This wheel must have been invented, any hints or tips? I clean and leave my gear to dry in the garage. Not a lot of sunshine. The location is not really negotiable, that's the only place cleaning and storing gear makes sense. The standard advice to avoid mold in rooms that do not get a lot of sunshine is to avoid moisture. Not going to avoid moisture with regular diving 1-2 times/week, with damp gear present most of the time. Water is contained in a plastic tank. Running a dehumidifier, not sure that will do. I thought of using a UV light, I'd be willing to pay the cost of accelerated gear damage to avoid dealing with mold infestation and the associated health risks. Not sure if UV lights work, or are a good idea in general. I'm probably thinking inside the box. There must be better ideas floating around...
Minimizing the risk of mold or other nasty stuff growing where scuba gear is stored.
- Thread starter kr2y5
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I rinse in the yard but then it goes in a garage bay that becomes the dive locker in season.
Sunlight and UV are not where you want to go.
Ventilation is your friend. I added some extra gable end ventilation so heat and moisture can escape and mounted a fan up in the trusses that us aimed down at the drying area. I'll run that for a day or so after cleaning gear. Suits and BC are hung with hangers on a rod. All of the other gear is on a rolling "porcupine" drying rack that I built.
In 11 years I only had one item, a BC that developed spotted blotches of might have been mold. My theory is that it's last rinse was sub par and excess salt remained in the fabric. During (basement) storage salt will absorb moisture and that may have supported mold growth. As basements go mine is very dry but it is still a basement.
Salt removal and ventilation are the keys from my experience.
Pete
Sunlight and UV are not where you want to go.
Ventilation is your friend. I added some extra gable end ventilation so heat and moisture can escape and mounted a fan up in the trusses that us aimed down at the drying area. I'll run that for a day or so after cleaning gear. Suits and BC are hung with hangers on a rod. All of the other gear is on a rolling "porcupine" drying rack that I built.
In 11 years I only had one item, a BC that developed spotted blotches of might have been mold. My theory is that it's last rinse was sub par and excess salt remained in the fabric. During (basement) storage salt will absorb moisture and that may have supported mold growth. As basements go mine is very dry but it is still a basement.
Salt removal and ventilation are the keys from my experience.
Pete
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Buy a $20 fan and run it for a day as the gear dries..
PaloPinto
Contributor
must be nice to live somewhere where the garage isnt 100+ deg. in the summer, my gear stays inside and the A/C keeps the moisture level down.
seeker242
Contributor
Desiccant containers is the only thing I could think of besides a fan. But, I doubt they would work better than an powered dehumidifier.
K
KeithG
Guest
hang on. Isn't salt used as a food preservative to prevent mould?get your gear dry. by whatever means.
You can also get special hangers with blowers that help dry out the wet suit.
Yes, I'm using the Underwater Kinetics one. I'm very happy with it. I'm more concerned with condensation on the walls than the gear itself, since the latter gets a regular salt water rinse 
The challenge with ventilation is that the air outside is pretty humid, quite a bit more humid than the air in my garage in fact... my garage is around 65%, and if you believe what the Internet tells you, outside is 95% right now. I have a 12,000 BTU portable dehumidifier that's rated for just about the size of my garage, but it doesn't really work... it's too cold, so there's little to no condensation occurring. Other than bringing their gear inside the house (not going to happen), how do the cold-climate divers deal with humidity? The only thing that comes to mind is heating the place first to promote better condensation in the A/C unit, potentially a somewhat expensive proposal (and I wonder if that might actually make matters worse, with air being warmer than the walls... heating will promote condensation there as well).
The challenge with ventilation is that the air outside is pretty humid, quite a bit more humid than the air in my garage in fact... my garage is around 65%, and if you believe what the Internet tells you, outside is 95% right now. I have a 12,000 BTU portable dehumidifier that's rated for just about the size of my garage, but it doesn't really work... it's too cold, so there's little to no condensation occurring. Other than bringing their gear inside the house (not going to happen), how do the cold-climate divers deal with humidity? The only thing that comes to mind is heating the place first to promote better condensation in the A/C unit, potentially a somewhat expensive proposal (and I wonder if that might actually make matters worse, with air being warmer than the walls... heating will promote condensation there as well).
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