How long can I wait before rinsing?

[Nemrod]

I wouldn't stress over it.

N

 

[rivers]

In salt water, I try to give my kit a quick hose down if possible before leaving the site. When I get home, it lives in my bath tub for a week (my other half loves showering with my kit :cheeky. Or, I try to sneak off to a freshwater site the next day and give it long soak.

 

[hellhole]

Maybe u can approach it in a different manner.

Before u leave for the drive to the dive site. Set a pail of water ready so that you can dump that in once u get back. Even a inflatable small waddle pool will do too

Before u leave your dive site to ride home. Separate the gears that you want to soak into another bag..

Reach home... Grab that Baganda dump it into the pail/pool u already have ready and go to sleep

 

[dumpsterDiver]

If you are anal, get a bucket with a lid that seals and carry freshwater in the car to the dive site. Throw the regulators in the bucket on the ride home, snap the lid on and they should be agitated and rinsed and soaked well enough by the time you get home. ( and maybe dunk the camera before packing it for the ride).

Anything else can wait to be washed..

 

[LindaSSF]

To carry water in a bucket without slopping around...
Put a plastic garbage bag in a water bucket - we use 5 gallon buckets we buy for livestock. Fill 3/4 full and knot the top of the bag. When ready to use, tear the bag and let the water dump into the bucket. You can use the bag to keep wet things off of your upholstery on the way home.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Bob DBF]

Don't drive yourself nuts over it.

Sooner is better, but if it takes a long while, I just soak it all for a couple of days. I do the long soak a few times a year, in any event, and do a gear check afterwards. It's a good idea to put the regs on a tank and pressurized while soaking. The most important part is visually checking all the gear and testing it after you are finished so you can see any salt buildup, sand, or other problems and deal with them.

Work yourself slowly into DIY equipment inspection and later into repair. It will amaze you how much you can take care of yourself and it will give you more confidence in your equipment. Rinsing gear just sluices the crud off, it does not insure proper operation.



Bob
----------------------------------------
There is no problem that can't be solved with a liberal application of sex, tequila, money, duct tape, or high explosives, not necessarily in that order.

 

[herman]

I agree that letting it dry with saltwater on it is the biggest issue. I take a wet rag/Tshirt/towel, wrap the gear in it and put the works into a garbage bag. That prevents the gear from drying out and keeps the water out of the truck to boot. Fresh water is best but salt is better than letting it dry out.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

5 gallon paint bucket with lid and 2 gallons of water...

 

[Diver0001]

How long can I wait after finishing dives for the day before rinsing my gear?

I live a two hour drive from where we dive. We usually drop off tanks on the way home, and maybe they would let us rinse there, but then I would be using a communal rinse pail (ewwwww...) and I would be putting soaking wet gear back in the car.

When we get home I usually rinse the same day. Sometimes we've both been too tired and we manage to "justify" waiting until the next day. We soak our regs and wings and computers (not just rinse). The rest of the stuff we just rinse.

I just read a post where someone's inflator stuck open, and it reminded me just how many problems could occur. We really don't want to have gear failures if we can help it!

Thanks,

Bill

Theoretically you can wait to rinse until the next time you roll off the boat

Personally I'm not altogether convinced that meticulous rinsing avoids that many failures.

What *does* contribute to failures is "forgetting" to get your stuff serviced in time. I'm kind of leaning toward saying that if you dive regularly and *never* rinsed, that as long as you got your gear maintained (thoroughly) every year, that your chances of a failure wouldn't be measurably higher than if you rinsed after every dive.

I'm not 100% sure about but I've never seen any statistics about it either way. The reason I'm skeptical has to do with rental stock. Rental stock gets a LOT of use and a lot of abuse and I've seen all kinds of failures.... but not once outside of leaking LP inflator hoses with o-rings that were damaged by sand, did I ever see a failure that I thought could have been caused by not rinsing. I saw lots, though, that were caused by sloppy maintenance (particularly not changing out hoses in time).

Just a thought. I don't want to discourage anyone from rinsing their gear. I'm just putting this out for discussion.

R..

 

[dumpsterDiver]

I've found that good soaking after use in saltwater makes my regulators last a lot longer between necessary maintenance. Rinsing does not work near as well as soaking.. I'm sure that the sooner you soak and avoiding the crystallization of salt (as much as possible) will also help in this regard.