Odiferous gear

[Snowbear]

I'm generally pretty good about thoroughly rinsing and drying all my gear after every dive day. At least I try - sometimes it doesn't have time to dry thoroughly before it's time to dive again . Well, the other day I noticed the gear, especially my drysuit, smelled like Kodiak during fishing season. Took it all to work where I was able to soak it in very warm water for a while, lay it all out and rinsed it with more very warm water. Ahh - much better! Someday my house will be built and I'll have a way to do this at home

 

[IndigoBlue]

I'm generally pretty good about thoroughly rinsing and drying all my gear after every dive day. At least I try - sometimes it doesn't have time to dry thoroughly before it's time to dive again . Well, the other day I noticed the gear, especially my drysuit, smelled like Kodiak during fishing season. Took it all to work where I was able to soak it in very warm water for a while, lay it all out and rinsed it with more very warm water. Ahh - much better! Someday my house will be built and I'll have a way to do this at home

I always make time to rinse my drysuit. I take it with me into the shower, and hang the boots throught the shower pipe, and then rinse it off with my shower hose, which I bought at a hardware store and installed myself into the shower nozzle. Therefore, my drysuit always gets hosed off, even before my body gets hosed off. No shortcuts here, since the suit cost $1500 and it is my most expensive piece of gear.

The regs will be next in order, but sometimes I will wait a day or so to get around to soaking them in the tub. I usually soak the mask and other equipment with them. All of it will stink, if you dont soak it eventually.

The B/C is something I will usually soak last. Sometimes, I wont even soak it at all, just wear it again with salt crystallization all over it to the next dive a week or two later. I dont care if the B/C stinks. It does not touch me directly anywhere. It goes on over my drysuit at the ocean or over my wetsuit at the pool.

If I am on a scuba trip to warm water, I will rinse my B/C every day, however. Bathtubs are really good for that. Then I throw in my dive skins, B/C, regs, gear, booties, and all. And let it all soak, while I go down to the pool to go swimming, and then to eat lunch.

That is my system, which avoides the stinkies very well.

 

[Snowbear]

I always make time to rinse my drysuit

Me too.

That is my system, which avoides the stinkies very well.

Someday I'll have a house with a tub
Meanwhile, cold water hose-off in the back yard is the order of the day. I will, however, make it a point to take the stuff to work more often for a good soaking.

 

[IndigoBlue]

Me too.Someday I'll have a house with a tub
Meanwhile, cold water hose-off in the back yard is the order of the day. I will, however, make it a point to take the stuff to work more often for a good soaking.

So I take it Alaska residences do not all have tubs?

Sounds sort of like Europe. Although in Europe, they all have tubs, the Europeans simply do not use them very often. The older homes still have coal-fired water heaters, and so it is a big deal to heat up water in some places. So they just don't. At least, not unless it is Saturday night, to get ready for Catholic Mass on Sunday. Perfume and cologne are very popular in Europe, moreso than in the USA.

 

[pufferfish]

I use a product called MiraZyme which is an enzyme product to rid any kind of wet gear of bad odours. I have used it on dive gear, boating gear, and even a tent that was stored wet and came out smelling like blue cheese.

It is supposed to be safe for all dive products and requires no rinsing. Just soak a few minutes and hang to dry. I did the tent twice and it was as good as new.

Two ounces of the stuff is about $2.00.

http://divemar.com/mcnett/docs/mirazyme.html

 

[Snowbear]

So I take it Alaska residences do not all have tubs?

Some don't have running water or electricity, either - and perfume is an airplane ride away

 

[Snowbear]

...MiraZyme...
It is supposed to be safe for all dive products and requires no rinsing. Just soak a few minutes and hang to dry.

Probably a good product, but personally, I think my gear is better served by ridding it of all salt residue by rinsing. Besides, the warm water soak took care of the low tide smell quite effectively

 

[Rick Inman]

I self-dry clean my dry suit undies with a home dry cleaning kit you can buy at any store in the laundry dept. You just put the underware in the bag with the cleaning pouch and dry it on low for a while. This avoids the decreasing fluff factor that machine washing causes, but keeps 'em smelling nice.

 

[deep6diver]

Anyone besides me ever wear your dry suit back from the dive and shower with it on to wash it off?..the dive site is like 2 miles away, and it was nippy that day. I actually enjoyed washing my gear that day

 

[kelpmermaid]

Anyone besides me ever wear your dry suit back from the dive and shower with it on to wash it off?..the dive site is like 2 miles away, and it was nippy that day. I actually enjoyed washing my gear that day

One of the places I dive has both an outdoor shower (with hot water!) and a rinse tank large enough to hold me. I can climb up into it and soak, then rinse off in the outdoor shower. I tried rinsing off in the shower at home once, but it's a back-zip suit, so I wasn't able to rinse all areas. It made a mess of the bathroom, too. I can just see it now, "Hello, 911 operator? Could you send the fire department? I can't unzip my drysuit and am trapped in the shower..." LOL