Proper wing storage?

[Degenerate]

Right on the money. After I started this thread I emailed Dive Rite and they confirmed that having a bit of water left over is not a problem at all assuming it is clean fresh water. Makes sense. Wouldn't make for very practical diving gear if something that is designed to be used in water could get damaged by water.

When I bought my wing used about a year ago it had not been in the water for 2 years.
It made a rattling noise when you shook it and when I unscrewed the OPV a bunch of salt crystals fell out, previous owner had put it away without draining it properly after a dive in salt water...
Thoroughly rinsed it there and then and have used that wing for 70ish dives since and it has worked flawlessly and it still looks great on the inside.
Not saying salt is harmless for your gear, but I do believe there's a lot of people who will crap their pants if I tell them I sometimes just toss my gear aside for a couple days/a week after a dive in salt water if I know I'm going on a fresh water dive soon (something I was told by two of my GUE instructors they often did and they never had an issue).
The main factor here is probably time, it takes quite a while for it to actually do any damage to your gear.

Then again I know people who will spend two hours cleaning every inch of their gear after a dive in fresh water because they're afraid "the dirt can damage it".

 

[Caveman]

That is good to know but what has concerned me in the past is if the water in the wing/bcd if stored for a long period of time would cause mold growth...I know it is strongly recommended to not breath any air from inside a wing/bcd but my concern is that if I am going to store my wing for any significant length of time then I want to preserve/protect it and any other gear it is stored with,,,moisture leading to mildew/mold could seriously impact ones equipment, I have seen it with backing/camping gear, and would not want it to happen to my dive gear.

-Z

That is a good consideration. If it were up to me, even if I were not diving at least once a month then I would still frequently take my wings and give them a thorough clean and even the usual semi annual/annual service to keep them from developing any mold or corrosion of the materials. With modern dive gear especially the engineering from the likes of Dive Rite, Apeks, Halcyon and the like, equipment is pretty bomb proof and can last a pretty long time. What I sometimes do is fully inflate the wing, remove the OPV and allow some fresh air to enter the system and hopefully dry out some of the excess water; just have to avoid the dust.

 

[Caveman]

When I bought my wing used about a year ago it had not been in the water for 2 years.
It made a rattling noise when you shook it and when I unscrewed the OPV a bunch of salt crystals fell out, previous owner had put it away without draining it properly after a dive in salt water...
Thoroughly rinsed it there and then and have used that wing for 70ish dives since and it has worked flawlessly and it still looks great on the inside.
Not saying salt is harmless for your gear, but I do believe there's a lot of people who will crap their pants if I tell them I sometimes just toss my gear aside for a couple days/a week after a dive in salt water if I know I'm going on a fresh water dive soon (something I was told by two of my GUE instructors they often did and they never had an issue).
The main factor here is probably time, it takes quite a while for it to actually do any damage to your gear.

Then again I know people who will spend two hours cleaning every inch of their gear after a dive in fresh water because they're afraid "the dirt can damage it".

Similar situation with me. Snagged two wings 2nd hand; a Halcyon and a Dive Rite. Both in superb condition but the aircell did have a few salt crystals inside. Cleaned them up proper and they have performed magnificently. The materials that the inner cells are made of are tremendously durable. I think with some people, after putting in a small fortune to buy high end equipment, they handle it as delicately as diffusing a bomb. Perfectly understandable but they should not fret too much; dive wings are built to take a hit.
I would say salt is more of a threat to the operating components of a wing such as the inflator or OPV rather than the aircell materials themselves.

 

[dmaziuk]

wow. as a 50 year old man, that really hit a personal note with me....

ISAGN: an OPV that one could unscrew and let those last drops dry out on their own. Surgically installed In belly button maybe?

 

[BoundForElsewhere]

ISAGN: an OPV that one could unscrew and let those last drops dry out on their own. Surgically installed In belly button maybe?

I was thinking more along the lines of a blow hole instead of a belly button. Much more organic.

 

[flymolo]

maybe flushing some steramine through the wing once in awhile would help keep the inside clean

 

[Degenerate]

Similar situation with me. Snagged two wings 2nd hand; a Halcyon and a Dive Rite. Both in superb condition but the aircell did have a few salt crystals inside. Cleaned them up proper and they have performed magnificently. The materials that the inner cells are made of are tremendously durable. I think with some people, after putting in a small fortune to buy high end equipment, they handle it as delicately as diffusing a bomb. Perfectly understandable but they should not fret too much; dive wings are built to take a hit.
I would say salt is more of a threat to the operating components of a wing such as the inflator or OPV rather than the aircell materials themselves.

I fully agree, high end gear is extremely durable and there is absolutely no reason at all to treat it like 16th century porcelain.

 

[Caveman]

I was thinking more along the lines of a blow hole instead of a belly button. Much more organic.

And less costly too.

 

[Ripley]

I have a hotronics snapdry skiboot dryer that I use after days on the slopes and in my wetsuit booties to keep them from getting funky. It gently warms and circulates the air to dry my boots/booties....I never thought of it before but I suppose if I was going to store my wing for a long period of time I could unscrew the opv and stick one of the legs of the dryer into the wing....could do 2 wings at a time I suppose.

Will have to do an experiment to see how well it works.

Here is a pic of the boot dryer I have...the black plastic ends come off and there is another set of multi-directional ends that screw on for with gloves/mittens....those ends would probably work well in the wing:
View attachment 568935

-Z

I'd stay very close to it when doing the experiment. I would be afraid those dryer thingies would produce that much heat that the bladder might get damaged.

 

[Zef]

I'd stay very close to it when doing the experiment. I would be afraid those dryer thingies would produce that much heat that the bladder might get damaged.

Been using it for ski boots and wetsuit booties since 2015. It does not produce enough heat to cause damage. It primarily works by circulating the air and though I have not measured the temperature (perhaps will do that tonight or this weekend), I believe I recall seeing a reference spec of approx 96F for air temp which is just slightly less than average body temp. For soaking wet neoprene booties it takes about 3-4 hours to fully dry them and has a timer/auto shutoff. This much much much much gentler in terms of air circulation and heat than a hairdryer (at least 4X the much, probably more).

Of course there is the off chance it could malfunction, like any thing, and cause massive destruction...but diving is full of inherent risk.

-Z