Post vacation gear cleaning

[Colliam7]

1.) How many of you would have re-rinsed the gear or just put it away?

I re-rinse my wetsuit and boots after I get home. I rinse the bladders of my wings with fresh water after I get home. I rinse the interior of my lift bag and DSMB with fresh water after I get home.

2.) How many of you store your wet suits on hangers, rolled, or flat?

All wetsuits (and drysuit) are stored on hangers.

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

I use to rinse my gears before coming back from trip and do extensive soaking after coming back. But now, I just give it a more thorough rinse/soak at the dive site and usually don't do any additional soaking once I am back. The only equipment that I might soak more are the camera gears, especially if the trip wasn't a liveaboard where I could leave the gear for hours in the tank at the end. Also, would soak the ends of the regulators.

I use to think on fresh water dives, there is no need for additional cleaning afterward, but recently the breathing resistance knob got real stiff after a couple of those dives. I unscrewed it and a whole bunch of things popped out. Cleaned the seating surfaces and all is back to normal (hopefully all the parts are put back in the right order).

 

[ev780]

So here are my thoughts.

--Rinsing during a dive trip (if diving every day) seems to be a waste of time. Gear won't dry, the rinse tanks provided by dive ops probably have the same salt content as the ocean. The pee content is probably much higher
--After the last dive of the trip I try and find a hose and some fresh water and get a cursory rinse. I also work hard to get my regs on an air tank and purge them as best I can. Helps blow any latent water out of the pipes.
--At home I soak everything in the tub anywhere from 24 hours to 30 days depending on when I next need my guest bathroom.
--Then I have a special shower curtain rod that I use to drip dry over the tub. Then it eventually gets stashed back it its special closet.



Seems to work for me.

 

[bradells]

On 'local' diving trips (1100km to the coast), If there's running water around, I'd spray my rig down and my drysuit.

I just bought a yard sprayer (ie, chemical sprayer) for this task for future use (spray fresh water) on my gear.

Generally I keep everything wet (that should be wet) and use rubber maid tubs in the trunk of my car. Once I get home, it gets put into the tub/shower and rinsed down thoroughly, and several soaks. Hang to dry and then put it away (or go diving again ..). Dry stuff gets laundered.

I really should start lake diving on the trip home through the mountains, that way I just need to spray down the gear, and not soak it ......



Travelling, on a 3-4 tank/day trip, I just rinse it off if I did a shore dive (sand), otherwise, its wet until my last dive, then it gets some good soaking/rinse/dry before packing.


BRad

 

[MaxBottomtime]

I spray my gear with a hose for several seconds and hang it to dry. I soak my camera housing for 3-4 minutes and push all the buttons. That's it. Once a year or so the gear sees wetsuit shampoo but I may have missed a year or two of that.

 

[scjoe]

I'm amazed at how long some people soak their gear. It just doesn't take all that long to dissolve salt in water. Now getting sand out of gear after a rough day of beach diving, that's another matter.

 

[Basking Ridge Diver]

I'm amazed at how long some people soak their gear. It just doesn't take all that long to dissolve salt in water. Now getting sand out of gear after a rough day of beach diving, that's another matter.

For me - if it is a night dive - it is easier to soak overnight just throw in into a barrel and let it soak - then cleanup/drying is the next day... So it may be the reference used - but you are right a spray or dunk is all it takes.

 

[Centrals]

Liveaboard is the worst for cleaning after the last dive of the trip. Everyone wants to wash his/her gear at the same time. So I always wash the gear again when I got home. As for the resort dive, I will wash everything thoroughly. And when I got home I will make sure everything is dried before storage. BC and booties take a bit longer to dry inside. Wet suit always on a big hanger.

 

[redacted]

I'm amazed at how long some people soak their gear. It just doesn't take all that long to dissolve salt in water. Now getting sand out of gear after a rough day of beach diving, that's another matter.

Try dunking or rinsing your SPG after a SW dive and then disconnect the SPG from the HP hose and taste the water in the area of the spool. Most regulators have similar unprotected threaded connections that load up with SW during the pressure changes of a dive but are mostly unaffected by a dunking or rinsing unless you disassemble the connection. A long soak will draw out the SW in time. Other places to look are the yoke/din connection, under the saddle, and the ambient chamber to reg body threads.

 

[ev780]

I'm amazed at how long some people soak their gear. It just doesn't take all that long to dissolve salt in water. Now getting sand out of gear after a rough day of beach diving, that's another matter.

For me it is just that I forget about it since I move on back to my normal life. Granted, salt is probably all reabsorbed in an hour or so and maximum dilution is done at that point.