Storage - inflated or empty?

[temet vince]

Should I store my wing inflated or empty? Attached to backplate or separate? Does it even matter?

 

[Rhone Man]

Well, rule #1 is never stop diving for a period long enough that it makes sense to fully disassemble your gear.

But if you break rule #1, then fully disassemble your gear. I will deflate my wing and also disconnect the inflation tube to allow it to fully dry out inside, and to give a chance for bugs to crawl inside and breed.

 

[gcarter]

I was wondering about storage as well. Is that the correct practice to ensure it is dry? remove the inflator?

Thanks.

 

[bleeb]

But if you break rule #1, then fully disassemble your gear. I will deflate my wing and also disconnect the inflation tube to allow it to fully dry out inside, and to give a chance for bugs to crawl inside and breed.

Dry is good, but around here, for really long term storage (i.e. winter, which applies to the OP) I think most people slightly inflate the things, to keep the bladders from sticking to themselves inside.

 

[Akimbo]

Not many people have ready access, but filling air bladders like BCs and breathing bags (on rebreathers) with pure Nitrogen works really well. Not many bugs can grow, it is very dry, and some degradation of some resilient materials is inhibited. A lot of industries use Nitrogen from a liquid source. You might be able to get a squirt from a friendly tech of nurse. Whatever you do, don’t try to breathe it or try to suck it out unless you want to experience hypoxic blackout and wake up with a knot on your head!

In any case, I wouldn’t inflate it until the over pressure valve pops, but don’t suck it down to crushed either.

 

[scubafanatic]

Not many people have ready access, but filling air bladders like BCs and breathing bags (on rebreathers) with pure Nitrogen works really well. Not many bugs can grow, it is very dry, and some degradation of some resilient materials is inhibited. A lot of industries use Nitrogen from a liquid source. You might be able to get a squirt from a friendly tech of nurse. Whatever you do, don’t try to breathe it or try to suck it out unless you want to experience hypoxic blackout and wake up with a knot on your head!

In any case, I wouldn’t inflate it until the over pressure valve pops, but don’t suck it down to crushed either.

if you're a dry suit diver you may have access to Argon so you could will the wing with a completely inert gas....

 

[temet vince]

Hmm. What about helium? You can buy it at walmart for filling party balloons.

(I like rule #1 the best

 

[dmoore19]

Hmm. What about helium? You can buy it at walmart for filling party balloons.

(I like rule #1 the best

Then you wouldn't need to hang it. You could just store it on the top shelf, near the ceiling.

 

[bleeb]

Hmm. What about helium? You can buy it at walmart for filling party balloons.

If you're looking for inert gas, balloon helium might not work since a lot of it actually has almost normal atmospheric levels of oxygen included for safety, to keep people from passing out if they breathe too much of it.

 

[tbone1004]

that and the helium is small enough that it may end up leaking out of the valves. We always inflate ours all the way for storage, but that's on a dive to dive basis, I leave my wings off of the backplate but that's a convenience thing since I use the backplate for moving doubles around.