A regulator is something that we regard with awe when we start out at diving. It seems to be an amazingly complex piece of machinery. Especially when you see an exploded diagram of one.
When I first heard that there were people out there who would take their DVs apart underwater, I put them firmly in the "Seriously techie diver" category. I’d seen how many parts and tiny O-rings and fiddly bits were in my DV, the idea of opening it up was something I didn’t even want to think about. And as for doing it underwater... Madness, surely?
However, curiosity eventually got the better of me. It was helped along considerably by the fact that my regulators are Apeks. These are a firm favourite amongst technical divers because, in addition to being great performers, they are easy to open up.
So, with great trepidation, I decided to give it a try.
Some people say they need a special tool to unscrew the face plate of their DV. I don’t know if it’s a fringe benefit of rock climbing or what, but I found I could open my DV just by gripping and turning.
Slowly and carefully, I removed my DV cover and looked inside. And I saw a boring black thing covered by another boring black thing. This was the diaphragm.
Even more slowly and carefully, I removed the diaphragm, to gain my first look at the amazing complexity of the workings of a DV.
I was disappointed. A metal bar and a lever. That was it. I felt cheated.
You see, the thing is: Regulators are very simple machines. They may not look it on paper sometimes, but they work on amazingly simple principles. Here’s a refresher on the way they work.
Having taken the DV apart and found it to be amazingly easy and safe, I gave it a whirl in the pool. Other than the diaphragm being a bit floaty, it was no problem. Although it did make one of the Club Divers who spotted me give me an amazing, google-eyed look of amazement.
You may be wondering, why would anyone want to take a DV apart?
Well, for most types of diving, they wouldn’t. The main group of people who want the option is cave divers. When you’re half an hour away from even being able to start your deco stops, you want to be able to fix as many problems as possible. And a DV can have problems that opening it up can fix - the diaphragm getting kinked so it lets water in, for instance. Or, in the event of a major freeflow, your second stage can get ice forming in it. Once you’ve shut off the freeflow, you can check if the ice is melted by looking inside.
For most types of dive, it’s really not a necessity - a DV goes wrong, you switch to another one and abort the dive. Certainly, none of the diving I do is likely to necessitate my opening up my DV.
But, I have a much better understanding of how my DV works now that I’ve looked inside it. And that’s always a benefit.
In addition, although I’ve yet to go on a dive where I needed to dismantle my DV while I was down, I have had to take both my DVs apart after a particularly rough shore dive. The undertow was so strong, the group I was diving with lost a boot from a cylinder, a torch from a D-ring, and the cover from a computer.
When I checked my kit afterwards, I found that my backup DV was totally unusable, as it’s purge button was jammed in. Sand had been forced in and was wedging it. When I took both DVs apart, I found they were seriously clogged up with sand - easily removed, but only because I had opened them up.
