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**Gill Envy** · 6th July 2006, 00:25

It has become abundantly clear with this last trip to canada having been a real let down due to my wife's solenoid failure, that a major consideration for what rebreather to purchase is how field servicable a given unit is. AP will void all warrenties if the unit is so much as touched by a non-authorized technician, for which it seems there are a precious few on the planet.

It was particularly frustrating that all the while this week, just a relatively short distance from where we were staying, we had access to a brand new solenoid, but were prevented from even swapping it out to see if that would solve the issue. I can understand that a company cannot vouch for the service of someone they don't even know, but i'm curious, how do other rebreather manufacturers deal with the fact that by their very nature, rebreathers are taken on expeditions to far away places that necesitate a degree of user field servicing.

I'm not interested in starting an AP bashing session, so please limit comments to how other brands deal with this inevitability. I'm curious about how other rebreathers are designed with this in mind (for instance, make it easy to swap out a part like the solenoid), and whether their policies are more in line with the inevitable reality that things are bound to go wrong sooner or later at very inconvenient times where large investements of time and money are at stake. Or is this just an across the board limitation with all rebreathers under warrenty?

It used to be that we'd just bring extras of a few things, like regulators, first stages and such, but with the added complexity of the electronics of an eCCR, i'm curious also, how do you prepare for trips where you have a lot invested in being able to dive?

6th July 2006, 00:25	#1 (permalink)
Gill Envy Shearwater Copis Divers Current Rebreather/s: Other CCR Other Rebreather/s: Evolution Other CCR Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: seattle Posts: 1,326	Which eCCR is most field servicable? It has become abundantly clear with this last trip to canada having been a real let down due to my wife's solenoid failure, that a major consideration for what rebreather to purchase is how field servicable a given unit is. AP will void all warrenties if the unit is so much as touched by a non-authorized technician, for which it seems there are a precious few on the planet. It was particularly frustrating that all the while this week, just a relatively short distance from where we were staying, we had access to a brand new solenoid, but were prevented from even swapping it out to see if that would solve the issue. I can understand that a company cannot vouch for the service of someone they don't even know, but i'm curious, how do other rebreather manufacturers deal with the fact that by their very nature, rebreathers are taken on expeditions to far away places that necesitate a degree of user field servicing. I'm not interested in starting an AP bashing session, so please limit comments to how other brands deal with this inevitability. I'm curious about how other rebreathers are designed with this in mind (for instance, make it easy to swap out a part like the solenoid), and whether their policies are more in line with the inevitable reality that things are bound to go wrong sooner or later at very inconvenient times where large investements of time and money are at stake. Or is this just an across the board limitation with all rebreathers under warrenty? It used to be that we'd just bring extras of a few things, like regulators, first stages and such, but with the added complexity of the electronics of an eCCR, i'm curious also, how do you prepare for trips where you have a lot invested in being able to dive? __________________ Gill Envy ...Because I wasn't born with gills! ><(°>><(°>><(°>><(°>><(°>><(°>><(°>><(°> Last edited by Gill Envy : 6th July 2006 at 00:30.
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