Dive gear storage in garage

[Sebastian746]

Looking for advice...
I recently bought a house with a garage and I was wondering what should i do to it to make it suitable for dive gear storage? It currently has a concrete floor, brick exposed walls, a door that opens into our garden and hence accessible from within. Also another door that opens onto a private road for taking the car out. Its a single car space and has electrical wiring installed with lights. I also plan to use it store a small amount of garden tools and mower. Please advise what needs to be done in terms of insulation, ventilation, storage solution for latex seals (on drysuits), etc.
Thank you!

 

[wstorms]

just keep it above freezing in the winter (say 5-10 degrees Celsius) and below 30 degrees C in the summer and you should be fine.
For electronics and tools etc it might be a good idea to set up a dehumidifier, so you can keep the humidity at around 50%. A lot depends on where you live and what the climate is like over there. Get a simple "weather station" to get some idea about temperature and humidity before you do any major investments
https://www.amazon.com/Crosse-Techn...ywords=weather+station&qid=1594304566&sr=8-39

 

[Divin'Papaw]

Here is what I do. Take from it what you wish:

• Tanks, regulators, backplates, wings/BCDs, lights, masks, fins - I store them in the garage without any concern. The tanks I store upright and tucked away where they cannot be knocked over. The other gear I store in large tubs with lids. I've lived in the Indiana (cold winters, hot summers) and in South Florida (mild winters and hot/humid summers that last 5-6 months) and have not had an issue with any of this gear being in my garage. Now my garage in Indiana never got below freezing as it was insulated and our water heater and furnace were out there. This always kept it above 40 degrees or so. Summers it got hot. In Florida the garage is always hot.
• Wetsuits, drysuits, computers - I've always stored those inside. You don't want these items subjected to temperature extremes nor ozone. The safest bet for latex, neoprene and electronics is indoors.

YMMV

 

[NAM001]

just vent your tanks down in the winter to a couple hundred psi or less. regs I would keep inside.

 

[JahJahwarrior]

Drysuits will dry even with higher humidity. Latex isn't good to store near ozone (AC, water heater, etc), in direct sunlight, or in extreme heat. I would let the suit dry in the garage, then treat the seals with McNett rubber treatment, then store it inside rolled up properly once dry and clean.

The more reasonable you can keep the garage, the better. For extended drops below freezing, I would keep electronics inside, but a one night freeze wouldn't bother me. Even the tanks, I wouldn't worry about venting them in winter. Based on the brick wall description, I'm assuming you are located in the north, where cold is more common than heat, but humidity in summer might be an issue.

Do make sure that gear is well dried before you put it in a bin and put a lid on it. Even if the lid isn't airtight, the gear won't dry out further very well, and you will get mold.

I have heard that bugs like the rubber bits in regs, so I would keep inside when possible and purge before sticking in your mouth.

My drysuit spends half its life inside and half in garage. The regulators I'm using most often live in the garage. All the tanks live in the garage. Electronics spend half their life in garage and half inside, it really just depends on how organized I'm feeling. I'm located in south florida, and my garage gets morning sun. Even with that, it doesn't rise above the air temperature. It's common in summer for the garage to be around 90 degrees. Inside humidity is often 60-70% and outside is probably 70-80%. I've never had a seal split where I didn't think "well it was about time anyways!", I've never had bugs in my gear, I've never had any issues with the tanks, and I've never had issues with electronics.

But I have had a garage door malfunction when I was away from home, exposing all my dive gear to theft. Thankfully I got that solved before any thieves dropped by, and I do have 3 security cameras watching entrances and contents...

 

[davehicks]

As mentioned above a lot of this depends on the seasonal temperature in your garage. In seattle my attached garage never gets too cold as it has good insulation everywhere but the door. It can get pretty hot on sunny summer days. To mitigate this I put a Window Mounted Fan on the outside garage window plugged into a temperature controlled switch. I program it to turn on the fan at 80F. Sometimes I manually turn it on in the Winter if I park a soaking wet car in there to control the humidity.

Overall this work pretty good and I store all my gear except my camera in the garage year round.

 

[icechip]

My attached garage in Maine is where I store all the gear during the season on some shelves and a set of racks with a roof rake bar to hang things on. I did hang a covering over the window in the door on the right to keep sunlight off the gear. But by December most of it goes to the basement till spring since the garage is not heated.

 

[Wathdoc]

I fully agree with what has been written.During the winter in the UK I always keep my regulators at room temp the night before diving and let then dry out after diving. I take care of the drysuit seals and zips and hang everything up including hood and gloves. The issue of allowing the regulators to dry and stay warm equally applies to the bcd.

 

[runsongas]

gas furnaces/car exhaust are not good for soft gear. airtight containers for regs and exposure suits are a good idea

 

[Chris H]

just vent your tanks down in the winter to a couple hundred psi or less. regs I would keep inside.

Why would you empty tanks?