Cleaning gear with hard water or softened water

[Still Kicking]

Not sure about the hard vs soft water or mineral content or ions........ but will say that HOT Fresh water is the best option for combating salt. Most folks have their water heaters already in their garage. It's really very little cost to install a H / C mix valve to your exterior hose bib and have that option available for rinsing dive gear, boats, trucks, dogs....etc! Just say'n!

I have to strongly endorse this idea! I did a solvent flush on my outboard a few weeks ago. I ran the solvent through the outboard on a loop for a couple of hours and all kinds of nastiness came out.

Afterwards i flushed the motor with freshwater for about 30 mins. Then i took the boat out this week for a few hours. Suffice to say it had been thoroughly flushed after the solvent.

After this week's trip i decided to flush with hot water for a change. I used a tub to cycle the water through for about 20 mins. Afterwards i noticed there was more scale in the bottom of the tub that hadn't been removed previously, despite thorough flushing and running the motor.

I am a convert to hot water flushing!

 

[icarusaxu]

I put a filter on my shower head which filters chlorine and some other minerals from the local (Australian) water supply. I just use that to hose my gear down and its worked well with no deposits.

 

[happy-diver]

Nah mate with a hot water you can still put your hand in soak and hose it's all dissolved away gone

Well my Uncle (Dr. Google) is a Ph.D in everything and he tells me this:

Hard water doesn't dissolve when heated, and it can actually cause problems for your water heater and pipes:

Mineral buildup
When heated, the minerals in hard water, like calcium and magnesium, settle at the bottom of your water heater tank and form a layer of sediment…

And I trust my uncle more than anyone else …

And so you should mate, as disolving hard water or cleaning sediment from a hot water tank
or whatever you are talking about is not what we're taking about, which is cleaning dive gear

With Hot Water, no matter the water as it's better than cleaning it with salt water or no water

 

[Pearlman]

And so you should mate, as disolving hard water or cleaning sediment from a hot water tank
or whatever you are talking about is not what we're taking about, which is cleaning dive gear

With Hot Water, no matter the water as it's better than cleaning it with salt water or no water

Hmm ok point to ponder… so as long as I use hot water and drain it completely via the kidney dump valve there’s no gunk to stick to surface or bottom and settle… will try that after my next dive vacation!

 

[happy-diver]

Dude the water heater is a steel tank that sits for years heating water and collecting dirt in the bottom

with no easy non mechanical way of cleaning it out

much like my drinking water tank in the country

an instantaneous unit is a different kettle of fish water which with the right valves installed are easily flushed