Cleaning a compass?

[orch1ds]

Hello,

I am finding that after every shore dive, my compass gets sand stuck in it. The bezel is impossible to move. It takes me a good hour and tons of pain in my fingers to try and get all the sand out and make the bezel move again. I literally have to try and slowly break down the sand bits until they fall out. Its tedious and painful.

Does anyone have a good way to prevent this from happening or some easier cleaning solutions?

The compass is attached to my regulator. I believe I have an Apex XTX. Can't recall the number... its my first set.

Thanks!
cmk

 

[ronbeau]

Hello,

I am finding that after every shore dive, my compass gets sand stuck in it. The bezel is impossible to move. It takes me a good hour and tons of pain in my fingers to try and get all the sand out and make the bezel move again. I literally have to try and slowly break down the sand bits until they fall out. Its tedious and painful.

Does anyone have a good way to prevent this from happening or some easier cleaning solutions?

The compass is attached to my regulator. I believe I have an Apex XTX. Can't recall the number... its my first set.

Thanks!
cmk

The first question would be how is the sand getting in the compass to start with?

Is it because your console gets dragged in the sand when you exit from the ater?

You could always use a wrist mounted compass to prevent it from getting dragged in the sand.

 

[300bar]

Are you sure it's sand and not salt or calcium scale,from dryed water.
I normaly put compasses in hot water or vinager depending on whats in there, and soak them for some time,and then give them some WD40
works all the time.

 

[UnderSeaBumbleBee]

what kind of compass do you have?

 

[Jim Lapenta]

He did say shore dive. That means surf and surge. Translates into sand gets into everything. But it should not be getting into the compass. Usuall those are designed to turn easily but still be tight enough to keep the sand out. Best thing is to rinse it thoroughly with fresh water immediately. THis will not only get the sand out but also keep the salt from crystalizing. If you need to carry a gallon jug of tap water with you and use it to rinse everything off as soon as you're out of the water. At least your guages, reg, and bc inflator.

 

[spectrum]

Does anyone have a good way to prevent this from happening or some easier cleaning solutions?

It sounds like a console mounted computer, which is fine by me. How is it restrained? It should be on a retractor a short bungee cord bolt snapped to your left shoulder D rung. This should keep it out of the sand in all but the closest passes.

You say it's sand so we'll accept that it's sand. Back in then old days when it happened to my wife's a few times tt was much easier to work the sand out with the compass out of the boot and while held underwater which lubricated the process.

Prevention is by far the best goal here.

Pete

 

[orch1ds]

As far as I know its sand. I actually see the little granules coming out. But I'm doubting if I would know the different between salt crystals and sand at this point. I'm not dragging anything in the sand as I enter/exit the beach. Its purely from diving. I usually do night shore dives and I go home after the dive and rinse it all out. The first time I thought it was fluke. But its happened every time. I'm ready to through this thing away and purchase a wrist compass. The compass is built into my console.

I don't know how its getting in there so tight. When I am rinsing the outsole out at home and I shake it bit, a lot of sand comes out. Do I just have a defective console or something? I purchased it only about 2 months ago.

 

[orch1ds]

Please excuse all my typos... I'm getting all annoyed with this compass issue... :O

 

[Doc]

The best thing to liberate impacted sand (other than complete disassembly) is a steady flow of water along with physical manipulation.

In English? Twist on the parts gently and repeatedly while holding under a garden hose. SCUBA gear is an excellent second use for a Water Pik.

 

[Teamcasa]

Shore/beach diving here in SoCal means fine sand grains get into everything, and I do mean everything.
The best method of cleaning it out is to rinse it as soon as you can and vigorously work the bezel ring until it moves freely. Many times I’ll just disassemble it. When sand gets into the buttons on my computer, camera and BC inflator, I just take everything apart, clean and blow out the sand, grease it up and put it back together. Same goes for my drysuit inflator and exhaust valves when flushing with fresh water fails.

For me, it is just one more reason to dive from a boat or the dive park on Catalina.