Need help to clean my BCD.

[BigBirdZ28]

Now that I finally own my own equipment, I need to know how to clean it after each dive, how long I can wait before I do clean, etc...

Since this is this is the BCD forum, I need to know how to clean my BCD properly !

My friends have been saying you should flood the air compartment of the BCD a coulpe times & purge it using the right rear purge valve, but is really the best way ? I thought you shouldnt get any water in there.

Also, when I get out of the water, how do I stop water from getting into the first stage ? I want to rub the mesh with some cloth but i'm afraid of getting some fabric lodged in there over time. Do you know what I mean ?

I spent the last 20 minutes doing searches but havent found what I need.

I need to know how to thoroughly clean out my knife & regulator too so I dont end up with a rusty blade & crusty reg in 6 months time.

I know cleaning in detail is a pain after each dive, but it's worth it for me.

 

[partridge]

This is how I clean my gear. I rinse everything in fresh water after the dive. Take the knife out of the sheath to let it dry. Hang everything else.

The bc is another thing. I fill it one thirds way with water then fill up with air. Shake it around and let all the water out through the inflator. I do this again for each of the valves to clean out the salt in them. Thats 4 times for me. Once a month I put half a bottle of mouth wash in there and clean the same way.

Oh and always store the bc with some air in it.

I do not even rinse out the inside of a bc after every dive day but after the weekend. Seems to work. My bc is 2 years old and looks new. My old one last me 10 years and is still hanging and ready for use.

 

[Tassie_Rohan]

Hi there and welcome to the board!

1) When you take the 1st stage off the tank place the dust cover on firmly: you do not want that mesh getting wet. Dry the dustcover before hand (a blast of air from the tank or a pat down with a towel will do). Don't touch the mesh - you do not need to clean it.

2) Chuck all your dive gear into a bathtub full of water. Let it soak 10 minutes while you go find a drink and light the bbq.

3) Shake the items about in the water a few times. Be careful not to spill your beer.

4) At some point during the after dive debriefing around the bbq you will hopefully remember to take your items out of the bath - if so then place them somewhere to drip dry overnight..

5) If you're putting the gear into storage you may wish to rinse the inside of the bladder: some people like to know that the inside of their BC's bladder is clean. I never bother. If you wish to rinse the inside: orally inflate the BC, pour in a half litre or so of water through the inflator, shake the bc for 30 secs and drain out through inflator. Then reinflate BC and let dry. Particularly hygienic divers have been known to add Listerine to the inside of the bc for extra long lasting freshness and confidence. Again, as I do not regularly kiss my BC, I never bother.

When storing your gear make sure everything is dry. Before final storage I commonly remove the dust cap from the 1st stage for a day or so to remove any moisture that may have gotten into the first stage during washing etc.

Cheers,
Rohan.

 

[Marek K]

I second what Partridge wrote about rinsing your BCD.

Here's the "why" part. Some water does get inside the bladder while you're diving, particularly while you're dumping air out underwater. And that's OK, but that water needs to be rinsed out. Particularly salt water, which can leave salt crystals behind when it dries that will be like sandpaper inside your bladder.

There needs to be air in the bladder when you rinse it, so the fresh water can swish around all through the bladder.

It's good to dump out the rinse water through the inflator hose and each of the dump valves so each valve gets rinsed.

Store the BCD with some air in it, to make sure the insides of the bladder don't for some reason stick together.

As far as your regulator, there's some discussion as to how best to rinse that. Consensus is, it's best to rinse the reg while it's attached to a tank and is pressurized, so no water can get into the first stage. That would be very bad -- can cause internal corrosion.

Unfortunately, if you're not using your own tank like on a boat, it's not possible to rinse the reg while it's pressurized. In that case, automatically as soon as you take the first stage off the valve, make sure you cap the first stage inlet. You should dry the cap first; either with a towel, or by shooting a short blast of (extremely dry) tank air onto it. Be careful not to shoot compressed air at the first stage inlet by accident; that may force water inside -- rather, just dry the inlet area with a towel as best you can.

Um, don't touch the filter you can see in the inlet. It'll be just fine; it gets changed during each annual service anyway. There shouldn't be any water in there in any case.

Once you get to where you can rinse the reg, dunk the first stage or rinse it with a hose. I prefer not to soak it, to avoid any risk that rinse water makes its way past the inlet cap.

Then swish or rinse the second stages (primary and octo), or you can soak them. Make sure water gets inside the second stage housings, but also making sure the purge buttons aren't depressed... that could possible allow water up the hoses into the first stage, which is, well, bad. In fact, it's best while you're rinsing the second stages to keep the first stage higher; that's another way to make sure water doesn't get into the first stage.

Then air dry everything.

Easy?

Edit: I see Rohan does things slightly differently, and that's fine. I do agree, after the reg is dry, to check under the inlet cap and dry off any water that may have stayed or worked its way under there.

--Marek

 

[trevinkorea]

The above advice is awesome.

The only thing I would add is, if you have a knife that can be disassembled. For example the pummel on the end of the handle can be unscrewed and the handle removed, it is a good idea to take it apart from time to time, rinse everything well in fresh water, apply some silicone greese and reassemble. Just be certain that the pummel will not come off due to the greese. I used to do this but got lazy after a few years. Now My knife is rused inside the handle and will need to be replaced at some point.

 

[BigBirdZ28]

thanks for the excellent replies.

