Frequent CCR divers, what do you do between dives?

[broncobowsher]

Revo,
Back to back diving days. Pull the loop, fresh water rinse, dry (the best you can a corrugated hose in a few hours). Wipe out the lung butter from the counterlung and swap out the shamwow for the spare. Let dry for the next day.

A freshwater rinse (maybe some disinfectant if there is a reason) of the lungs after several days of diving. Not really much to disassemble on a rEvo, you take the loop off, that is about it.

Adding saltwater to the mix, daily hose off the exterior while fully assembled after the days diving before dismantling for daily service.
At the end of weekend of salt water, it is a more intense rinse of fresh water. Hopefully a nice fresh water dive to get the deep salt out.

I have been taught to avoid disinfecting as much as possible. Do it if there is a need, but not every dive. I don't share or loan out the rebreather, the only thing inside it is what was in me. Not someone else. So I am more comfortable with that. If there were demos involved, there would be disinfecting after those.

 

[DS79]

rEvo: Ease of cleaning is probably one of the advantages of this model, not highlighted enough.
Diving in freshwater (essentially drinkingwater quality). After the diving day:
1. put off the breathing loop and rinse it: 2-3minutes
2. remove yellow lid to open counter lungs and remove yellow wiping cloth, rinse it and let it dry: 1 minute
3. roughly dry counter lungs with kitchen paper: 2-3 minutes
4. just leave it open to fully dry by itself

Desinfect every 6weeks to 6months (depending on who you ask). I will tend to the latter one if opened up timely and used in freshwater only by myself.

Thats essentially all when it comes to cleaning (and disassembly)
It takes you less than 10 minutes. after a diving day.

 

[flymolo]

For those who avoid disinfecting, what’s the reason for that? I didn’t think steramine was particularly harsh on surfaces, although I’d probably think twice about using virkon on a regular basis.

 

[Mod63]

During the day: do nothing
End of day: Open scrubber to dry out, quick rinse of lungs and loop
End of dive weekend: remove scrubber and do a more thourogh rinse of lungs and loop
around every 3 months, disinfect

 

[rsingler]

JJ-CCR -
During the day between dives with same sorb:
Drain exhale counterlung butter.

During the day between sorb changes if required: dry canister and using a tissue point, wick any water from the inside of the cells. Drain lung butter. Assuming this is on a boat, nothing else.

End of day: Open canister and dry with paper towels, wick out cells, rinse and squeeze chamois, quick rinse of exhale counterlung on the backplate. Disconnect loop and rinse thoroughly. Sometimes I'll also rinse only the exhale upper loop hose with the head vertical.

End of dive weekend: Disassemble, rinse both lungs and loop. Disinfect loop and lungs (Steramine). Dry lungs with cool/warm air. Hang loop in ventilated area. I think leaving exhale counterlung damp is a health risk.

Every three months: disconnect upper loop hoses from head, disinfect and dry.

 

[Wibble]

Revo: between dives
Remove loop, open back, remove scrubbers and put into Typerware containers, mop out lung butter and any liquid using the cloth, then leave unit open to dry. Thoroughly rinse the loop and cloth, squeeze out and hang up to dry.

Every three or so weeks (if dived), clean and disinfect the unit.

 

[sea_ledford]

I haven't dove my CCR for a while now, but I learned some interesting stermine facts over the last year.

For full decontamination (ie for sharing regulators between students during covid), a 10 minute soak at the prescribed dilution is needed. A quick splash or spray some into your loop hosses probably isn't doing much.

You want to rinse it out afterward. Before covid, we were doing a quick regulator dunk in stremine and leaving them to dry hanging up. When we went to service the regs after doing this for a year, we could see blue crystals building up around some parts. Since we switched to soaking and rinsing afterward, no buildup is evident. Keep in mind most of the regs were rinsed at least a couple times per week, if not 5 days a week, so pretty heavy use/cleaning.

We also had pretty sold evidence the cleaning works. We had a student on a dive weekend that ended up having to share gear (snorkel and reg) back and forth between dives. It was all cleaned before and after each dive with the 10 minute soak. The student tested positive the day we returned, and was feeling symptoms during the trip (thought they were allergies). We had no spread during the class, including with the people that shared gear. It was nice to at least get a little positive reinforcement that all our procedures were working!

 

[broncobowsher]

For those who avoid disinfecting, what’s the reason for that? I didn’t think steramine was particularly harsh on surfaces, although I’d probably think twice about using virkon on a regular basis.

While not harsh, still not friendly. As long as you keep stuff clean, it really isn't an issue. Not shared with anyone else. I know how healthy I am and treat my gear accordingly. Once dry it is a non-issue. Where I live, stuff dries fast.

 

[rddvet]

Fathom:
I'm not so anal about cleaning my unit.
I'm an other as well. I only dive in freshwater typically. I remove the head, pull the scrubber and shammies, and remove the loop after every day of diving for things to dry out. Loop stays assembled otherwise (ie bov isn't removed from hoses). If I'm diving the next day I reassemble when all is dry.
When I'm not diving for a week or two, I do exactly the same as above. The only difference is every few dives I'll run some steramine through the loop and dump some into the exhale side of the counterlung and dump it out. I don't rinse the steramine afterward. I also never do a freshwater rinse without something like a steramine or virkon.
Here's my explanation for my choices: As stated above by someone else, steramine has to be the right concentration and it needs to sit for 10-30 minutes depending on strength. Most people don't do that. Most just run a little through, dump it out, and maybe rinse. I also don't like to use steramine a bunch because as also said above it can crystalize. I also think that flushing out with fresh water is pointless. The saying dilution is the solution to pollution is true, but at the same time the bugs that are likely going to give you an upper respiratory infection are ones that thrive in moist environments. Why put even more liquid into the loop and counterlung which will take even longer to dry? I don't see the point. After about 5-10 dives (or a couple of really long dives) I will soak my entire loop and counterlung in virkon for a couple of hours and then flush with water and dry.

 

[rjack321]

While not harsh, still not friendly. As long as you keep stuff clean, it really isn't an issue. Not shared with anyone else. I know how healthy I am and treat my gear accordingly. Once dry it is a non-issue. Where I live, stuff dries fast.

You might want to rethink this. You are basically relying 100% on stuff drying. Not many bacteria or fungi grow absent moisture.

Your body is a cornucopia of bacteria though. As just one example, Staph. aureus is native to your skin and "normally" in balance with other flora. When it gets out of balance you can have a serious and potentially life threatening infection. And just a single drop of lake or sea waters has tens of millions of bacteria, and viruses in it, while fungal spores can easily settle out from air and grow anyplace there is moisture and almost any organic residue like saliva.