Cleaning gear

[Kevin Blaylock]

What does everyone use to clean their gear after a dive? Dunk tank, bath tub, old trash can (or recycle bin)? I have been using an old kitchen trashcan that works, its just too small. And i dont need anything like a 100 gallon tank. Thanks for any info you can give.

 

[Vitesse2l]

My regs, computer, mask, compass, torch get a long soak in the kitchen sink.

The wetsuit and all the rest swilled out in a large rubber tub then hosed off to rinse the salt.

 

[CanadaDan]

NEW garbage can for soaking (no tub in the house). Bought a heavy duty 50 gallon or so, rigged a garden hose tap at the bottom with a bulkhead adapter so I could drain it. Good for soaking my BCD, regulators, computer, knives, camera rig etc for 24 hours after an ocean trip. After lake dives I just rinse with the handheld shower. Make sure to rinse the inside of the BCD bladder.

Wetsuits, hood gloves etc go in the front load washer on the Rinse and Drain cycle at on gentle and slowest spin with some Sink The Stink. Hang to dry. After every ocean dive or once every couple of months of fresh water diving.

 

[Cap335]

Bathtub in warm water, it helps break down the salt.

 

[Damselfish]

Large muck bucket. Also called rope tub because of the rope handles.

 

[icechip]

17 gallon tub with rope handles. Can get them at Walmart. Garden hose for the water. Fill, soak, swish, hang, dump, then repeat and soak something else. Works good.

 

[Bigbella]

Whatever you wind up using, always soak your regulator while pressurized. The dunking method or soaking in a kitchen sink, etcetera, only encourages moisture to enter the first stage. Those dust caps are just that -- and seldom, if ever, watertight; and a paltry few, nowadays, even possess o-rings. The lion's share of costly damage that I have seen, while working on regulators, over the years, has come from that type of mishandling; and it requires very little moisture to cause corrosion and even internal pitting.

I just arrived back from diving within the hour; and everything, including my dive watch, went into a Greenmade® 27 Gallon Box; and will remain, through to this evening . . .

 

[fisheater]

I use a large, plastic Stanley tool box. https://smile.amazon.com/Stanley-03...prefix=stanley+tool+box+50+gal,aps,211&sr=8-2

 

[Doc Harry]

I soak everything in the bathtub for a few days. Rinse the BC bladder.

The BC inflator valves will get rusty and stick. So I take them apart, soak the metal parts in vinegar, and brush them clean with a brass brush.

Regs get a lot of abuse in a salt-water environment. So I make sure the dust ball is cranked down tight and soak them too. I doubt that you are going to do any more damage to the 1st stage in 6 inches of bath water than what happens to them during 10 days of salt-water diving. You gotta service them annually to get them really clean before the 1st stage develops pitting.

 

[Bigbella]

Regs get a lot of abuse in a salt-water environment. So I make sure the dust ball is cranked down tight and soak them too. I doubt that you are going to do any more damage to the 1st stage in 6 inches of bath water than what happens to them during 10 days of salt-water diving. You gotta service them annually to get them really clean before the 1st stage develops pitting.

I have heard all of this before; and yet, there is typically moisture damage to the first stage, when it arrives for an annual -- from "six inches of bathwater" or six feet. I dive saltwater, almost exclusively; soak the regs only while pressurized; service them myself; and they're always corrosion-free, regardless of the number or days of diving.

Some of my friend's equipment -- and their bathtub methods or dunk tank? Not so much; but I generally work on their gear at cost; and a pint or two . . .