Cleaning Gear After Dive Advice

[on_two_wheels]

I was told that it's not quite as vital with the Legend since it's got the enviro seal. Still, you can go to home depot or lowe's and buy a VERY strong plastic bin for less than $20 bucks. Rinse the hell out of the stuff you wear but hard goods like your bc and reg and be tossed in the bin full of water for a few hours, repeat and leave sit over night.

 

[dpbishop]

I usually carry a sealed 6 gallon bucket of water in the back of my truck when going diving. I put the dust cap on, then throw the regs, mask, gloves, boots, fins etc. in the bucket for the ride home. Once there I hang them up to dry. The wetsuit goes into the shower with me ( I usually wear it on the drive home if it's not to hot), the BP/W gets rinsed out inside & out and hung up to dry. I dive 100% salt water, and this works as well as anything and it's easy.

 

[Buoyant1]

I usually leave my dust cap in one of my dry boxes (my regs are DIN) and towel off the threads before putting it on...if I have the yoke adaptor, I usually blow off (or towel off) the cap before putting it back on...

At home, since it's fresh water, I usually fill a plastic tub with water, charge my regs and give them a quick swish, then swish my mask, computer, lights, hood, gloves etc. before I put the BC in for a good swish, then I soak the suit for a while and hang everything else...and the suit goes up last.

Every few times I run water through the BC and use sink the stink or baby shampoo on the neoprene....

After a dive trip in salt water, I rinse after every dive, then soak for a day or so when I get home.

 

[captndale]

I dive the Great Lakes and my regulators seldom make it off of the boat. When you can drink the water you dive in rinsing your regulators after a dive is a waste of time. When I come home from a dive trip in the ocean, I just take my traveling regulator out to the lake for a dive in clean water.

 

[redacted]

For SW diving, I carry a sports drink bottle of clean FW and rinse the area of the first stage to tank connection and the dust cover after each dive before removing the regulator from the tank. If the reg is not going directly onto another tank, I dry the dust cap either with my breath and install it. Using tank air is OK but you have to be very careful about where the sprayed water goes. Using your breath, that is not a problem and the little moisture that may remain in the cover isn't going anywhere.

I'm getting about 3 to 5 years between 1st stage services and have had no problem with corrosion inside my 1sts.

BTW, I dive BP 1sts and also give the ambient chamber a rinse with FW for longer surface intervals and after a day of diving to control salt forming on any seating surfaces.

When I finish the dive trip, they get 2 to 8 hours of soaking in the tub before drying, inspection and storage.

 

[jonesbf]

I cap my reg after it comes off the tank and then everything goes home in the dry bag (wet of course). I soak my reg. Everything else I hose down then put back in the drybag whith 1 oz of Mirazyme and fill it with water. I swish everything around then pull it all back out to dry. I also run the hose into the BCD a few times to get the bladder cleaned out.

 

[The Chairman]

I have taught the use of compressed air to dry off the first stage and dust cap for years. I am about to change that in favor of just toweling them dry. One of my students accidentally opened the tank up full which caused it to go wild and fall over. It didn't go far but it discharged into a pile of sugar sand spraying all of us in the group. One of my students quipped "It's fun and games until someone puts an eye out!" and it really got me to thinking. OSHA requires that air nozzles be reduced to 30 PSI for cleaning purposes, and here we are playing with a LOT more pressure than that. Power-operated hand tools. - 1926.302

So, that settles it! I am going to stick to using a towel for the first stage of my regs. However, once capped, I put my regs along with all of my gear into my Zeagle Bag with the mesh sides. THEN I simply put the whole thing in a fresh water dunk tank. I often alternate between fresh and salt water diving in the same week, so I don't make a special effort to soak it all. I do use the BC flusher I got from Tobin of Deep Sea Supply to rinse out the inside of my BCs. It's quick and painless.

Express Travel Bag—8057

Valve Flusher for Power inflators and Dry Suit Inflators​

 

[bogrady]

I just have my mother do it for me ....

 

[RickJames]

I appreciate all the suggestions. Notes have been taken. Thanks for the knowledge. Adios Ya'll!