Is pool water bad for rubber and plastic dive gear?

[sdiver68]

It's just normal wear IMHO. Driving your car every day is "damaging" as well. You bought your gear to use it, just like you bought your car to get places. Like your car, preventive maintenance such as rinsing your gear and getting it checked out once per year and fixing small problems before they become large will lead to prolonged life.

 

[Indian Valley Scuba]

Yeah I know, we're early on in the experiment - sorry for releasing the data prematurely! Give me till 2013 or 2014 before we are ready to make a conclusion about the chlorinated water thing!

 

[ERP]

Chlorinated water certainly can damage equipment, but honestly I wouldn't worry about it too much, it's not liek the occasional dip is going to hurt anything and most dive shop pools I've swam in aren't all that heavilly chlorinated.

I've also noted that IME it's letting the equipment dry out without rinsing that's more of an issue than the ammount of time in either pool or seawater. If I'm going to hang my gear up to dry, I'll usually spend the 10 minutes to hose it down.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

My case in point, which leads me to believe we somehow were lucky enough to purchase the most indestructible BCD's in the world, cause after five years, and maybe 800 to 1,000 swims in the chlorinated pools, they are still looking fine and working great.

Go figure

I'm very surprised that you train with gear that is so old. Most shops replace their gear much more often. Maybe you have magic pool water, but I have seen BC's turn a dull brown pretty quickly after hard use in the pool. However, I'm not sure if this is just cosmetic damage.

For fins and mask, I would not worry about pool water.

 

[H2O 70]

Chlorinated water certainly can damage equipment, but honestly I wouldn't worry about it too much, it's not liek the occasional dip is going to hurt anything and most dive shop pools I've swam in aren't all that heavilly chlorinated.

I've also noted that IME it's letting the equipment dry out without rinsing that's more of an issue than the ammount of time in either pool or seawater. If I'm going to hang my gear up to dry, I'll usually spend the 10 minutes to hose it down.

ERP has hit it on the nail head.

Chlorine will degrade nylon which is what most of the BC is made out of.

I wouldn't worry about using your stuff in a pool. Just give it a good rinse when your done.

I'd be more concerned about UV rays...not chlorine.

 

[Indian Valley Scuba]

I'm very surprised that you train with gear that is so old. Most shops replace their gear much more often. Maybe you have magic pool water, but I have seen BC's turn a dull brown pretty quickly after hard use in the pool. However, I'm not sure if this is just cosmetic damage.

For fins and mask, I would not worry about pool water.

It's hardly a case of using "old gear", it is more an example of a wise investment in quality training materials, that are carefully maintained and serviced on a regular basis. Doing that allows this business a much better use of our financial resources than throwing away the class gear on an annual basis like so many others do.

There's nothing wrong with it at all, so why not keep it going on? It has already been depreciated 100%, so there is no value to be gained by switching it out.

 

[Md Spear]

results are interesting. In 1987, I used a new Rainbird irrigation valve w/ a new silicon diaphram , the 1st DV100 issue. 100s of valves on various job sites thruout the Wash DC area. 2 years later , all the city water [ lightly chlorinated yet clean water] sites had failed valve silicon diaphrams , yet irrigated sites w/ well water [often w/ particulate matter in the water] were ok. Cost me a bundle of $$ to warranty all those customer sites. Finnally Rainbird manned up and gave a few 1000$ of product to compensate me. Problem was nation wide and they switched to Buna-rubber valve diaphrams . Great valves today.

So the moral to that story is you never know, , its depends on the materials used in the product. Most quality dive gear today is good in all water situations that you would safely swim in.

 

[SkimFisher]

I knew a simple answer would take 20 responses here.

I'd just go ahead and soak your gear in chlorinated pool water, then soak it in salt water, go on an ocean dive and then hang it in the hot sun. But this is just what I do, so it may take 300 more replies to give the pro's and con's of my advice.

But you didn't cite a reference...

 

[FireInMyBones]

Pool water containing any oxidizing and sanitizing chemical, like chlorine, will fade color and reduce the life of any fabric. Plastic will become brittle and rubber dry.

The question is what the ratio is between concentration and time.

South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control requires recreational pools to maintain a concentration between 1.0 and 8.0 parts per million for chlorine and a pH between 7.2 and 7.8.

The higher the concentration and longer the exposure, the shorter the lifetime.

If pool chemistry is kept in perfect balance (hard to do), your gear will last a good while without rinsing. In fact it will be cleaner after use in said pool. The sad realization is that too often water chemistry is poorly maintained and gear should be rinsed with fresh water to minimize negative impact.

If in doubt as to the concentration, ask the Certified Pool Operator on Duty.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

It's hardly a case of using "old gear", it is more an example of a wise investment in quality training materials, that are carefully maintained and serviced on a regular basis. Doing that allows this business a much better use of our financial resources than throwing away the class gear on an annual basis like so many others do.

There's nothing wrong with it at all, so why not keep it going on? It has already been depreciated 100%, so there is no value to be gained by switching it out.

Nothing wrong with using old gear. A lot of my gear is pretty old. I never seem to find one year old gear thrown away, but I will keep looking.

I do see the local shop unload the heavily used rental/training gear for a little more than they paid for it each year however.