Cleaning entire unit with mold

[shurite7]

A friend of mine brought me his rebreather after storing it for several months. He has been quite diligent with taking care of the unit. However, something was missed when the unit was prepped for storage. When the waterproof case was opened the unit was covered with mold.

What cleaning solution should be used to remove the mold? He and I are open to solutions, recommendations, and any advice.

Thanks

 

[rjack321]

I would throw out the flapper valves and anything else which is potentially harboring spores but readily replacable. This includes loop hoses if they are visibly contaminated.

On the remaining parts I would use vikron followed by drying then steramine, then vikron again. Hard parts like T pieces can be sprayed with a dilute bleach solution. Full drying for a week+ between each treatment. Fungi are no joke. A fungal lung infection can kill you or require a lifetime of treatment with harsh pharmaceuticals that have all sorts of side effects and liver toxicity.

 

[Wookie]

I would never use mold as a cleaning agent. I'd use vikron.

 

[shurite7]

I would throw out the flapper valves and anything else which is potentially harboring spores but readily replacable. This includes loop hoses if they are visibly contaminated.

On the remaining parts I would use vikron followed by drying then steramine, then vikron again. Hard parts like T pieces can be sprayed with a dilute bleach solution. Full drying for a week+ between each treatment. Fungi are no joke. A fungal lung infection can kill you or require a lifetime of treatment with harsh pharmaceuticals that have all sorts of side effects and liver toxicity.

Thanks for the input. Do you recommend soaking the unit in the vikron or use it to scrub the unit with a cleaning brush?

 

[PfcAJ]

Scrub! Chemical treatments alone aren't enough.

My rebreather was in storage before I purchased it and it had mold in the loop hoses I purchased a brush thats narrow enough to run down the hoses and scrubbed with hot water and disinfecting agents. Some good old fashioned soap helps, too.

 

[The Chairman]

I use steramine.

 

[rjack321]

I use steramine.

Is not as effective on fungi as vikron.
For a unit this grungy using both is prudent.

Soak for 20mins, then scrub like AJ said, a bottle brush is a good idea for hoses and counterlungs. Or replace the loop hoses and brush out the counterlungs

 

[Imla]

Personally, I would first clean it properly with soap and water to remove any obvious dirt/filth/contaminants, then I would disinfect using either RelyOn Virkon or RelyOn PeraSafe.

(I work in a transplant unit and we use primarily PeraSafe.)

 

[NAND]

what type of unit is it? I would strongly recommend changing all seals and parts made of natural rubber (such as the hoses). Vircon S does a brilliant job but fungi may grow into some types of rubber (such as latex, PU...) and remain with its spores.

Silica gel does a good job drying initially reducing the amount of mechanical workload.