Post-dive regulator cleaning

[Scared Silly]

The mfg recommendation is that regs get soaked while pressurized. For most that is not practical. I soak mine for about 1 hour with caps on with no ill affect. Once a cap was not on. After removing all hoses and port caps I blew air through it and left it in the sun to hot dry. No problems.

Note: a quick rinse is not enough, soaking a reg is really required to get salt and other minerals out of threads and other places.

 

[tracydr]

I throw mine in the tub attached to a tank for an hour or two when we return from a trip.

 

[Gunrock]

Unlike a lot of you I am not much of a gear geek and I don't put a lot of thought into these things, for better or worse. And I don't really want to, if there's not a clear consensus. But FWIW I've been using my Scubapro Mk18/G250 and Mk25/S600 for seven and eight years, respectively, sometimes doing as many as 100 dives per year and I've never had any problems. Sometimes I soak, sometimes I just rinse. Unpressurized. I don't think it even occurred to me for my first few years of diving that my caps might not be watertight. I get my regs serviced every year and no one has ever made any comments that my gear looks better or worse than anyone else's. I switched to DIN in 2006. I don't dive nearly as much as I used to in CA. Occasionally I do need to clean the threads with some vinegar solution. Like once or twice a year.

 

[beanojones]

i was wondering, what would happen to the 1st stage if water did get in? would you have to take it apart to dry it, or can it be dried out on its own with just the dust cap off?

I don't think leaving the dust cap off is very effective at drying the inside of a flooded first stage, but simply using the reg is very effective at drying the inside out, since dry scuba air is effective at drying anything.

In terms of what happens to the reg:

With the simple unbalanced piston regs, nothing much happens to them, since the air path has no dead ends other than the SPG.* It's one of the reason people like them for deco regs. It's also one of the reasons deco regs are often so corroded inside because people don't really care about flooding them underwater, and don't really do anything special after they do flood them.

I have swapped first stages from tank to tank under water many times. There is no immediate effect on them, regardless of type. Other than the simple piston first stage, I would not want to flood a first stage with salt water, and then leave the salt water to corrode the inside of first stage. Having said that, I have flooded my basically all my personal gear at different times either from underwater reg swap, or from the dust cap getting dislodged. I am not particularly worried about fresh water flooding at all.

But then again I service all my own gear. And I would at least think about servicing my gear if I flooded the first stage even with fresh water if it was not staying wet all the time. That said, I don't really worry about it in practice, because with the dive counts I run up, my gear is getting serviced whenever it needs service, so I don't really have to worry about even sea water sitting inside the reg for very long.

*In regs with two HP ports, the HP port not connected to the SPG is usually going to suffer some corrosion since there is no flow through and it is such a tiny pinhole to begin with. This is the main place I see problems after flooding with sea water, if I don't do an immediate overhaul.

 

[Dr. Lecter]

My opinion is that a used 6cf tank was dirt cheap (it didn't need to be in hydro/viz because I'm transfilling a relatively low pressure into it myself) and that makes tossing my regs into a tub or sink full of hot water overnight really easy. Buying cave rings for my second stages means that soaking the second stages disassembled is also really easy.

The only thing I'd change is to put an H valve on it so I can do both doubles regs at once.

 

[beanojones]

I switched to DIN in 2006. I don't dive nearly as much as I used to in CA. Occasionally I do need to clean the threads with some vinegar solution. Like once or twice a year.

This is the tough place to rinse isn't it? I have a couple of caps that allow me to rinse the threads since they cannot be effectively rinsed with the regular screw on cap, or with the gear pressurized

 

[spectrum]

Occasionally I do need to clean the threads with some vinegar solution. Like once or twice a year.

I just put my thumb over the port, take a toothbrush with vinegar to the threads and rinse. Voila, happy threads.

Don't forget the mating valve ports too. Do them before refilling so you don't loose valuable dive time (air) clearing the threads.

Pete

 

[Dnaber]

Is it safe to use salt-away?


Don

Sent from my iPad

 

[beanojones]

Is it safe to use salt-away?


Don

Sent from my iPad

Salt away will 'stain', for lack of a better word, some chromed brass. I assume it is also doing some good with the color change, but.

 

[James R]

I use salt away on all my regs (Mk17/A700, Mk11/S600, MK2/R295 (x2), DR XT (x2), DR O2 reg, DR deco/stage reg) without any issues. I use it on my nauticam and I-DAS arms & clamps for my camera as well. I do not use it on my Nauticam housing or lenses etc.