Gear Maintenance: Rinse your metal second stage in warm vs cold water ?

[WOB0.01J]

Hello Divers!

What is the most effective way to rinse off your reg after a salt water dive? I like to dip them in VERY warm water to get rid of the salt, but is it good for the material that is inside of the second stage? (Mine is a SP A700). Just want to confirm! Thanks

 

[TheScubaPanda]

Chemistry-wise speaking, solubility of anything (salt included) increase with temperature. So rinsing with warm water is more efficient to remove virtually anything.
However, water too warm can damage seals and o-rings.

And in reality, it doesn't matter so much. Because you will never saturate in salt or anything else a rinsing tub. So use whatever you have at hand

 

[NW Dive Dawg]

I use hot fresh water for all my dive gear, truck, boat, etc.... and think it's the very best defence against salt corrosion........ Not scalding hot...... but basically as hot as you could stand in a shower. Never had an issue of it adversely affecting any of my dive gear. Only thing is that when rinsing my trilam, the hot water can remove some of the zip wax so I stay diligent about waxing my zippers.

I have an aluminum boat and when get home all my dive gear soaks in a tub of fresh hot water while the entire boat and trailer are getting a full rinse of HOT FRESH WATER. I give my boat a good thorough detail only once a year..... otherwise it's just the full hot fresh rinse after every use and then put it into the shop.. (ps.... I do use cold water and Salt-Away when flushing my engines after saltwater use.

If you already have your water heater in the garage like most folks do, it's a fairly easy project to run a line and install a H/C Mix Valve to the outside garage driveway bib.... and last but not least....in winter, the mutts really like getting a nice warm bath instead of ice water!!!!

 

[WOB0.01J]

Chemistry-wise speaking, solubility of anything (salt included) increase with temperature. So rinsing with warm water is more efficient to remove virtually anything.
However, water too warm can damage seals and o-rings.

And in reality, it doesn't matter so much. Because you will never saturate in salt or anything else a rinsing tub. So use whatever you have at hand

I am glad that I am doing it right! Everytime I have used warm water to rinse it off, it takes less time the rinse off the salt. I will keep doing what i am doing !

 

[WOB0.01J]

I use hot fresh water for all my dive gear, truck, boat, etc.... and think it's the very best defence against salt corrosion........ Not scalding hot...... but basically as hot as you could stand in a shower. Never had an issue of it adversely affecting any of my dive gear. Only thing is that when rinsing my trilam, the hot water can remove some of the zip wax so I stay diligent about waxing my zippers.

I have an aluminum boat and when get home all my dive gear soaks in a tub of fresh hot water while the entire boat and trailer are getting a full rinse of HOT FRESH WATER. I give my boat a good thorough detail only once a year..... otherwise it's just the full hot fresh rinse after every use and then put it into the shop.. (ps.... I do use cold water and Salt-Away when flushing my engines after saltwater use.

If you already have your water heater in the garage like most folks do, it's a fairly easy project to run a line and install a H/C Mix Valve to the outside garage driveway bib.... and last but not least....in winter, the mutts really like getting a nice warm bath instead of ice water!!!!

Love the pictures! Thanks for the confirmation, Would love to get a boat in the future I don't really worry about the zippers that much cause I always put a little silicone lubricate on it after dive. Sometimes I will dip the gear in the bathtub with warmwater.... until someone yells at me haha

 

[BoltSnap]

There is no need for it at all, warm water. It is just waste of energy and $$$.

 

[NW Dive Dawg]

There is no need for it at all, warm water. It is just waste of energy and $$$.

I'm sure many folks are just fine rinsing their regs with cold fresh water. But I know if I rinse my boat with cold fresh water I can still see salt deposits after it dries.. ...... particularly if the boat has been out in the sun on a hot day and the salt deposits have crystalized and "dried" and you can really see it on the glass. No deposits at all when I rinse with HOT FRESH WATER. Anyway, my experience and opinion is that that HOT fresh water most definitely works much better than cold for dissolving salt....... Once again, for my regs, BC, etc I use Hot water similar to what you'd have in a nice hot shower...not scalding water.

The other thing that seems to be true is that all of this may not really make a lot of difference with regulators. I think we've all been on vaca's with dive op's where our BC's and Regs basically "live" on a boat for a week sitting out in the sun and never getting rinsed at all except when we dive daily....in the salt water. Little Cayman comes to mind. Once my gear was on my assigned boat, it just lived there for the whole week... Same with Nautilus Explorer.... Gear gets rinsed at the end of the trip.

But then......when diving somewhere like Bonaire, we only do self guided shore diving so we rinse our gear daily...

 

[Centrals]

Soaking the regs in cold water under pressure overnight is equally effective.

 

[Tracy]

That a Hewescraft? I was talking to them back in 18 about building my current charter boat. They make a really nice product, I just couldn't justify the money for our short season.

 

[Scared Silly]

Warm bath with a wee bit of lemon. Afterwards a light drying with a lint free towel. Followed by warm air infused with some Best Air Bacteria Treatment. Finally a spritz of mint on the mouth piece.