I tried the bleach today, and it smells as good as a swimming pool now. So, that's good. The only thing I'm not sure what to do about is the BC bladder. I poured two pitchers of diluted bleach water in it, let it sit, rinsed, filled with clean water, let it sit, rinsed, filled again with clean water, rinsed, and now it smells slightly better. I'm worried though that I can still smell a moldy smell, so that probably means I'm not getting all of it.
How to get mold off equipment??
- Thread starter Andi327
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A diluted bleach solution in hot water will kill most mold. Better it gets slightly faded than have mold on it.
For the inside of the BC, use mouthwash. Dump in a half a bottle, inflate, shake and repeat a few times. It will be fine.
I would follow up with washing everything, post bleach, in a mixture of Woolite and water, dry for an hour or two in the sun. That should kill all the mold. (I do like the, take it on a two week liveaboard trip idea as well!)
For the inside of the BC, use mouthwash. Dump in a half a bottle, inflate, shake and repeat a few times. It will be fine.
I would follow up with washing everything, post bleach, in a mixture of Woolite and water, dry for an hour or two in the sun. That should kill all the mold. (I do like the, take it on a two week liveaboard trip idea as well!)
In Britain we use baby bottle steriliser inside the BC bladder. Or you can use what rebreather divers use for their loops - I use Buddy Clean as it's made by my rebreather manufacturer, but there are others.
Don't leave the surfaces alkaline (with even dilute bleach on) as they'll slowly rot. Rinsing with clean water won't remove it - you need one of the solutions I referred to above.
Don't leave the surfaces alkaline (with even dilute bleach on) as they'll slowly rot. Rinsing with clean water won't remove it - you need one of the solutions I referred to above.
So, I've been busy and well all the scuba stuff got thrown into the garage. Today I drained out the little bit of water that was accidently left in the bladder and I'm rinsing it with mouthwash now. I hope it'll be minty fresh soon enough! I'll update when it's done.
The BC is now minty fresh and rinsed with fresh water. I'm going to put some homemade desiccant packs in my scuba tubs so it won't happen again...hopefully. Thanks for all your advice. I really had no idea where to start.
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