First Stage: Keeping it Dry?

[Diving Dubai]

If it's raining or there is ocean spray there may be water in your tank valve. Cracking the tank open for a 1/2 second will blow the water out so it doesn't get into your first stage. If this annoys someone then perhaps that person should either figure out a way to prevent water from ever entering a scuba tank that's sitting on a boat for a couple of hours, awaiting it's turn, or pay to have your regulator serviced/rebuilt because some of that may be salt water.

The quick blow of a valve doesn't annoy people its the constant blowing of air on caps and 1st stages that does.

Most dive Op's I've know put a bit of tape over the valve of a full tank to keep it clean and indicate its unused too - so there's a solution.

The 20 minuter soak and swish routine is good but I would recommend that if you are going to soak your regs that you do so with them attached to your tank with the air on. It prevents the possibility of water intrusion in the 1st stage.

With your cap on the air in the hoses will stop water entering the first stage. even if you purge your reg underwater when washing, water isn't going to get to the first stage - not without significant effort.


There seems to be a lot of kid glove treatment recommended which is overkill Dive gear is pretty resiliant. My gear gets used on open boats in all conditions. It gets changed from tank to tank without drying my hands nor the regs. And in my short sample of 5 years and 700 + dives has had no ill effects.

I get my regs serviced approx every 18 months or if the breathing feels odd or a few weeks before a trip with enough time for me to dive them a few times. Similarly with my wifes gear that has similar uses (we use AL, Apex and SP regs so a fair mix)

Never had issues on service other than the usual wear and tear and or environment of very hot and humid and a higher than normal salinity is pretty hard on kit of all types.

However there's nothing wrong with being extra cautious if you choose to be

 

[JamesBon92007]

Most dive Op's I've know put a bit of tape over the valve of a full tank to keep it clean and indicate its unused too - so there's a solution.

With your cap on the air in the hoses will stop water entering the first stage. even if you purge your reg underwater when washing, water isn't going to get to the first stage - not without significant effort.

Yes, most everyone puts tape on the valve but I would guess about half the time the tape is off long enough for the possibility of some water getting into the valve, especially if the boat is moving or it is raining.

Sure, the water won't get into your first stage if you purge it while it's wet and not connected to a tank, but it could get past the second stage valve seat and eventually cause corrosion. To me it's just a simple matter to wait until it's dry before using a valve seat saving device. Some of the newer valve orifices are plastic and the seat is rubber so they won't actually corrode, but you could still get some algae or whatnot growing in there.

 

[TMHeimer]

There’s nothing more obnoxious than people using their tanks to dry dust caps. It’s incredibly rude.

Use a towel. Or a shirt. Or just blow on it.

There are MANY things more obnoxious than that. Car alarm? Horns blowing in NYC traffic? The thump thump of a car blasting music? Crying baby on plane?

Especially when you do it at the places I usually dive in NS, where there is nobody at all around.
It's a little pssssssss. Not Dive Alert.

 

[TMHeimer]

Rinsing? I dive exclusively freshwater, so I don't rinse unless it's needed.

I've rarely dived fresh water. Always wondered what you guys would consider a "needed" situation-- Algae? Particles of some sort in the lake/river?

 

[Marie13]

I've rarely dived fresh water. Always wondered what you guys would consider a "needed" situation-- Algae? Particles of some sort in the lake/river?

Mostly if it’s gravel from the quarry in my case. Especially with my SM regs since they’re left in the water between dives and it gets silty. Everyone leaves their tanks in the water like that.

 

[PfcAJ]

There are MANY things more obnoxious than that. Car alarm? Horns blowing in NYC traffic? The thump thump of a car blasting music? Crying baby on plane?

Especially when you do it at the places I usually dive in NS, where there is nobody at all around.
It's a little pssssssss. Not Dive Alert.

I’ll take any of those over a diver blasting air to dry a dust cap.

 

[stretchthepenn]

I've rarely dived fresh water. Always wondered what you guys would consider a "needed" situation-- Algae? Particles of some sort in the lake/river?

Algae, decayed leaves, fish poop, duck/goose crap. Pretty much anything biological. You don't always have to rinse your gear after diving in fresh water, but unless you've been diving in a super-clean system (e.g., the spring-fed cave/caverns in northern Florida), your gear will start to reek.

 

[tursiops]

I’ll take any of those over a diver blasting air to dry a dust cap.

It is possible to really blast the air from a tank onto a wet dust cap, and this is indeed irritating, non-necessary, and perhaps counterproductive if it atomizes the water and blows it into the first stage. It is also possible to gently -- and non-noisily -- blow the air onto the dust cap and dry it just fine. So the issue is not blowing air onto the cap, but rather how one does it.

Also, the better plastic dust caps have an o-ring seal, and do a better job than a bunged-up rubber cap.

 

[tursiops]

Pressure is related to depth as you know in ow training. 2 inches of water exert 1/10 of the pressure of 24 inches.

No, not really. At 2 inches the water pressure on the reg is one atmosphere plus 2 inches, or about 1.005 atm. At 24 inches depth the water pressure is about 1.06, or about 6% more, not 1000% more. So, yes, there is more pressure at 24 inches depth than at 2 inches depth, but not enough to make a significant difference.

 

[Johanan]

Algae, decayed leaves, fish poop, duck/goose crap. Pretty much anything biological. You don't always have to rinse your gear after diving in fresh water, but unless you've been diving in a super-clean system (e.g., the spring-fed cave/caverns in northern Florida), your gear will start to reek.

After freshwater dives I do nothing more than dry my gear - with no ill effect so far. I just screw the DIN dust cups on. I have them dry, always on the shore or boat. But a couple of days ago I started to wonder whether I should sanitize the mouthpieces? Does anyone do something like that?