Soak your regulator!

[halocline]

After a week of freezing-heating-ultrasound-vinegar baths etc...I was finally able to dismantle a MK15 body that had obviously been used in salt water and then left to dry.....for years. I really thought this one was a goner but decided to try one more round of heating the reg body and dipping the HP section in ice water, and finally it loosened up enough to come apart. The threads were totally encrusted with green salt residue.

Almost all regulators have some exposed threads, meaning threads that are not protected by an o-ring. SP yoke and DIN retainers are an example of this. The sealing o-ring is at the interior end of the retainer. So when the reg is used in salt water, it penetrates the threads up to the o-ring. Soaking in fresh water after salt water use dilutes this salt water and eventually removes just about all of it by osmosis.

So don't listen to anyone that says a simple dunk in the rinse tank is sufficient. It isn't, especially if you're like me and want your regulators to last years between rebuilds.

 

[northernone]

I'll be more careful, thanks for the reminder.

Regards
Cameron

 

[tbone1004]

and always remember that if you are dealing with a frozen regulator, or any nut/bolt, always try to tighten it before you loosen it. When you try to loosen it, you are fighting friction of the seized threads the whole way, but when you try to tighten it you are fighting a bit of friction but are also trying to separate the threads from each other and will usually have better luck getting it to break by tightening. Also use impact, not brute force. Hit the end of the wrench/allen key with a hammer instead of pulling on it because the sudden impact will be less likely to strip threads while still putting the same amount of ultimate force on the object

 

[TheWarmerTheBetter]

Also when you soak your regulator make sure you don't have trapped air anywhere. Turn the 2nd stages so that the mouth opening is facing up so that water gets inside. For the first stage make sure that the opening to the diaphragm (usually the opening at the top of the reg) gets water in it by facing the opening up and the running your thumb over the hole a few times (you'll get some bubbles to come out).

When you take everything out of the water make sure you pour the water out of the 2nd stags (mouth opening pointed straight down) and get as much water as you can out of the diaphragm opening (opening pointed down and gently shake second stage).

 

[KevinNM]

I just had my year-old double AL80s visually inspected. About 50 dives ago I did four dives at Avalon dive park (then tossed it in the truck without rinsing or soaking), but only have done freshwater since. Despite this the bands were just lined with salt. They had a hell of a time cleaning the dried salt off and had minor corrosion under the bands from this. I had no idea that this was would happen, I had assumed the hours spent in fresh water would get the salt out. But obviously not true.

 

[Diving Dubai]

I'm one of these people who send their regs off for service every 12 months or so, normally the trigger being an up coming overseas trip and I like my regs back from service in time to get a couple of local trips on them beforehand just in case.

That said prevention is always better than cure. The sea around us has a higher salinity due in part to evaporation with a lack of fresh water exchange and desalination plants all over the area. Our gear gets used most weeks.

Post trip all gear goes into a very large Rubbermaid bin filled with warm water (only a few months is the cold water actually cold) and left overnight. Cylinders get a quick blast with the power washer and yes ever few months a wash down with warm soapy water and a sponge/brush

Every 3 months the regs come off their hoses and go into a bucket of very warm water for a soak, similarly I take the OPV's off our BC's and fill them with very warm water - all to try to dissolve and prevent the more resilient salt buildup.

I've just had the webbing off our wings and pout that under a power wash, after a year despite all of the above there was a significant difference in the colour afterwards.

This all might seem excessive but I've seen first hand examples of gear in for service at our LDS that have deteriorated quickly because they only had a quick dunk post dive.

 

[halocline]

I just had my year-old double AL80s visually inspected. About 50 dives ago I did four dives at Avalon dive park (then tossed it in the truck without rinsing or soaking), but only have done freshwater since. Despite this the bands were just lined with salt. They had a hell of a time cleaning the dried salt off and had minor corrosion under the bands from this. I had no idea that this was would happen, I had assumed the hours spent in fresh water would get the salt out. But obviously not true.

How much time went between the salt water use and the subsequent fresh water diving? The trick is to get fresh water in the threads (or under the bands) before the salt water has a chance to fully evaporate and leave the dried salt to do it's evil.

 

[KevinNM]

How much time went between the salt water use and the subsequent fresh water diving? The trick is to get fresh water in the threads (or under the bands) before the salt water has a chance to fully evaporate and leave the dried salt to do it's evil.

Probably a week. But I'm not sure. Obviously too long. Won't do that again.

 

[HeatCker]

read this post the other day
dove today, water temps starting to get chilly, 54 F
while rinsing my 1st stage (scubapro mk17) i was wondering how to remove the black plastic end cap
the cap has "scubapro mk17" written on it
is there any advantage to removing it while rinsing
i can't figure out how to post a pic .. sorry

 

[redacted]

if you soak your Mk17 long enought to draw the salt from the din/yoke retainer and the diaphragm retainer threads, the area under that cap should be fine.