Cleaning your gear

[ReefGuy]

Alright folks, what do you do and what do you use to clean your gear when you have a more, shall we say, memorable dive? I've tried contacting the manufacturers of our gear (sherwood, genesis, bare, etc), but haven't heard anything from them.

We get washed down by the fire department if the situation requires it. At home, I soak all of my gear in antibacterial soap for at least an hour, then scrub with a brush and rinse, then back in for a soak in sink the stink.

What's the strongest cleaner I can use with the gear, or is the antibacterial dish soap really enough?

At least my gear doesn't still smell like poop.

 

[muddiver]

The gear that is used at the Long Beach Aquarium gets a 10% bleach solution rense to kill microbes when moving between exhibits. Viking has a good manual on diving in contaminated water which covers decon and I think Steve Barsky wrote a book on the same topic. Bleach is better than the run-of-the-mill anti-bactrial soap. Except for neoprene bleach should not damage your gear at the solution levels required to kill bad stuff.

 

[UncleJoes]

Also look at Microban and Mcnett's Mirazyme. Both are enzyme based cleaners used both to disenfect and deoderize. For a "Memorable Dive" I'd simply up the prescribed dosing.

 

[almitywife]

i know alot of rebreather divers use Disinfectant: Virkon to clean their counter lungs as its warm and moist and full of living micros that can turn nasty

and diverite stock it, Disinfectant, Oxygen-Compatible Lubricant and Contact Conditioner for Rebreathers

"memorable" dives.... i dont know how you do it but thank you

cheers

 

[Yotsie]

10% bleach is what we use. Spray everything down, scrub and rinse off.

 

[ReefGuy]

Has anyone used Easy Decon 200? We were at a DUI seminar last week and they were pushing this stuff pretty heavily. Apparently this kills things like hep A and E. coli instantly, breaks up fossil fuels, and will even kill anthrax (but takes 12 hours to do so).