If it's a US Divers or Voit chances are your in luck. Over the past decade I have reproduced or produced almost every part necessary to get your regulator back in the water and in most cases vastly improve it's performance!
I always ask to see the regulator before giving an exact cost to rebuild it......You would think after doing hundreds of them I could get the cost down to the penny just by hearing the regulator type and I'd like to claim I'm that good but not by a long shot. Most of these regulators are more than 50 years old and a lot can and has happened to them over the years.
When OEM parts and support ran out, divers as they do with everything got creative with keeping their double hosers running and took creative steps to do it......Over the years I have seen everything from cork gaskets to sealant alone used in place of body to can gaskets. Main diaphragms with patches, one made from sheet rubber with big washers used to retain it and even one that had stacked washers glued to it so it would contact the demand levers.
First stages are even more unusual and as I have written about in earlier blog posts, many Royal Aqua Masters have had DA Aqua Master first stages installed in them.
Inside first stages I have seen various items used to seal up leaky high pressure seats and more than once seen attempts to cram Royal first stage parts into DA first stages...IT WON'T WORK..
Duckbills are either disintegrated into piles of mush or have turned rock hard and attached themselves to the can and inner horn more solidly than any adhesive could do it. In place of original duckbills I have seen inner tube sections glued together, balloons, pieces of vinyl from pool toys etc.
Front cans and labels can get interesting as almost all years are interchangeable and more than once I have received a two stage regulator with a single stage front can....DA Aqua Masters with Royal Aqua Master front cans and vice verse...BUYER BEWARE. And my favorite is the belief that if it has a Crown sticker above the label it makes it a Royal Aqua Master......Not so much......
The first thing I do is take it apart and see what I have and what I don't have to work with and until then I have no real idea what it's going to take to get it going again.
Once everything gets spread out and looked over I can give you an idea of what options you have and you can decide where to go from there.
As an example, if you have already decided you want a Phoenix first stage installed then there is no need to waste time assessing the condition of the original first stage.....Same holds true if you want to upgrade your original second stage to the greatly improved HPR 2nd stage.
VDH has introduced so many new options and upgrades for double hose regulators over the past decade that it can take you a while to look over all of them and decide what is best for the type of diving you want to do.
But if you are just looking for a quick fix by re-using old parts and doing it on the cheap then I'm not the right person for the job.
Please keep in mind that at any given time there can be half a dozen regulators waiting for service, new Argonaut Krakens being assembled with parts and supplies for the DIY divers being shipped out with only Me, Myself and I to do all of it.
Click Here for more information about getting your regulator serviced.
Duckbills are either disintegrated into piles of mush or have turned rock hard and attached themselves to the can and inner horn more solidly than any adhesive could do it. In place of original duckbills I have seen inner tube sections glued together, balloons, pieces of vinyl from pool toys etc.
Front cans and labels can get interesting as almost all years are interchangeable and more than once I have received a two stage regulator with a single stage front can....DA Aqua Masters with Royal Aqua Master front cans and vice verse...BUYER BEWARE. And my favorite is the belief that if it has a Crown sticker above the label it makes it a Royal Aqua Master......Not so much......
The first thing I do is take it apart and see what I have and what I don't have to work with and until then I have no real idea what it's going to take to get it going again.
Once everything gets spread out and looked over I can give you an idea of what options you have and you can decide where to go from there.
As an example, if you have already decided you want a Phoenix first stage installed then there is no need to waste time assessing the condition of the original first stage.....Same holds true if you want to upgrade your original second stage to the greatly improved HPR 2nd stage.
VDH has introduced so many new options and upgrades for double hose regulators over the past decade that it can take you a while to look over all of them and decide what is best for the type of diving you want to do.
But if you are just looking for a quick fix by re-using old parts and doing it on the cheap then I'm not the right person for the job.
Please keep in mind that at any given time there can be half a dozen regulators waiting for service, new Argonaut Krakens being assembled with parts and supplies for the DIY divers being shipped out with only Me, Myself and I to do all of it.
Click Here for more information about getting your regulator serviced.
No comments:
Post a Comment