How do you clean your gear?

[partridge]

I was reading through old threads and read: "if you are just a dunk in the bathtub and hang kind of a guy"

Makes me wonder if I am really cleaning my gear. When I get back from a day of diving, I fill up a big cooler outside and leave my reg in it for 10 minutes. While waiting for that, I fill my bc up with water, shake it up and drain it. Then I hang up my reg and dunk everything else for about 10 mins also. I swish them around the cooler before pulling them out. I hang them all up to dry. Usually, in 24 hours they are dry enough to put away.

I do not use vinegar, shampoo or any otheer cleaning/disinfecting agent in cleaning my gear. I dive every Saturday and Sunday and every other week have a night dive on a Wednesday or Thursday. So I am not cleaning my gear to put away for the winter or something like that.

Am I doing to little? What do you guys do?

 

[Scubaroo]

I usually soak software (wetsuit/gloves/booties/wing/SMB etc) in fresh water, rinsing the inside of the wing (read BC if you don't know what a wing is) with freshwater, and hang to dry.

Regulators I'm a bit more anal about - I put them on a tank, pressurise them, lay the tank down to soak the first stage and second stage if there's space to do so (usually in the bathtub so there's room), and then while pressurised I remove the second stage covers, take the diaphragm out, and rinse them out well inspecting that there's no sand or other crap in there. Couple of blasts on the purge lever, put it all back together, soak or rinse some more, and then leave on the tank to dry while still pressurised. A few hours later or the next day remove the second stage covers again, hit the purge lever, blowing and wiping any water out of them, reassemble, pack away.

Or something like that. I never use hot water on my regs - I reckon I dissolved the lubricant off some o-rings with my first reg set by using too-warm water, and the tuning knob seized up. Rebuild and relube and it was happy again.

This way I know there's no moisture in my second stages to help grow fungi and crap between dives, there's no sand or grit or crud in there, the diaphragm gets regularly inspected for damage, etc.

 

[Diver0001]

I was reading through old threads and read: "if you are just a dunk in the bathtub and hang kind of a guy"

<snip>

Am I doing to little? What do you guys do?

I dive on a fairly regular basis in fresh water. After ocean diving I dunk and hang most of the time. If I don't dive in fresh water for a month then I give my regs an overnight soaking (pressurized, of course) in clean water. My dive season never ends but if it did then I would give it all a thorough soaking before hanging it. And btw, don't hang stuff in a closed space where it will get all musty or in direct sunlight.

From the sounds of it you're doing more than most people do.

R..

 

[paolov]

there is a similar thread on this topic;

check out the thread

" Bacteria in Scuba Equipment = Sickness?? "

 

[paolov]

Paul P

how's your Trim? any improvements?

 

[MaxBottomtime]

I have a rinse bucket that I put my light, regs, guages and camera in after I get out of the water. When I get back in I soak all my gear in a large cooler with water and wetsuit shampoo, then hang all the gear to dry.

 

[yak]

I have a large plastic bin that I use to transport my gear. It keeps the sand etc from getting all over the place after the dive, and doubles as a rinse tub.

I use a separate 5 gallon pail for 2nd stages, compass, computer, lights, knives, etc.

I hang it all in the garage until dry, then store then smaller gear back in the bin with the lid half open until the next dive (I leave the wetsuit and BC hanging in the basement)

 

[Don Burke]

I have a 44 gallon trash can I use as a soak bucket. Depending on the dive, the gear might spend a couple of days in there.

Vinegar diluted with about ten parts water is used every once in a while to kill sea critters. Mostly, that's for the BC.

Dawn dishwashing detergent is what I use if the mask or fins get really grubby. I rinse a bunch of times and then soak for a few hours to make sure the soap is gone.

Everything does get hung to dry. That kills many of the critters and vinegar gets most of the rest.

 

[Gary D.]

If were working we have the firemen foam us. Squeaky clean in a flash.

Gary D.

 

[MB]

If were working we have the firemen foam us. Squeaky clean in a flash.

Gary D.

...that does the same thing. Funny tho - "clean" isn't the term I'd use!