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#4400
 Delayed equipment servicing
Scubadad2 - 11/14/2014 5:41 PM
Category: Training
Replies: 4
Have you ever forgotten to have your BC or regulators serviced? Maybe you haven’t forgotten but just have been busy with other things and let them sit for a few months then just decided to get back in the water. Have you gone diving and had problems that made you wish your own gear was working right? Is your gear new but not used as much as you would like. Have you just "figured" it was ok because it was "New"? I was surprised to find that just letting my things hang for a few months because of a string of "Emergencies" caused my primary air to stick when I began to breath heavily. That is an uncomfortable feeling at any depth. My rescue air worked fine and I used it to surface but I called the dive simply because for me, ANY equipment malfunction is a safety concern that could be life threatening. Maybe I am overly cautious, still I felt pretty foolish getting in the water with out having the gear checked after sitting for just a "couple" months (It was actually 7) . Any thoughts out there?
#12605
Eric_R - 11/14/2014 8:35 PM
You have to have confidence in your equipment. If you don’t it will undermine your dive, causing stress , putting not only you at risk but your dive buddies.
Yearly equipment service is important but is it necessary? A year may be a industry standard but if a diver is logging 300 dives a year and another is putting 100 how can they both end up needing the same service interval? I think it comes down to your judgment and if you notice differences in equipment performance. I think a year is good as it’s more related to the break down of synthetic components. I think were fortunate that most scuba equipment if it fails will provide enough air to service.
#2245
Subscribed
MDW - 1/24/2015 8:30 PM
sitting for a couple months or a couple years should not really impact your gear too drastically unless you didn’t take good care of it on the last dive and put it away dirty, salty, or all scrunched up in the bottom of a bag where it sat getting moldy. I’ve used regs that hung in my garage through 2 or 3 hot summers and sub-zero winters and they work fine. I also once had a BC that I didn’t rinse properly after being in the ocean and the valves were all seized up after a couple weeks.