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I am about to receive my first BP/W. My question is this: how do you guys dry the bladder after it has been filled or cleaned with fresh water?? Open the OPVs to drain most of it and then? Just inflating it doesn't help much because some water will evaporate but some will not, isn't it?
So far I only own a closed type DSMB and every time I wash its' inside part with water it's a pain to dry it - I need to let the OPV open for several days while moving the DSMB now and then as water accumulates at corners etc. I can't imagine how this can be done with something as big as BCD or wing bladder.
Yeah, agree. As stated, there will always be a little water in there. Maybe that's why I heard years ago about the baby shampoo--perhaps to discourage mold?I'm pretty meticulous about my gear, but I don't think that you need to ensure that the interior of the bladder is completely dry between dives. It's just very hard to do that, and it doesn't seem to really be necessary. I have a Halcyon single and double wing, as well as a double bladder wing. I treat all of them the same way, I have had them for many years, never had a problem with them. The bigger issue is making sure that the valves and connectors are free of salt, and that means rinsing them out as described above before they dry.
What I do about residual water in the bladder is to empty it as best as I can after two fresh water rinses. I don't disassemble them, I just fill them with a hose through the inflator mouthpiece and then drain them through the mouthpiece, the bottom dump valve, and the power inflator valve. Then I fill the wing with air, and let it stand vertically over night. Then I dump the pooled water out of the bottom dump valve. If you want to be more compulsive, you can do that again and see if you get a little more water. Then I store it partially inflated. Seems to work fine...
Then I fill the wing with air