Crusty Zippers

[spectrum]

Those are gear bag zippers....

We are having problems with a number of zippers on our gear bags. There is a visible white accumulation that I assume is dried up salt brine. Warm water has been slow to break this down.

Anyone have a good home remedy for this crusty build-up?

Pete

 

[Charlie99]

Adding some vinegar to the warm water will help dissolve the salt crystals.

 

[jeaniec27]

Try and use hot water versus warm water...then soak for a few hours....the salt should be evaporated faster than warm or cold water...never tried the vinegar, but sounds like a good idea....potatoes suck up salt too, so maybe add a few bags of potatoes!!! (lol)
Stefanie

 

[kaz1960]

We use a spray on silcone esp. made for lubricating zippers.
Works quick and easy. Another thing would be to not allow the zippers to get that bad. We frequently take a power washer to our bags to get rid of the salt buildup.

 

[Ann Marie]

I'll second the vinegar. I've used it on crusty valves and occasionally soak my underwater housing and regs in a very weak vinegar/warm water solution even though I do a good rinse after diving.

 

[Fish_Whisperer]

For the zippers on my Jeep windows, I take those hard-as-hell bars of soap that you get in hotels, and I run it up and down the zippers. It doesn't attract dust or leave oily residue, and when it wears off, simply hit it with a bar of soap again. Quick, cheap, and easy.

 

[ItsBruce]

Are you sure the white buildup is salt? If it is a metal zipper, the buildup could be corrosion.

Whatever the case, I like the warm vinager idea. BTW: hot vinager is good for cleaning lots of things. Vinager is, after all, an acid.

 

[MoonWrasse]

It happened to me recently. When I unpacked my dive gear, which had been stowed for 8 months after the last dive, the zipper on my brand new dive bag was crusty white and fell off at the first touch.
It seems that although I'd taken great care to clean and soak everything else, I must've just rinsed the bag, thinking it wouldn't need a soaking as it never went underwater like the rest of my gear.
So I replaced it with a hefty YKK zipper and now soak it like everything else.

 

[spectrum]

Thanks for all the tips folks.

I heated some water & vinegar in the microwave and used a wash cloth to bathe each sticky zipper. I got all but one, I'll need to rig it to soak.

The sliders are metalic but the teeth are plastic. The buikldup is mainly in the teeth at the end of zippers. It's surely from handling wet gear at the end of ocean dives. Another thing to add to the 2006 maintenance regime.

Pete

 

[Green_Manelishi]

The buikldup is mainly in the teeth at the end of zippers. It's surely from handling wet gear at the end of ocean dives. Pete

Which is why fresh water is more better than ocean