Rinsing

When do you rinse?


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Rinse everything thoroughly at the end of a dive day, slat water or fresh. On a liveaboard, I rinse my reg and computer thoroughly at the end of the dive day, and spry off exposure suit and BC. At the end of each trip, I wash all thoroughly with "sink the stink, then let sit in fresh water for 24 hours before hanging to dry. I let all hang for 48 hours in dry place before storing.
Note: on a liveaboard with limited fresh water capacity, DO NOT rinse gear daily. I was on a boat once where people did, and water became a real issue. (It's in the book0 The Scuba Snobs Guide to Diving Etiquette, chapter on liveaboard rules of etiquette.
DivemasterDennis scubasnobs.com
 
I'm as water conscious as many (probably more than most) but I say rinse everytime.
 
My dive gear never dries. Seriously, I do not rinse after every diving day. If I am going to dive the following day, I almost never rinse. If I know it will be a few days until my next dive, I usually rinse the reg, tank and BCD. I generally do rinse my video gear and dive computers.

Frequency of rinsing would be dependent on type of water dived (fresh or salt) and climate conditions IMHO.
 
I answered "all the time after each dive day" but that's not entirely accurate. If I dive fresh water then I'm less worried about it. Diving the quarry I always rinse, but if I was diving Crystal River, I might not. The answer is really "it depends".
 
I always rinse all my gear after each dive unless live aboard/extended vacation then it's not always possible . For regs if ive been lake diving I will give quick rinse. If salt water will soak pressurized for several hours and then rinse off with running water. Ditto lights and computers. Wetsuit, BP/W, fins, mask etc usually rinse off in the shower.
 
I am way more paranoid about rinsing off chlorine from the pool, than rinsing off salt water.

...This may be why I have a "sacrificial set" of pool dive gear...


All the best, James

If you lived where I do, You'ld have to rinse your gear off in the pool to get the chlorine off after hosing everything down with city water.

My pool is 1.5 PPM or less, city water can be up to 3.0 PPM
 
I dive exclusively "fresh" water and I rinse everything after I get home. There are too many pollutants and whatnot that find their way into the rivers, lakes, and streams, not to mention all the particulate floating around. Plus the wetsuit sure would STINK if it didn't get rinsed after every dive.
 
My gear gets used every day - and is rarely rinsed properly. Often I work 7 day stints on the boats where my suit is left hanging to dry but the rest of my gear is packed away in a box and left on board over night, although I do rinse my regulators at the end of the diving day. If your equipment doesn't dry, then the salt doesn't get enough chance to crystallize - which is what causes the damage to the materials you equipment is made of. Having said that, I use my gear every day - whereas prolonged periods of absence from the water without adequate washing may actually cause more damage than regular use.

When my gear and I are reunited back in the dive centre, it gets dunked and swished about a bit and packed away and every now and then my regs get a good long soak. I have to point out that whilst the don't get washed every day, my regs are serviced at the appropriate intervals. They have also made over 4,000 dives, counting the guide who owned them before me; my semi-dry has made over 1,000 dives but I will need to replace it soon, my BCD over 3,000 dives not to mention the loooooong hours of chlorinated pool sessions, and so although it might not be rinsed frequently, it's well looked after and in good working order.

My point is not to advocate slovenliness in cleaning - rather that it doesn't really matter if you don't give everything a good soak after every dive you make on a week long live-aboard. If you are going to be putting your equipment into storage then I recommend a very thorough cleaning and a good long soak in the tub before you do. I would also do it again before your next dive vacation - because spiders might like to live in the mouthpiece of your regulator!

Cheers

C.
 
When I can drink the water I am diving in (which is most of the time) I don't rinse my gear. When I dive in the salty stuff, then I rinse.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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