How Often Should You Replace Your Specialty Gas Regulator?
No matter what kind of gas you handle, you need a regulator that can help dissipate it into a lower-pressure environment if it’s stored in a high-pressure tank or cylinder. Due to how difficult this process is, gas regulators won’t last forever, especially ones made specifically for calibration gases.
That’s why you need to know how often you should replace your specialty gas regulators. In this post, we’ll go over that as well as any testing you might have to do in order to check the regulator’s progress.
How Often You Should Replace Them
Fortunately, the answer to how often you should replace your specialty gas regulators is pretty straightforward. Across the board, the expiration date of almost all regulators is five years. This might seem a bit short, but it’s a necessary restriction.
Even if the calibration gas regulator looks good on the outside at the five-year mark, the internal components could have quickly degraded. The rubber and springs inside the device are known to weaken very quickly due to the gases that pass through them, leading to a compromised regulator on the verge of failing. Depending on the corrosiveness of the gases used, components could deteriorate even faster than five years.
How Often You Should Test Them
This is why testing your calibration gas regulators is a must. Before you even use your regulator for the first time, be sure to test it out to ensure it functions properly and doesn’t leak. If everything checks out, you should only need to perform leak checks once or twice a month, depending on how often you use the regulator.
If you use more corrosive gases, it might be better to check the regulators more often, but most specialty gas regulators are made for non-corrosive uses. Either way, instruct employees who use the regulator to listen for unusual hissing noises and check for cracks between uses to ensure everything is still functioning properly.
Should You Ever Go Past the Expiration Date?
Many people often wonder if it’s okay to use a regulator past the expiration date, especially if tests come back with no signs of leaks or failures. While no one is stopping you from doing this, it’s highly advised not to. Once you own the regulator, all accidents that occur from it are on you. The longer you go past the five-year mark, the more likely something will go wrong.
That means if you want to keep your employees safe while working with your specialty gases, you need to replace your regulators as soon as the five years are up. If you currently need some new calibration gas regulators, Mesa Gas has you covered. We have plenty of options available for you to choose from on our site.