How do you clean your equipment?

[divedude]

I can always tell a saltwater diver on our boat
As soon as we get back to the dock they grab the hose and start rinsing off their gear...... The water in the hose is pumped straight from the lake that they just dove in

 

[Uncle Pug]

Originally posted by divedude
The water in the hose is pumped straight from the lake that they just dove in

Well at least they supply fresh water to rinse the gear with even if it is from a lake.

 

[noshow]

I was chatting with a patron at a LDS and he was telling me that it is not a good idea to soak my equipment in the bathtub or any other container with water from the tap as it containd chlorine and will do more damage than good in the long run. He suggested a quick rinse and that's it.

Is this a little too carefu? Soaking bad / quick rinse good?

 

[redacted]

I use a 1 ltr squirt bottle of FW to rinse the 1st stage and cap before I remove it from a tank. SW in the 1st is a killer. Hose or tank rinse at the end of a day if they're available. Bath tube soak, under pressure, at the conclusion of the trip. Good cleaning has gotten me over 3 yrs on my Mk20/G500 without any parts replacement. I disassembled & cleaned the 1st when it started to show a little IP creap last year.

 

[Spectre]

Originally posted by noshow
not a good idea to soak my equipment [...] with water from the tap as it contained chlorine

Hmm... interesting thought. I'd love to hear any answers on that one. I'm not an issue as I have a well, but I know many that rinse in town supplied tap water.

 

[pipedope]

The small amount of clorine in tap water is not normally a problem for dive gear. If the water smells strongly of clorine then I would not soak the gear in it, but generally it is ok.

If you want to know more detail you can get a pool test kit and see how much is there. Sometimes it is better to soak your gear in the pool than in the tap water.

The sooner you clean your gear the less need for soaking. If everything is still wet the salt is still in solution so it does not need to be disolved to be removed from your gear.

I clean my gear after every diving day. Most of the time a simple rinse is fine. Pumping concrete or crawling through the ooze calls for more work, like using a soft scrub brush while rinsing.
Fortunately most sport divers never have to deal with these kind of cleanup problems.

 

[jonnythan]

Not only is the amount of chlorine in the tap water miniscule compared to pool water, the majority of it will dissolve into the air given a few hours standing around. Put a way most of us can understand better... the water is chlorine-loaded while in the pipes but off-gases quickly when left standing

 

[anni]

Swish water around in your BC, empty it out and blow through the inflator hose to slightly inflate your BC while in storage - apparently it stops creases that might turn into cracks on the inside of the BC.

 

[Scubamedicjoe]

I clean mine just as soon as i can i rinse it in fresh water then soak some of it also your dive nives need to be washed and then a light coat oil near the handle and blade

 

[O-ring]

used to have a big problem with boots until I made a wetsuit boot drier. It is simply a PVC electrical box with a couple of 90 degree elbows coming out on either side and a 12 Vdc blower on the box. The boots are rinsed and then they hang on the drier so that the toe is up and the opening is down so water can drain. The fan is turned on so that a gentle flow of air goes all the way through the boots. They dry in a few hours this way and I don't have stink foot anymore.

A guy in my dive club made a similar device and wrote up instructions. Here's the link...I haven't made one yet as I don't have the room for the thing in my apt.

Dalton Drysuit Dryer