Cleaning your Gear

[ChicagoDVR]

I search for a while with nothing really answering my question so if someone know of a post just link it please.

But if not what is everyone using to clean their gear really well, like fresh water and ??? what detergant or liquid cleaning mix?

I know some folks use medical grade stuff but i'm not exactly sure what it is. Alos do you clean your dry suit and wet suit with the casme stuff?

Thanks in advance...

 

[do it easy]

When I dive in freshwater, I usually just hang my gear up to dry. I usually try to knock the sand and silt off at the dive site. I might clean the inside of the drysuit once a year.

 

[ChicagoDVR]

Great thanks. What do clean your wet suit with once a year? Do you clean it after a week or so in salt water?

 

[Sasquatch]

The only thing I do that might be considered special is that I put some baking soda in my wetsuit boots before I fill them with fresh water. that keeps them fresh. Otherwise I just rinse very well with fresh water and soak the regs after rinsing them off when they're still on the tank under pressure.

Dry and we're done.

 

[Charlie99]

I just use fresh water for most cleaning.

Sometimes some shampoo (either the J&J baby shampoo also used as defog, or just whatever hotel shampoo is handy) for cleaning wetsuits if they stink a bit more than normal.

Sink-the-stink or Myrazyme enzyme-based cleaners on those rare occasions when shampoo can't get the urine smell out of the neoprene, and sometimes as a general cleanup after a 10 day dive trip.

If the BCD is going to be unused for several weeks, I'll flush out the bladder repeatedly with fresh water. I used a cleaner made specifically for BCDs (B.C. Life by Aquaseal) a few times, but haven't bother to replace it after finishing off the bottle.

The only piece of gear that has been really hard to clean are my boots. After several days of never drying in a hot humid tropical location, the boots will get pretty foul. A few times even enzyme based cleaners wouldn't do the job and I ended up using a very dilute chlorine bleach to get them to the point where the boots were allowed back into the house.

Charlie Allen

 

[Diver Dennis]

I have put my wetsuits in the washing machine before and have never had problems with them. I've used the wetsuit cleaner you buy with cold water.

 

[Spongebobscubasteve]

Wet suit shampoo every now and again, but other then that just fresh water.

 

[namabiru]

I have put my wetsuits in the washing machine before and have never had problems with them. I've used the wetsuit cleaner you buy with cold water.

Oh yeah? Just for soaking purposes, or are you actually turning on the machine and cleaning your wetsuit? Gentle cycle, I assume then? Just wondering, as I've done the bathtub soak with hand washing, then rinsing off in the shower and hanging. But I don't have anywhere to hang a wet heavy wetsuit.

 

[Cacia]

I put mine in the machine a couple times a year too...gentle, warm water.

The rest of the time I throw them in a bucket with a tad of shampoo while we hose off the boat. Then I drain them in a shopping cart and throw them in the car in another big bucket and then hang them by the pool at home.

I stopped loading them into the bags because the water eats the zippers up.

 

[Teamcasa]

When I finish diving, (ocean) I rinse with fresh water, fill a tub with water and Woolite, soak and agitate by hand (suit inside out), let soak, rinse and hang (again inside out). No funky smells, just nice and clean.

Dave