Dive gods: How well do you clean your gear?

[vam]

This is a tangent from the post about my first drysuit dives. The instructor wanted to make sure I had an appropriate hanger for the drysuit, and I mentioned that I would hose it off on my deck and then hang it up inside the house after it had finished dripping. He laughed at how new divers worry so much about keeping their gear looking nice.

Honestly, I don't care how good my gear looks so long as its in good working order. I usually spend about half an hour hosing everything down, running clean water through my inflator/bcd, and setting things out to dry. I'm just trying to take care of my gear so that it will take care of me. I'm diving in fresh water in Ontario.

But it got me wondering... How much time do the much more experienced divers here spend cleaning gear? What do you make a priority, and what do you let slide? I'd love to save the time if I'm wasting it.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I rinse my gear at the end of every diving day. I'm usually shore diving, and carry my gear in a large plastic tote, so at the end of the day I simply fill it from a hose, rinse the gear thoroughly, and hang it up on an outside rack to drip ... then move it inside once it stops dripping. Takes all of a few minutes. If you're submerging your reg, make sure it's covered tightly with a waterproof cap ... I use a DIN reg, so have a delrin screw-in type with a flat piece inside that the o-ring seals against. When rinsing the suit, I first rinse the seals while holding them upside down, so no water gets inside, then dunk the suit while holding the seals out of the water ... again so no water goes inside the suit. But if the suit has latex seals, make sure you rinse them well, otherwise the latex will begin to deteriorate sooner than it should. Also, if you're hanging the suit in the sun, cover the seals with a towel or something to reduce the amount of sun exposure, which will also break down the latex. I only occasionally rinse the inside of the BCD, but that's also fairly easy to do.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Patoux01]

In fresh water, I don't rinse, maybe quickly the mouthpieces, but that's really about it. I'll rinse at the end of a trip or maybe once every other month if I had the chance to dive every week.

Fresh water really is not gonna do much to your gear. In salt water, I'll rinse when I'm sure the gear does not get used during more than a few days (typically 3-4 days is where I'd draw the line).

edit: not a dive god btw.

 

[Vicko]

My wet wetsuit is in a drybag for the last 4 days.

 

[Neilwood]

One thing to bear in mind is that for a working instructor, his gear is one thing only - a tool to be used. It doesn't matter how nice it looks so long as it works. He will probably be able to get a better price on gear (keyman deals exist for instructors and DM's) and will probably even be able to write it off against tax as a business expense. He might look at a drysuit and decide that getting one full season of tuition out of it is enough to pay for itself so it is not worth making sure it lasts 3 or 4.

He also has other things that need to be done after a class that are potentially more important than the finer points of gear maintenance such as filling in course work, log books, filling tanks, prepping gear for the next day, making sure he is set up for the next class (which might be a different set up if he is going from the likes of a drysuit course to OW pool work).

For the rest of us, gear is expensive and it is in our interests in making sure it works at its best for longest. I shiver at the thought of having to buy a new drysuit within the next 5 years.

My gear gets a clean down/rinse as soon as I can after the diving is done. If I am away for a weekend, it will get done on my return but not between days.

 

[tbone1004]

not a dive god by any means, but here's what I do.

When I'm cave diving or freshwater diving, everything gets hung up until it's dry, then put back in the gear bins. No real rinsing or anything to speak of. Wetsuits MAY go into the washing machine on gently cycle with some enzyme cleaners if they smell funny, but that's it.

In the salty stuff, which is rare for me, I will rinse everything as well as I can before it dries, and then try to go diving in fresh water to clean it off. If I can't, the regs get special attention and I use a DSS hose adapter for the inflators to flush that out, but that's about it. Drysuit doesn't get much attention other than a quick hose off

 

[Wookie]

My gear gets rinsed when the boat gets rinsed. Or when it rains. Or before it gets packed to fly, but only because salty gear weighs more.

 

[Storker]

The few times I've dived in fresh water, I've assumed that fresh water is fresh water, no matter if it's in a lake or in my tap. So, no rinse.

I usually dive in salt water. I hose down my drysuit, making sure to spray some of the water at the valves to avoid buildup of salt. Wing is hosed down on the outside and rinsed once inside, again to avoid salt crystals forming inside the bladder or in the inflator. Regs are also rinsed, and my LDS has never complained about it being in poor condition when I hand it in for service. The rest of the stuff is soaked once in the plastic tub I carry my gear in since even stainless steel gets rust spots if it's exposed to salt water too long, and I don't like rust on my stuff. Everything is hung up outside until it stops dripping, and taken inside for drying unless it's below freezing outside. Then I let the gear drip off in my washing room. The drysuit is first dried inside out, then on the outside so it won't get funky too fast.

I'm not a dive god either, by the way.

 

[rivers]

Fresh water: just gets hung up to dry when I get home, or put in the garage to dry, depending what it is
Salt water: Everything gets rinsed before it goes into the car. Ideally a trip to the quarry soon follows for a proper "soaking". If I can't get to the quarry, regs will get soaked when I am home, and drysuit will take a shower with me.

 

[RayfromTX]

I think fresh water rinse requirements my be dependent on latitude. Fresh water in Canada tends to be clear as can be. Fresh water in Texas is a contradiction in terms. The sunlight and warmth and nutrients combine to grow a nice culture of the green nasties. I'd rather not let the bacterial colonies form in my gear so I rinse it well with the filtered rain water that we live on around here. Even the well water we have here isn't something I would subject my gear to.