SoCal Surfer
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I have never seen anybody remove an inflator hose to rinse out a BCD but was wondering if that is a good idea or not. It seems like I could rinse the hell out of it if I could just open it up. Any tips? Thanks!
Rinsing a BCD
- Thread starter SoCal Surfer
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Fish_Whisperer
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Just manually inflate it, submerge it, and then depress the deflator button, and it will fill up with water. Shake, drain, and repeat.
OP
SoCal Surfer
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Thanks! Good Tip! I will do just that. That sounds easy enough. But is it never a good idea to remove the inflator hose? I don't want to screw up the seal on my BCD by doing something stupid.
Fish_Whisperer
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I don't know. I've never removed mine. Maybe someone else can help you out with that.
modivin
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SoCal Surfer:
I routinely take the inflator hose off my BCD's and fill the bladder with fresh water with no problems. Saves a lot of time vs. filling by the inflator mouthpiece, not too mention a more complete rinse and I seem to get more water out of the bladder when I rinse and drain. Never had any problems resealing the hose. It helps to us a very small amount of silicone grease when replacing the gasket though.
It is best not to remove the BC hose unless necessary. The threads are easy to cross thread and easy to damage. The more times you do it, the more chances you have to foul it up.
Most of my diving nowadays is liveaboard. At the end of a the week I always remove the inflator assembly at the shoulder and fill the BCD with fresh water, slosh it around and then empty it. I then reattach the inflator assembly, fill the BCD with air (by mouth) several times and squeeze out all the excess remaining water through the inflator hose. I fly home with a little air left in the BCD. When I get home I repeat the fill and squeeze maneuver a few times and then store the BCD full of air for my next trip.
Have been doing that since BCD's were invented and have never had a BCD related problem.
'Slogger
Have been doing that since BCD's were invented and have never had a BCD related problem.
'Slogger
I can remove it easy on my Halcyon, but you can't do that on all BCs. My cleaning usually consists of;
----emptying any water in BC already,
--unscrew the bottom dump assembly (just screws off)
fill it about 3/4 full with the hose,
--reattach the dump valve,
--shake the BC all around,
--drain approx half the water through the inflator/deflator valves by pushing both buttons (many people never think to rinse through the inflator nipple),
--drain the rest through the rear dump.
Most BCs I have seen you can screw off the dump valves and that is much easier than messing with the inflator hose for filling.
----emptying any water in BC already,
--unscrew the bottom dump assembly (just screws off)
fill it about 3/4 full with the hose,
--reattach the dump valve,
--shake the BC all around,
--drain approx half the water through the inflator/deflator valves by pushing both buttons (many people never think to rinse through the inflator nipple),
--drain the rest through the rear dump.
Most BCs I have seen you can screw off the dump valves and that is much easier than messing with the inflator hose for filling.
Charlie99
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I usually just unscrew one of the two dump valves on my SeaQuest ProQD when doing a major cleaning.
After most dives I just dump any excess water out of the bladder. There isn't anything in there that is going to be hurt by a bit of saltwater, particularly since it is a sealed system and it won't dry out in the next few days before my next set of dives.
Every couple of weeks or so I'll go ahead and do a complete flush and rinse. The easiest way on my BCD is to shove a garden hose into the upper right shoulder dump until the bladder is nearly full. Then I dump a bit of water out through the corrugated hose to flush it out, then dump the majority out the other dump valve.
The threads are pretty coarse pitch and easy to line up, so crossthreading isn't all that likely unless you have two left thumbs.
After most dives I just dump any excess water out of the bladder. There isn't anything in there that is going to be hurt by a bit of saltwater, particularly since it is a sealed system and it won't dry out in the next few days before my next set of dives.
Every couple of weeks or so I'll go ahead and do a complete flush and rinse. The easiest way on my BCD is to shove a garden hose into the upper right shoulder dump until the bladder is nearly full. Then I dump a bit of water out through the corrugated hose to flush it out, then dump the majority out the other dump valve.
The threads are pretty coarse pitch and easy to line up, so crossthreading isn't all that likely unless you have two left thumbs.
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