all back every year to Apeks who service them and send them back. iirc its about £50-60 per set depending on what they are and O2 compatible etc. We have 8 sets to date...

You have to pay postage though (£13 last time)

hth

Darren

[ChristianG]

on a recent trip to the red sea the 1st stage wouldn't seal properly on the tanks so I'm not willing to use them again unless they're serviced.
That is quite possibly not, in fact unlikely to be, a service problem. I'm willing to bet (if I were a betting man) that your regs are A Clamp and these are notoriously "iffy" when fitted to a well-used tank, such as is more than likely in the Red Sea.

I had a quote here for a service of 'up to 110 pounds' from a shop in London. Now looking around other threads on here it would seem a new apeks set can be had for 150-200ish. I only need something easy, light and basic, I dont do tech or cold diving.
Servicing, as a generality, is not the be-all-and-end-all. That's because it's carried out by a hooman bean and hooman beans are notoriously unreliable, prone to making mistakes. If you get regs serviced, test them out at least a couple of times before you make that expensive trip.

If you decide on new regs, make sure that they are DIN or have your current regs converted to DIN. It's easy to re-convert from DIN to A Clamp but a tad less so when going vice versa. A conversion shouldn't cost much at all and, to me at least, makes more sense than a service given the little use your reg has had.

[mslise]

That is quite possibly not, in fact unlikely to be, a service problem. I'm willing to bet (if I were a betting man) that your regs are A Clamp and these are notoriously "iffy" when fitted to a well-used tank, such as is more than likely in the Red Sea.


Servicing, as a generality, is not the be-all-and-end-all. That's because it's carried out by a hooman bean and hooman beans are notoriously unreliable, prone to making mistakes. If you get regs serviced, test them out at least a couple of times before you make that expensive trip.

If you decide on new regs, make sure that they are DIN or have your current regs converted to DIN. It's easy to re-convert from DIN to A Clamp but a tad less so when going vice versa. A conversion shouldn't cost much at all and, to me at least, makes more sense than a service given the little use your reg has had.


Thanks for this, I readily admit to being a bit clueless about stuff like servicing and my regs havent behaved like that in over 150 dives, so it spooked me a bit. I assumed something in the 1st stage had rusted or something.. I might get them serviced for my peace of mind and ask about converting to DIN too. So just buy a new 1st stage or can they convert the A-clamp I have?

Do most dive centres have DIN tanks or at least converters? I've never had to ask..

Appreciate your advice! :D

[ChristianG]

Do most dive centres have DIN tanks or at least converters? I've never had to ask.
The answer to the first part of your question is "it depends". The answer to the second part is "yes".

Your current first stage can be converted to a DIN configuration but I have no idea what that should cost in the UK, not much I expect. I, too, use Oceanic regs although almost certainly not the same models as yours and they're DIN. The problem with A Clamp O Rings is that when they're clamped the O Ring is still visible and can therefore extrude, especially if the tank tap receptor for it is dinged, a common enough problem in hire tanks in particular. That, I strongly suspect, is what happened to you and that is why I say that it has nothing to do with servicing, the best reg servicer in the world cannot fix a tank tap that they don't have.

DIN 1st stage to tank tap O Rings are buried in the guts of the tank tap at a 90 degree angle, thus the O Ring is what is technically called "captured", it quite literally has nowhere to go, even in the unlikely event that it would "blow" in that position. Your problem with this method of attachment is that the O Ring sits on the end of your 1st Stage where it is easy to lose it. The good news is that these don't require grease, in fact it's contra indicated, so if it does get lost one of your spare ones ;) simply fits in its place. :D

[Michael Purcell]

I converted my wife's Mares Abyss from A-Clamp to DIN and actually wasn't that pleased with the outcome. When it works it is great but it requires extra special attention with muppets touching your kit as it loosens at the conversion point more than I would like. Still, overall pleased with it.

[Matt-75]

Had my ATX40's done some years back at SDS for somewhere between £25 and £35 (the exact amount escapes me, but was somewhere around that figure). It was the best move i made and havent had anything loosening off or falling apart. Just remember to replace the cover after diving, and their is a good chance you wont lose the O ring.

[Richard Whitcombe]

That is quite possibly not, in fact unlikely to be, a service problem. I'm willing to bet (if I were a betting man) that your regs are A Clamp and these are notoriously "iffy" when fitted to a well-used tank, such as is more than likely in the Red Sea.

Id go with that. If they're dinosar "aka A-clamp" regs there are really hard to get to seal on some tank valves requiring a few permutations of insert and tank. Not unknown here to try 4 inserts and 6 tanks to find one that works.

Get them converted to DIN with the next service and all problems are solved!

I've been to exactly 1 place that didnt have DIN convertible tanks and that was Florida. Problem is easily solve as a DIN > A-clamp adaptor costs £10.