I just have 2 concerns.

on the BCD, the inflator hose port has a rubber cover that makes me think that no water should never touch this. so when im washing out the bcd from the inside, do I have to make sure that no water touches this thing from the inside ?

btw when I did drain out the inside of the bcd, I could taste alot of salt water. & this was only my first dive with this bcd /(; \

I am sure that i've already gotten 1-2 drops of water into the first 1st stage of my regulator. Is there anything I can do to stop water from building up inside the airpressure gage ? Will this cause any other problems ? I was hoping to "breathe out" any moisture that got into the 2nd stage channel.

About the knives, I removed the knifes, blasted them in the tub & then sprayed WD40 onto the blades. I know that WD40 owns silicon, but it should be ok for the knife right ? I have the technisub diablo knifes, a spear fishing type knife & tool knife. I also removed the hammers & soaked them inside & out in thw wd40, but I have a bit of concern that the rubber is getting owned by the WD40.

 

[Marek K]

on the BCD, the inflator hose port has a rubber cover that makes me think that no water should never touch this. so when im washing out the bcd from the inside, do I have to make sure that no water touches this thing from the inside ?

I've seen BC inflator hoses with those little rubber caps for the inflator valve connection. My wife is now using a (borrowed) BC that has one. But the vast majority of BC's don't have that cap. I'm pretty sure it's there to keep sand or grit from getting in the valve -- it's a pretty sensitive mechanism, like a car tire valve.

But I don't think there's any problem with water or moisture getting into the valve. There doesn't seem to be any way to back-flush the valve to make sure salt water is rinsed out of there. I hope that just flushing through the oral inflator would be enough.

btw when I did drain out the inside of the bcd, I could taste alot of salt water. & this was only my first dive with this bcd

Perfectly normal. The more you inflate and dump the BC during a dive, the more water (salt or otherwise) tends to get in there. You don't indicate how much experience you have... but as that experience increases -- as your buoyancy control increases -- you'll find you use your BC less and less for buoyancy control, with correspondingly less water inside.

By the way, that's an excellent way to check whether you've rinsed the inside of the BC enough... taste the drained water. But don't swallow any!

I am sure that i've already gotten 1-2 drops of water into the first 1st stage of my regulator. Is there anything I can do to stop water from building up inside the airpressure gage ? Will this cause any other problems ? I was hoping to "breathe out" any moisture that got into the 2nd stage channel.

Why are you so sure? That is, why do you think the water got its way inside? Some moisture is always likely to make its way onto the outside of the inlet after you remove your first stage from the tank valve. That's why it's good to towel the inlet off before capping it. I don't think there would be much problem, as long as the water/moisture stays outside the inlet.

If you think water actually got inside, like if you accidentally dunk the first stage without the cap on, then you may have a problem -- particularly if the water wasn't blown out immediately, after capping off the HP port as previously said. In that case, I'd get it looked at by a technician.

--Marek

 

[spectrum]

I have a big plastic barrel that I submerge the BCs in as we start cleaning gear. When we get to them we do the add water/slosh/dump thing a few times. Hang them on hangers and I was advised to position the inflator valve up above all else so any remaining wet contaminants will tend to gravitate from it. Then we rinse and refill the barrel so it's warm and ready for next time.

If your have weights in your BC you may want to remove them for ease of handling. Also soft weights I understand can leach residue and should be rinsed and dried seperately. I like to give my hard weight belt a quick dunk. My wive breaks her soft weight belt down and after rinsing it all drains and dries on an old stainless steel wire refrigerator shelf I had.

I soak eveything but the 1st stages in a pail of clean water. Ideally I do this before getting refills and hook it all up and turn the air on. I hose the cylinders and first stages while the rest soaks. I give each second and console a good swishing and operate the purges. The sun usually dries the valve/1st stage quickly enough that it's all dry when I break it down. Then I hang it all in the garage with the 1st stages highest. As others have said you don't want to be doing anything to the 1st stage inlet except making sure you keep it clean ad dry.

For the neoprene I'll either use the big BC barrel or there's a second stouter tub waiting. Each items gets a good sloshing, a few dunk and lift rinses and is hung to dry. I made a rolling drying rack for all the gloves, booties beanines and fins so it goes to the garage in 1 trip. They come home in Rubbermaid tote so they seldom get close to dry when salted.

Once you get a routine it's not bad. Alone I can do the gear for 2 in 1/2 hour and some of that is walking from the car to the rinse to the garage to hang. If I can consolidate the layout it will drop a lot. Usually my wife pitches in and it's less. Then there's the ancillary stuf like stowing the water cooler, hanging the towels and dealing with any other duffels the day required. I'm lookking forward to getting to 2 dives days to disperse the work but it's not bad. Use the time to keep a close eye on the condition of your gear.

Pete

 

[cagemaker]

CAUTION: WD-40 contains petroleum disitillates. Harmful or fatal if swallowed, do not breath. This product should not be used around life support equipment. Also, it may adversly affect some nylon type materials. Only use silicon food grade lubricants.

WD-40 is a great product, but not for Scuba equpment. Touching your knife and then handling your regulator or inflator mouthpiece is not a good protocol. This type of trace or secondary contamination can cause all sorts of respiratory and cardiac complications in certain individuals.

Be careful with what you put on your gear.

Cagemaker

 

[teknitroxdiver]

I rinse the outside of everything, then take the inflator hose off from where it attaches to my BC (it just screws off). Fill it most of the way with water, then slosh a bit and let it soak for a minute. Then if a tank is available, I hold open the bottom dump valve while keeping the bladder full with air. This blows the water out and dries the inside nicely. Then disconnect from the tank and drain out whatevers left inside. Store with a touch of air in it.