How do you clean your equipment?

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Originally posted by Ari

Reading all of your posts, it looks like I will have to rethink my system.

My dives are all salt water.

Ari :D

Better yet... looking at your gear what do you think...
If what you are doing is working...
Don't change!
 
It looks just fine, but learning from someone else's experience is naver too late.

Thinking long term, it might be worthwhile to take some more time and effort in making sure that everything is as clean as possible.

I will have to sleep on it.

Thanks for the emotional support, Uncle Pug.

Ari =-)
 
Hi Chepar

My dives are all saltwater at Johnston Atoll. We are lucky in that we have a four-rinse-barrel setup and two hoses for divers to use to clean gear.

First, I disassemble and place everything in clean water for a soaking.

Next comes the tank. It gets a good rinse with a hose before being refilled.

I rinse the inside and outside of my BC, and drain it fully and hang it up to drip.

Everything else is then taken out to air dry, with last item being the reg./computer. This gets a gentle rinse and hung up to drain and dry.

While everything is hung up to dry, I have a chance to catch up on my logbook before everyone scatters. All told, maybe 20 min.:boom:
 
Man...now I feel REALLY lazy!

When I come back from diving, and know I'll be going out again tomorrow..I just throw everything in the shower and clean it and myself at the same time. If I know its going to be a while before diving again, I put everything in a big tub (in the shower) and fill it will fresh water and dump 1/2 gallon of vinager in the water. That will help clean any salt build up a little better. I do wash my wetsuit in the washer every few weeks. Gentle cycle and let air dry. Simple green in the wash helps get out the last of the "funk".

Simple green is also great to soak anything in. It is a non-toxic cleaner, so it won't hurt the environment. But, vinager is the real miracle worker!
 
After a day of diving in West Palm Beach, I hose everything off in the driveway. Then I fill a 35 gallon storage container with freshwater and give everything a good over-night soak. Skin and wetsuit go in washer and washed on cold-water, gentle cycle, then hung to dry.
 
If there is a drawback in SCUBA it has to be the the cleaning and rinse cycle. On local trips, I rince all the gear in a double deepsink in my basement and then hang everything to air dry. If it is humid, I turn on the de-humidifier. This includes even the gear used in the pool. This is where it can get toilsome. I usually return from a class around 11:30 PM to Midnight and I really don't want to deal with this. But, knowing the alternatives, I still take the time to rinse all my pool gear before I turn in (or open a cold one).

On trips in our RV I use a 60 gallon cooler to both store gear and rinse it. Then I hang the gear from a 8 X 8 portable canopy that has lots of canopy struts for hangers. This keep the gear out of the sun and rain.

On remote trips I usually do the rinse in the motel tub/shower. Then hang all the gear from just about anywhere that will support the weight. It leaves a mess but that is why I am paying too much for this room anyway. If we are diving dry, MY CF200 never dries until I can hang it properly in my basement with the de-humidifier on. The FLEX50/50 my wife uses is dry after 4-6 hours of hanging.
 
Kind of funny coming across this thread, just as I start putting my gear away from the soak.

My closest dive site (salt) has no facilities, and it's usually covered in snow and the temp is generally somewhere less than freezing. So...

The gear goes into the back of the rig as is. I leave my reg on my last tank and leave the air on just so I know I won't have any intrusion.

After about an hour and a half to two hour ride home it all goes into the tub for a soak of at least an hour. Swish swish and maybe a little pressure on masks or the bc bladder and then it's hang and dry in the garage.

Time? Maybe half an hour total. I think it might be longer if I was messing with the wet suit stink, but the dry suit seems fine with just a rinse.
 
Don't do to much rinsing 99% of our dives are in the great lakes gear lasts forever when you dive here!!:D

No pretty coral or fishes just the best ship wreck diving in the world....:wink: :mean:


NINJA :)
 

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