How do you rinse your scuba gear

[Starcruiser]

Come home from the days dive, throw all my gear in a large 80 gallon tank in the garage. Hose off while filling the tank. Fill the boots and gloves with water, hose while tank is still filling. Let soak overnight, then around 7 the next a.m., take everything out and hang to dry in front of a fan. Rinse BC inside and out with fresh water from the hose, hang with the rest of the gear. Same routine and same gear going on 5 years now.

 

[Garrobo]

I rinse mine in the shower at the motel and hang it all up to dry outside on the balcony.

 

[HowardE]

I rinse everything with fresh water. Often I use a large 55 gallon barrel, and soak everything, including tanks, knives, wrenches, sledge hammers, crow bars, etc for a few minutes. No need to go crazy. The salt washes off quickly. Sometimes we even rinse ourselves.

 

[Dwndiver7]

Local dive- I plug the tub and rinse everything under the faucet while it fills. I work all zippers under running water. I fill my BC 1/3 with water, slosh around and drain from lower dump valve. I leave everything soaking over night. Drain and hang.

Vacation dive- when I get home from the trip...I repeat above process.

My BC is new this year and appears to handle this process well. My reg is almost as old as me (US divers con shelf) and it performs flawless. I have a pair of fins I just stopped using this year (over 800 dives) that still have the original straps on them. Those are the fins I bought when I got OW certified 21 yrs ago. My knife is also that old, and the rubber retainer on it just broke last week.

 

[fnfalman]

I am very meticulous about how I rinse my gear and I rinse thoroughly with a hose then soak for a short while then rinse with a hose again.

I'm curious on how others care for their gear.

I have a Halcyon Infinity BP/W. How do you properly rinse your BP/W? Do you take off the wing? Do you put water in your wing to rinse it? Once or more times? Do you drain through the inflator hose or dump release?

How do you rinse your regulator and cameras? Do you soak them? How long, warm or cold water? How about rinsing your drysuit? Do you rinse your tanks?

Just want to find out the best ways to care for all my gear?

You don't want to neglect your gear but at the same time you don't want overkill either.

I fill up a tub of water (15-gallon tub), put in some bacteria killer (BC Wash, or some sort of dive gear detergent). Throw everything in it and I mean everything; except for camera because I am not a photographer. Let regulator soak for about 10-minutes, but longer for the rest.

I also have another tub filled with water and Sink The Stink. Throw regulator in there for another five minutes. If my regs had been sitting in the bag for a few days (as in traveling), then I'd vigorously wash the reg to make sure that the salt is all dissolved. Don't need to soak the regs for hours. Then I'd take the stuff from the first tub and put them all in the second tub and let them soak for another half hour or so. Booties get soaked all night because they get stinky & nasty. Hang everything up to dry.

With the BC, I'd fill the inside with water and shake it all around then let the water drain out via the bottom dump valve a bit, then turn the BC upside down and drain the rest out of the power inflator. Then blow wing up half way and hang it up to dry.

 

[merxlin]

Come home from the days dive, throw all my gear in a large 80 gallon tank in the garage. Hose off while filling the tank. Fill the boots and gloves with water, hose while tank is still filling. Let soak overnight, then around 7 the next a.m., take everything out and hang to dry in front of a fan. Rinse BC inside and out with fresh water from the hose, hang with the rest of the gear. Same routine and same gear going on 5 years now.

+1 on this. Drop in all in the trash can of fresh water after the dives, pull it out and fresh water rinse again with a hose the next day then hang, usually outside (but not in the sun) until dry. If it gets too funky (like after multiday dives), a little simple green works great in the soak.

 

[sunfishh]

Come home from the days dive, throw all my gear in a large 80 gallon tank in the garage. Hose off while filling the tank. Fill the boots and gloves with water, hose while tank is still filling. Let soak overnight, then around 7 the next a.m., take everything out and hang to dry in front of a fan. Rinse BC inside and out with fresh water from the hose, hang with the rest of the gear. Same routine and same gear going on 5 years now.

Where did you get the 80 gallon tank?

 

[knowone]

Where do you get the 1360 gallons.

 

[=C=]

I rinse my gear in fresh water and soak the regs in the sink with a cap full of iodine solution. The climate here supports fungus growth so I try and keep breathing gear as clean as possible. I should rinse the BC bladder more often but I only get to it about once in a blue moon. Under this regime my US divers Micra/SEA 4 survived 10 years befor getting crushed by a wayward tank. I bought some new SP regs and real DIN caps and the process continues.

 

[DMDavid]

I rinse/soak my gear in a 100gal Rubbermaid tub that has a fill/drain nozzle retrofitted for easy fill and draining.

I Have several pieces of equipment that are almost ten years old and they still look new.

I think the key to prolonging the lifespan of your equipment is to let it air dry out of direct sunlight and rinse with fresh water as soon as possible.