Cleaning Regs

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es601:
Ok guys since we are on the subject and (I don't mean to hijack) On the last dive of my last dive trip I forgot to put dust caps on at all when I dunked my regulators. (Yeh stupid I know) I hung them in a closet w/ all hoses up and first stage down w/port at lowest point over night. The next morning I replaced the dust caps and soaked in tub then rinsed. It was probably the last dive for the year and I plan on bringing them in to be serviced before using again in the spring so I wasn't overly concerned. But what is the proper procedure if I had another dive planned for that trip?


Ugggh. That's a drag. I am glad you are having your regs. serviced. I just hope you didn't pressurize your reg because residual water in the first stage would migrate into your pressure gauge's Bourdon tube. I'm going steer away from a myriad of recommendations here because this forum is not a tech diver site and disassembly, or blow-out procedures are best done by qualified personnel. Best thing to do is watch your friendly tech service this reg. and to see what type of residue (if any) was left inside the first stage.
 
Ideally, they should be dissassembled and checked.

Some designs allow any water inside to move through the regulator with no damage and the air flow of the next dive will dry the interior. This is primarily the case with flow through balanced piston designs. But it is also important to note that this won't remove any salt inside the regulator. And as indicated above, you could get water in the SPG. In a mechanical gauge, this could cause a corrosion problem in the long term, but it can mean very rapid (and very expensive) failure in an air integrated computer.

Other designs can trap water in hard to reach places where it will not be readily removed by air flowing through the regulator. (unbalanced "flow by" piston designs are a good example). In addiiton, some balanced diaphragm designs can be damaged by having a more or less incompressible substance in them. So the safeest approach is to have a tech dissassemble it, dry it and clean it.

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Someone above advised taking the cover and diaphragm off of a second stage to clean the inside of the regulator. This can be problematic as one of the more common causes of a flooding or wet breathing second stage is an improperly seated diaphragm. So you are potentially causing a bigger problem than you are solving.

If used regularly, and rinsed properly a second stage will not accumulate significant amounts of sand, silt, etc.

Also, attempting to re-seat a wet diaphragm in a wet second stage is one of the leading causes of having of having a diaphragm seat improperly as it may slide off as you screw the purge cover back on. If you remove the diaphragm be sure you know what you are doing and know how to test the reg to ensure the diaphragm is properly seated.
 
es601: I would have added one last step to your procedure. That would be to pressurize the regulator on your tank and purge some of the remaining air through the first and second stages, to ensure that it is completely dry. You are better off extra safe, instead of sorry, when dealing with mistreated vital gear.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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