BCD CLEANER

[Blackcrusader]

Diving with a friend in Bali soon and we were discussing our preparations of our dive equipment.

As many of you know I like to clean my BCD bladder in case I may need to use it for redundancy features as well as basic maintenance.

My dive buddy bought this in the UK.

B.C. Life™ Cleaner & Conditioner for B.C.D.s | McNett Europe - Watersports

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watersports.mcnett.eu

McNett B.C. Life 8 oz B.C.D. Cleaner & Conditioner

The more you dive, the more your buoyancy compensator device or BCD is exposed to salt, chlorine and organic compounds that can damage it, inside and out.

www.americandivingsupply.com

 

[Wibble]

Would you not use the same stuff as rebreather divers use to clean their 'lungs'?

• DuPont Virkon S tablets/powder. Mix some up and use it for a few days.
• Chemgene disinfectant. Very convenient to mix what you want.

Lots of others available.


The main thing is that the wing/lungs are dried out. Bacteria don't like that. Given the sunny locations you like to dive, leaving the BCD in the sun for an hour would cook the bugs nicely.

 

[Blackcrusader]

Had lots of sun up my way in Taiwan recently.

 

[Belzelbub]

Diving with a friend in Bali soon and we were discussing our preparations of our dive equipment.

As many of you know I like to clean my BCD bladder in case I may need to use it for redundancy features as well as basic maintenance.

My dive buddy bought this in the UK.

B.C. Life™ Cleaner & Conditioner for B.C.D.s | McNett Europe - Watersports

<p>YOU MAY ALSO BE INTERESTED IN…</p>

watersports.mcnett.eu

McNett B.C. Life 8 oz B.C.D. Cleaner & Conditioner

The more you dive, the more your buoyancy compensator device or BCD is exposed to salt, chlorine and organic compounds that can damage it, inside and out.

www.americandivingsupply.com

I have a bottle of that as well, but it's not the only thing I generally use. More often, I use that if I'm away from home as it's easy to pack.

For home, or when I get back from a trip I do the following.
Uncrew the inflator from the corrugated hose (Zeagle with the garden hose threaded fitting). Hook up the garden hose.
Garden hose is also connected to a mixing dispenser with a Salt Off (Salt Away, Salt-X, etc.) solution.
Turn dispenser to mixture, then turn garden hose on.
BC will fill with water, then exit through one or more of the dump valves. I'll cycle each one a few times to make sure the solution goes through each one.
Turn dispenser to Water only and continue rinsing, and cycling valves. When water starts coming out as clean water (no bubbles), I'll turn off the water, disconnect, and drain.
I then also soak the BC in a bucket filled with water and a few capfuls of Revivex cleaner, then rinse it off and hang up to dry outside but in the shade. Dump any residual water from the rear dump valves until no more water comes out. Then I hang it up indoors. Inflator remains unscrewed, so the BC isn't completely sealed when being stored.

 

[BoltSnap]

I have a bottle of that as well, but it's not the only thing I generally use. More often, I use that if I'm away from home as it's easy to pack.

For home, or when I get back from a trip I do the following.
Uncrew the inflator from the corrugated hose (Zeagle with the garden hose threaded fitting). Hook up the garden hose.
Garden hose is also connected to a mixing dispenser with a Salt Off (Salt Away, Salt-X, etc.) solution.
Turn dispenser to mixture, then turn garden hose on.
BC will fill with water, then exit through one or more of the dump valves. I'll cycle each one a few times to make sure the solution goes through each one.
Turn dispenser to Water only and continue rinsing, and cycling valves. When water starts coming out as clean water (no bubbles), I'll turn off the water, disconnect, and drain.
I then also soak the BC in a bucket filled with water and a few capfuls of Revivex cleaner, then rinse it off and hang up to dry outside but in the shade. Dump any residual water from the rear dump valves until no more water comes out. Then I hang it up indoors. Inflator remains unscrewed, so the BC isn't completely sealed when being stored.

Do you do this after every day of diving on once at the end of the season?

 

[Belzelbub]

Do you do this after every day of diving on once at the end of the season?

If I'm planning to dive in the next day or two, I'll likely simplify it. I still rinse well with water inside and out. If I won't likely be diving in the next few days, I do that full cleaning process. It doesn't really take that long, and in many cases I do other things while the hose is cleaning the inside of the BC, or it's soaking. Like drinking a beer or cleaning up the boat, maybe both.

My current BC is at least 7 years old and still looks very new.

 

[Blackcrusader]

I have a bottle of that as well, but it's not the only thing I generally use. More often, I use that if I'm away from home as it's easy to pack.
For home, or when I get back from a trip I do the following.
Uncrew the inflator from the corrugated hose (Zeagle with the garden hose threaded fitting). Hook up the garden hose.

My buddy bought this, a hose to BCD attachment. Glad you replied I really started this thread so that newer divers or those who have just bought their own gear learn about equipment maintenance.

 

[tridacna]

Diving with a friend in Bali soon and we were discussing our preparations of our dive equipment.

As many of you know I like to clean my BCD bladder in case I may need to use it for redundancy features as well as basic maintenance.

My dive buddy bought this in the UK.

B.C. Life™ Cleaner & Conditioner for B.C.D.s | McNett Europe - Watersports

<p>YOU MAY ALSO BE INTERESTED IN…</p>

watersports.mcnett.eu

McNett B.C. Life 8 oz B.C.D. Cleaner & Conditioner

The more you dive, the more your buoyancy compensator device or BCD is exposed to salt, chlorine and organic compounds that can damage it, inside and out.

www.americandivingsupply.com

View attachment 735098

That works. But it sure is OLD stock. McNett changed that packaging years ago.

McNett is now GEARAID. It's called REVIVEX.

 

[Belzelbub]

My buddy bought this, a hose to BCD attachment. Glad you replied I really started this thread so that newer divers or those who have just bought their own gear learn about equipment maintenance.

View attachment 735296

Yes, that will work. Definitely better than trying to pour water down the corrugated hose by holding the manual inflate. I believe that this would need the owner to also hold down the power inflate button to run the water through the BC, right?

The Zeagle/Atomic coupler makes it a bit more hands off.

The left end in this picture will install in any 1" corrugated hose. The other end is where the hose screws into. The inflator will also thread into this end.

The main con is that it will only work with Zeagle or Atomic inflators, including the AIR2 type (Octo-Z or SS1). I haven't seen it sold separately, but it does come with purchase of the inflator.

The pros are you don't need to hold anything down. Just connect the hose and turn on the water. This also allows you to store the inflator/SS1/Octo-Z with your regulators. Quite often people tend to take better care of their regulators. BCs tend to be hung up in the garage (if hung up at all). Last week, I had to disassemble a friend's inflator as it was stuck open. We were able to get it cleaned out so it would work, but it was pretty clear that it needed some service. My inflator stays with my regulators and goes with them for service when due.

 

[MonkfishTacos]

Garden hose is also connected to a mixing dispenser with a Salt Off (Salt Away, Salt-X, etc.) solution.
Turn dispenser to mixture, then turn garden hose on.

+1 for the use of the Salt Off cleaners. All of my gear gets sprayed down with a sprayer bottle solution mixed with it after saltwater, especially anything metal. A pump garden sprayer works great for this. While I have only been using it for a short while on my dive gear, I have been using it for years on my saltwater boat, fishing gear, and to run through my outboards water intake as a Fall treatment. Works awesome.