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....ah, im a bit confused by your post, are you looking for a reg that is easy to maintain yourself, or are you just stating your philosophy about the dive industry? Or both?
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There is a brand of regs that will sell you repair parts, I think I have a link to it on my work computer and I’ll check Monday.
Yeap, statisticly your reg is most likely to fail right after it was serviced by that factory trained tech. That’s why you test it before leaving on that exotic trip.
But your heirs don’t care who serviced the reg you took your last breath from, you or the LDS, they will try to $ue the manufacture anyhow!
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Are you a trained and certified equipment technician? If not, then perhaps you might enjoy taking a course or two. Many local dive shops offer equipment maintenance & repair courses. From these basic courses you can be sure to learn proper technique. Usually, during the course of the program, you also learn about resources for procuring repair parts, specialty tools, etc...
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From LatitudeAdjustment: But your heirs don’t care who serviced the reg you took your last breath from, you or the LDS, they will try to $ue the manufacture anyhow!
...I don’t know if the heirs have any choice but to sue! ...the onslaught of dive boat chasing lawyers that will be constantly badgering the family is overwhelming! ...the only way to get them to leave them alone is pick one of those vultures, then the others have to back off! ...so it has nothing to do with the facts of the incident, the family, or even the victim for that matter!! ...very sad!
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Send your gear to the manufacturer. Otherwise a LDS that has a dedicated full time tec. that specializes with your brand of gear. Stay away from the jack of all trades. Anyways regs are not a DIY project unless if you work on over 150 sets of equipment a year. Even on the net your not going to find all of the info., updates and service bullitins. Anyways the labor cost is only a small part of the service. You’ll need to find the parts anyways and still won’t be able to tune it correctly to its best performance. Better yet do the house chores. So you can get away on that weekend of diving instead of cleaning the garage.
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Oh.... Please! I am a certified regulator tech for AUP products (Aeris, Hollis and Oceanic) and can tell you it isn’t rocket science although it does take some knowledge, skills and in some cases a few specialized tools. The OP wasn’t asking if they, should but which manufactures will support individual who wish to by supplying factory parts.
To my knowledge Edge, HOG and Dive Rite come to mind. With the Dive Rite brand a number of other manufacturers products are similar enough to use the same parts. I believe Zeagle and OMS fall under this umbrella but YMMV.
While on the subject of manufacturers marketing games... I’m a big supporter of MAP pricing vs. MARP and suggest all diver boycott brands with MARP pricing policies which price fix their products pricing instead of allowing the dealer to discount and negotiate their best deal. I’m starting to realize we should also be supporting brands that support end users with factory parts so we can maintain the gear we purchase.
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Speaking of servicing your own regs, I just read on a NJ board a diver used WD-40 on his because his buddy said so, don’t! He had hours of respitory problems afterwards.
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Agojo - 8/25/2013 5:35 AM 
If you look hard enough and establish right relationship with LDS you may get parts to DIY. I initially started by obtaining parts from overseas dive shops and learned to do rebuilds by volunteering at the local military base dive club and establishing a relationship with them. Purchased completed maintenance manuals on DVD from Europe for my brand of regulators. Some special tools purchased or manufactured and common tools/equipment I didn’t have.
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Maybe a good project for us here on Divebuddy.com would be to put together a reference of regulator parts, generic substitutes and sources? I know there are some o-ring lists on another scuba forum I have a bunch of regulator data sheets.
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Star here looking for parts> http://www.northeastscubasupply.com/
Problem is, I’m tired of paying good money (which I really don’t mind spending) for someone to hand my regs back to me in worse shape then when I handed them over for service.
It seems to me that you are lucky when they come back working correctly! I think that’s why so many people wont bother with annual service on their regulators. I couldn’t possibly do a worse job than what I have gotten from ore then one shop.
I’m not so sure mailing them to the manufacturer is a solution, unless your sure they are actually doing the work and not farming them right back out to a third party.
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Thank you for the posts! If I had to do it over again I would most likely buy Hog or maybe Dive Rite regulators. But I have alot invested in Oceananic and some Sea elite.
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The fact is that you can get any of the annual service kits with internet shopping. Regs are basically built the same and basically the same to service except for an upstream regulator. I use to say the same about not being Rocket Science. Also would feel the same about sending my personnal regs to LDS just to have them messed up. Thats how I got interested with the dive gear instead of the teaching route as an instructor. I love the dive gear and always did before from day 1. So now customers would bring in regs just as an annual service. Never would anyone tell me that they went into the unit. I can tell 10% of the regs where attempts to repair themselves by not even being close to specs. I don’t say anything and just add a new annual kit then plus parts that are missing or distroyed. I’ll bench test and know the story before I take anything apart for servicing. But I feel good when I see the customer test with delight then tell me that its better then ever. The truth is that I could make it even better but I have to keep the units in spec’s so it doesn’t freeflow on a novice diver. You’ll have fun repairing your own set and saving maybe $50. And also the piece of mind that you know you did the service yourself correctly. All reg. brands have thier top end and low end regs. They are all excellent for the conditions that they were built for. Enjoy your Oceanic/Sea Elite’s. 350+ units serviced so far this year. Happy Diving
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Putting together a reference area for regs is a good idea! I have info going back to my first reg, a Healthways made in 1970.
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The recently discontinued ScuabPro G250V second stage is a very good performing regulator and is the simplist to work on also. It has a metal barrel with a nylon flow threw piston. The knife edge of the oriface is still metal. The fine tune adjustment knob/shaft is also still metal. Metal makes for a great cold water reg. A large diaphram makes the effort of breathing that much easier. But it is the easiet/ best to work on. My choice in the ScubaPro package line would be the MK17 first stage paired with the G250V second stage. The MK17 will keep all water out of the 1st stage forever. Your service on the MK17 would to servuce when the IP increases above 145psi. Keeping it simple, metal makes a great regulator that when put back together works everytime. I don’t own a ScubaPro reg. but if I had to buy now that is what I would get.
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Also the Poseidon XTreme is easy to service and works great for me when serviced. But you’ll need Poseidon Tools which cost a lot if you can get your hands on them. I lied about getting the ScubaPro for myself but would buy the Poseidon XTreme for myself since I can fix both ScubaPro/Poseidon’s all day long. For you the ScubaPro would be best since its hard to find a LDS that can service Poseidon’s correctly. Go with the ScubaPro line. I hope you decide to send your regs to a LDS with a full time reg. tec. Hope this helps with your question.
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Right on RAWalker! It isn’t rocket science! I just use them until they quit then buy another brand new reg made in Taiwan. But one of those even at 100 bucks didn’t last 1 year. So I kept using it and trying to adjust it with a big pair of channel locks, I gave up and moved it to the Octo spot. So the industry, being so interested in "an account" with customers that have purchased regs or gear, cheap or expensive. Crazy. Like the IST I paid around 100 for, they claim it would be warranted for life, if I have it serviced every year for over 100 bucks. The way I figure that was run it till it starts having serious trouble, then buy another one. People would be surprised on the simplicity of rebuilds, with the right parts and tools and lube. What they’d be more surprised about is the high percentage of some inexperienced person for any mechanical nature, but yet they bought the advertisement to earn money in the dive business, so they got certified and now hold your reg in their hands. And why I know this, most of you older divers know this also, the lds’s you’d come into with a repair or adjustment. They’d fix it on the spot. Right in front of you. Now days they want to send everything out!
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