Does this harm my regulator?

[rx7diver]

It was fresh water. Do you think i should go get it cleaned or do you think it can slide this time?

I would bite the bullet and have it serviced. I seem to recall that your gear is new. Is it still under warranty? If so, the cost of the service will be only nominal. Call the shop and ask the tech what he/she thinks. Make sure you tell the tech that you've been using your procedure to clean your reg since you purchased it. Good gear will last "forever" if things like this are not left to "slide."

 

[spectrum]

thanks! ill make sure to avoid this, but is there any way that the water sitting in there for a week could have harmed it?

It sounds like you saw water that was resting in the open portion of the regulator. That will always be wet after clean-up and if you store it someplace cool it can be a long time evaporating. Where it was fresh water the biggest risk is bugs growing in there and waiting for you. It's something of a tight rope walk between cool and dry but warm and breezy enough for expeditious drying.

If you end the clean-up purging you blow a lot of it out but perfection will vary with model. Laying it out mouthpiece down so gravity helps is wise.

Pete

 

[redacted]

I would not worry about clean fresh water. but you do need to learn to care for and inspect your gear.

 

[PfcAJ]

Does it leak? Does it breath normally? If everything is normal, then its probably fine. Regs aren't Faberge Eggs.

My guess is that some water remained in the 2nd stage. That happens to me, from time to time. Even if a little water got up in the hose, I doubt anything awful happened if it was fresh water. Salt might be a problem, though.

 

[Bigd2722]

I would soak it in clean fresh water again ( for a couple of hours), blow it out if you have a tank, and then hang it up to dry. I suspect water blowing out of it when pressurized was only coming from the second stage and that no harm was done to the regulator itself. Letting water sit in the second stage is a recipe for virus and bacterial complications. No need to service

 

[abyss_scuba]

First things first. look at the filter, is it dry. What you may have is water that collected in the 2nd stage mouthpiece which is far less a problem than if the water were in the 1st stage and got shot out the second stage. If it was in the second stage worst you might have is a bit of rust on some of the metal parts in the second stage and some mold if it was warm/wet/warm. Water that was in the first stage traveled throught the first stage into the hose and out the second stage, a far worse problem. BTW I routinely dive in a "fresh" water quarry and always rinse my gear afterwards as this quarry wasa limestone quarry and I am sure an anlysis would show lime and other minerals in the water.

 

[drdaddy]

Since you were diving in fresh water and rinsed in fresh water, I would not worry too much. Nobody can say for sure about your regulator because nobody knows where the water you saw was coming from.

However, here is my guess. Usually I leave my reg hooked up to the tank and throw it in tub of clean water (before my buddy throws in his gungy stuff ). Then I disconnect it from the tank and hang it up. The shop then takes my tank away to fill it (usually along with another tank).

When I get home I hang up the reg. There have been a number of times that I reach for my reg that has been hanging a few days and some water trickles out. Well, I can guarantee that this water did not come from anywhere it was not suppose to. Probably it was just pooling in the mouthpiece or something.

I think that this is probably what happened to you.

If I were you I'd hook my reg up to a tank and push the purge button and see if any water came out and then I'd try it out to see how it breathed. Most likely it will be just fine as regulators are pretty tough.

 

[Love4Diving]

If the water was in your first stage (the part that attaches to the tank), I would have taken apart and serviced.

If the water was in your second stages (the part you breathe out of) don't worry about it, it's fine.

 

[g1138]

Most likely water sitting in the housing of your second stage. If you shake out the second stage and then hang the reg so the second stage is the lowest part, this will usually be enough to take care of that "spray".
Fresh water can have particulates in it that can damage your gear. Soaking a reg in heavy tap water (with lots of ions, chlorine, etc) and not shaking it out or purging it, can lead to salt build ups as well.

On that note, might want to inflate your BC up then give the corrugated hose a shake and tap then see what comes out. There's always moisture there unless you have some light heat and very low humidity. I often shake as much water out, let it hang fully inflated, then shake some more out every half hour until there's no drops. Then I hang it up in my bedroom closet.

Even if you're diving a fresh water quarry, it's nice to give your BC a good tap water rinse to rid the gear of silt and debris. If you water is really chlorinated or heavy then perhaps sacrificing a quick finishing rinse from your PUR or Brita filter might not be a bad idea.

 

[Quero]

If you had the dust cap on when you soaked the reg set, it's unlikely that it's flooded in the first stage. When soaking regs, water always gets into the second stage in the area external to the diaphragm--the part of the reg where the exhaled air you breathe out escapes--and you want that to happen so that material in the water of the dive site gets rinsed out. If there's a little fresh tap water trapped in some nook or cranny in that part of the reg, you don't have to worry too much about the water sitting there for a week. Just give the second stages another good rinse with flowing water (do NOT depress the purge button), shake the excess out, and hang the whole set up to dry.