Scuba equipment is life support gear and should be treated carefully and well maintained for a number of reasons.
- It will be reliable and keep you alive while underwater
- The regular servicing of any equipment, specially scuba gear, will prolong its life
- Will keep it operating at peak performance
- and save money on possible expensive part replacement.
- A regulator that is regularly maintained and tuned correctly will breathe more easily which in turn is less tiring. This all helps to make your dive more enjoyable and relaxing.
Equipment manufacturers recommend that scuba regulators should be serviced at least annually, more often if the gear gets heavy usage or is in harsh environments.
If you have Oceanic equipment that was bought with the great feature of “free parts for life” then your equipment needs to be serviced annually to maintain that “free parts” warranty.
Sunreef is an authorised Oceanic Service Centre and has experienced scuba technicians to look after your gear for you.
Sunreef is able to service all major brands of scuba gear and carries a good stock of regular service parts.
What’s in a service???
A service entails a diagnostic check before commencement of work, then completely disassembling the regulator, cleaning, inspecting, and replacing the recommended parts plus any others that may be worn, perished, damaged or broken. The reg is then reassembled with new parts, new o rings, relubricated and adjusted to factory specifications.
The reg is then checked on a Magnehelic gauge and finally water checked for any leaks before packaging and made ready for you, the customer, to collect and start diving with it again.
What happens if I don’t service my gear regularly?
While on a dive, your regulator is under the same “pressure” that you are. This water pressure forces its way into threaded areas put not into the actual internals of the reg. When you rinse your gear after a dive, you certainly help reduce corrosion of the regulator but unfortunately no amount of rinsing can flush the salt from the threaded areas. This is where corrosion can build up and cause the regulator to be difficult to disassemble. As there are a lot of PVCs/plastics and soft metals like brass, used in regulator manufacture, these softer materials can be damaged at service time if the reg hasn’t been regularly serviced. This then translates to a more expensive service when damaged parts have to be replaced.
Helpful tip;
Washing Dive Equipment;
Help keep your dive gear in top working order between services by thorough rinsing. This doesn’t replace the need for annual servicing but certainly is necessary after each dive day.
Where possible, if a scuba cylinder is available, fit your reg to the cylinder valve and turn the air on. While pressurised, immerse your second stage and occy into a bucket of fresh water and purge the reg several times leaving a gap of a few seconds between each purge. This allows fresh water to be purged around inside, a bit like a washing machine action, and flushes out any salt. Connect up your BCD inflator and do the same. This will help prevent self inflating of your BCD.