Gear Storage Tips

[Hoosier]

I also got this Listerene trick from our scubaboard. It works great with a mint smell.
However, I use Target brand one, not Listerene, to save money. It is the same ingredient.

The best uncommon trick I know is to blow a mouthful or two of Listerene into your BC or wing when you clean it. It's extremely difficult to get that area dry, and the Listerene prevents nasty stuff from growing in your BC or wing in between dives.

Also, Lemon Lysol is the best gear cleaning agent I've ever seen.

It's cheap. plentiful, and has many other uses.

 

[mer]

If it's easy to do I would go for it. If you're not planning to dive for sometime you may as well save your battery life.

--Matt

If the screen stays on even when the computer is in dive mode, you might consider it. If the screen turns off when the computer is off and dry, don't bother -- you won't save much battery. (I.e. my Vyper is 1.5 years old, over 200 dives turns off after dives, still show "max" battery)

I also not like mucking with the battery compartment seal. Sometimes the o-ring in there can only be used once. If the o-ring is re-used (opened, bat taken out, replaced, reclosed) you increase your risk of leak/flood.

When in doubt, call/email the manufacturer directly and ask their recommendation. Don't believe us on the internet.

YMMV. -- Or just keep diving all winter.

 

[LobstaMan]

Thanks, Mer. That's what I'll do. Don't what to waste the battery(screen stays on all the time), but I also don't what to ruin a brand new rig.

LobstaMan

 

[keelhaul123]

In the mid 1980s I placed some gear that I no longer used in a bag, zipped shut the bag and placed it in the cool, (most of the time) dry, cellar of my father's house. This past summer, while visiting Dad, I recovered the bag. The exterior of the bag was dirty (and has since been cleaned) but the gear, including some DaCor "turbo" fins, is all in excellent shape.

Thats why I love diving in NE. The number 1 answer to gear storage is to NOT store it, but to dive all year long. After buying my first drysuit last spring I have become an ardent believer in this philosophy (now what am I going to do with my skis). I am also heartened to see that I am not the only one witha pair of Dacor Turbos. The Turbos are a little stiff for my old calves these days, but my 1977 vintage Dacor mask works just fine!

 

[Chebby]

Never rinse regulators unless they are pressurized to a tank.

I thought it was OK as long as you don't press the purge button? Or did I misunderstand you?

 

[matt_unique]

I thought it was OK as long as you don't press the purge button? Or did I misunderstand you?

Water can leak into your first stage through your dust cover. Plus it's beneficial to press all the buttons and levers while rinsing to get any salt or other debris that may have found it's way in there.

--Matt

 

[Chebby]

Water can leak into your first stage through your dust cover. Plus it's beneficial to press all the buttons and levers while rinsing to get any salt or other debris that may have found it's way in there.

--Matt

Oh, ok. But it can't flow up through the second stage into the first stage unless you press the purge button, right? The reason I ask this is because I've been doing it the whole summer and I want to make sure I haven’t done anything to harm my equipment. I usually kept the first stage out of the water with dust cap firmly sealed.

I get your point about pressurized purging, and if I weren’t too lazy to connect the equipment back to the tanks at home I would probably do that.

 

[matt_unique]

Oh, ok. But it can't flow up through the second stage into the first stage unless you press the purge button, right? The reason I ask this is because I've been doing it the whole summer and I want to make sure I haven’t done anything to harm my equipment. I usually kept the first stage out of the water with dust cap firmly sealed.

I get your point about pressurized purging, and if I weren’t too lazy to connect the equipment back to the tanks at home I would probably do that.

It can get up there. I learned this lesson the hard way years ago. I was rinsing my reg (Sherwood Maximus) without pressure and careful to never press the purge button just as you have described. One year when I picked my gear up after the annual service the tech's first statement was "you rinse without connecting to a tank don't you...". Yes was my answer of course having never learned otherwise. He said water poured out of my first stage. The increase in performance during the first dive after the service was incredible. I did not notice the reduction in performance since it happened slowly with slow flooding of the dry design first stage. I have always rinsed my regs under pressure ever since.

--Matt

 

[ScubaNorth]

After buying my first drysuit last spring I have become an ardent believer in this philosophy (now what am I going to do with my skis). I

What size are those skis? My fins are high and dry until the lobsters call in the spring.