how does pool water affect the equipment?

Homunculus · Apr 18, 2007

hi,
i'm wondering how chlorine, pH and/or other chemicals added to the pool water affect the diving equipment in particular regulators and tanks. is it negligible as long as the equipment gets rinsed afterwords?
thanks

SteveAD · Apr 18, 2007

BCs and suits get bleached, tanks and regs virtually unaffected

johnny_bravo · Apr 18, 2007

As previous poster said...BCs start getting brown and faded.

Cheers.

-J.-

muddiver · Apr 18, 2007

Older masks use to rot and become soft from the clorine. The newer silicon masks just tend to turn yellow after too much pool water.

Same problem with fins.

The chlorine can also destroy the plastic parts of regulators and BC over time if you don't rense them off.

CAPNVINNY · Apr 18, 2007

Chlorine IS THE DEVIL!!!!!!lol

Ber Rabbit · Apr 18, 2007

Our university regulators have been in the pool once or twice a week (with the exception of summer quarter) for several years. The consoles have become soft and sticky and the compasses have started falling out of them. The regulators were rinsed well after every session but the cholorine still damages them over time.
Ber :lilbunny:

Hoosier · Apr 18, 2007

What is a counteragent of chlorine?

I must read it somewhere though.

The Chairman · Apr 18, 2007

I'm telling you the REAL culprit is peeing in the pool! Just stop it!

SparticleBrane · Apr 19, 2007

Ber Rabbit:
Our university regulators have been in the pool once or twice a week (with the exception of summer quarter) for several years. The consoles have become soft and sticky and the compasses have started falling out of them. The regulators were rinsed well after every session but the cholorine still damages them over time.
Ber :lilbunny:

Curious, how often is the scuba class run at your university (days/week)? How many sections?

As for the original question, unless you're in the pool multiple times per week for several weeks, you shouldn't have any permanent damage. Make sure you thoroughly rinse off all your gear after getting out and you should be fine.

Over the past two years, my university has had the BCs slowly turn grey. Other than that, our tanks and regs work fine, no issues at all. During the pool portion of our class when they're on scuba, the gear might be in the pool for 3-6 hours/day, 4 days/week, plus a little while on Fridays too.

Ber Rabbit · Apr 19, 2007

SparticleBrane:
Curious, how often is the scuba class run at your university (days/week)? How many sections?

Depends on what quarter it is. Fall and spring quarter there are two sections each with a 2 hour pool session. Spring quarter there is also an advanced class but they only get in the pool one day. Winter quarter there is one section.

I don't remember exactly how old our regulators are but I've been teaching since 2002 and we had them for at least two years before that, probably more like 4 years. It's taken a long time for us to start seeing the problems but you can look at the gear and tell which sets spent the most time in the pool. We don't get a lot of people wearing the XL bc's so the regs that are assigned to those are in much better shape.
Ber :lilbunny:

how does pool water affect the equipment?

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Homunculus

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