If you don’t get your regs serviced by a “qualified technician” you’re taking big risks and could die at any time! Well, at least that’s the message I’ve been given in the past. I serviced all my regs this weekend, and to be honest, they now work better then I can ever remember them working.
Then again, the other guy on the boat today, who’s just had his serviced by a qualified, certified, bona fide technician, well, his just seemed to fall apart in his hands

Think I’ll stick to doing it myself… That way if I do die, at least it’s my fault.

Take my word for it you will die.

I too have a play with my regs thanks to some really good folk whom have helped with some light reading .

Nice one Flipper!

Welcome to the DIY club!

It's a liberating feeling

To be honest, I've seen first hand just so many issues with 'professionally' (aka commercially) serviced regs.
Regs with a huge breathing resistance, even with the adjuster fully out, one reg that even when purged left enough pressure in the first stage so I couldn't get it off the cylinder. A friend's reg where they put a wrong part in and it breathed like a dog ... and last weekend where a reg on first use, the k-valve nearly fell off on first use.

Problem is, now I've got a sonic cleaner, Kaz has claimed it as a jewelery cleaner...

Easy fix for that. Sell all the jewels and buy her a DS4 for her stage!

...there is of course an alternative to servicing regs.

Given you can pick up a new DS4 for under $240 each,, and the service kits are about $50 each, and the second hand market for DS4s is pretty good; I reckon you could run them as disposable units, buying new and selling second hand rather than servicing.

Shh! Dont tell every one. Retail is close to $500!

$240 IS retail. Ah, you mean New Zealand Retail, where the equator somehow manages to double the price of stuff before it hits the shops here.

....I'll be quiet now. Don't want to start another rant about how the distributors are strangling the NZ dive industry.... keep quite, eyes forward, move along now...

shoot!!!...I should have asked you Flipper that I wanna see how you serviced the Apeks regs.I have atx and xtx 200. I will probably have my atx200 serviced in indonesia when i go there at the end of the year. It is about NZ$120 for an overhaul service of a reg which includes labour and parts for first,second and an octi. In NZ, i think its about NZ$130 alone for parts not including labour.

So is anyone going to self-service their regs anytime soon? I really wanna see how you guys service them and I also wanna see what the 1st and 2nd stage looks from the inside.

Go to the slide show presentation
http://www.deepsouthdivers.org/old/apeks.htm

Then just unscrew the cover to your 2nd stage. Its so easy to do you can do it during a dive!
( I in no way suggest you should remove the cover to your 2nd stage during a dive)

To unscrew the cover you certainly need to use Apeks case cover tool AT42, or case cover tool AT31, depending on model of reg.

...or you could just use your hand.

Or a adjustable pin spanner from any tool shop used for takinig the nut of angle grinders.

Here's what my recently acquired Scubapro MK9 looks like disassembled. It's a balanced piston first like MK10. In fact, it's internally the same as MK10 minus swivel turret.

1. Undoing the yoke bolt. It requires a thin-walled 1" socket, which I bought from scubatools.com.




2. Unscrewing the piston chamber. The only internal parts here are a spring and a piston. Modern Scubapro firsts are a little more complicated having washers and bushings, I heard.



3. Removing the end plug carrying the HP seat. I used a Scubapro wrench but it can be done with a face spanner, I guess. The HP seat can be blown out with an LP air gun through the hole in the plug.



That's it. When pressure in LP chamber on the right drops, the spring pushes the piston to the right opening the valve. Then air flows into the LP chamber through the piston until enough pressure builds up to overcome the spring tension and move the piston to the left making it seal against the HP seat.


4. Removing o-rings is straight-forward except for the piston stem o-ring which is kind of hidden in the center of the body. I really didn't want to risk damaging the groove so I used a tooth pick.