Regulator cleaning after dives

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vixtor

Contributor
Messages
488
Reaction score
31
Location
Bucharest, Romania
# of dives
200 - 499
Hello,

I am using a Scubapro Mk17/G250V+Mk17/G250V setup for my regulators for about 6 years. Every year, during anual service, I was told that pretty significant corrosion was found inside (not something irreparable, but enough to be considered unusual by the service guy). Last year, I have considered trying something new, and have stopped doing something learned on this forum, which I was normally doing after each week-end of diving.

Basically, what I was doing in the past was to leave the regs to stay overnight in the bathtub with warm fresh water, to disolve any salt deposits they might have had (in case the hose washing performed at the dive center was not enough). For this purpose, I have replaced the standard Scubapro DIN caps with some threaded DIN caps which were sealing the first stage completely. I had no tank at home to purge them after the soaking, but when I was taking them out of the water, it seemed to me that only very little water was flowing down from the second stages (and because of this i was happy that water was most probably not getting inside). Of course, I was taking a lot of care to submerge the second stages very slowly, in a position with the mouthpiece down, so the membrane was not opened by the very action of submerging. The first stage was only submerged later. So I was not throwing them in water carelessly. Taking them out, I was first raising the first stage, and only later the second stage. To me, this seemed like good regulator care. I didn't had conditions to submerge them under pressure, but taking all these precautions seemed enough to me.

Except for the corrosion issue, they were in good state, and cleaned properly every time. All service kit parts were replaced every time, so there was no bad seal or leak on them.

Anyway, last year, I have decided to change something and during the whole year, I have just washed them under pressure, with the hose, at the dive center. No more soaking in fresh water. During this winter's service, for the first time, the service engineer told me they were in excellent condition, like new. He is the same guy doing it every year, so he knew from the past the condition they used to be after one year. He didn't know about my change of habits, so he was not influenced in any way. Now I plan to do the same for the second year, and observe if I get similar results.

I took this decision observing that the rental regulators of the dive center, which were never getting a similar treatment to what I was "giving" to my own regulators, and which were most probably used with less care by various people, were usually in better condition after one year.

Except for not soaking the regs in fresh water every night, I have made no other change in my diving habits last year. I had a similar amount of dives, both boat and shore, I have done similar valve shutdown drills underwater, and had to change the regs from one tank to another between dives with the same level of care as always. So to me there is no other explanation for the (lack of) corrosion, except this overnight soaking which I have discontinued.

What do you think?
 
I rinse, then soak, then rinse again and have found no issues with corrosion at all. I dive year round almost every week. Are you storing them in between dives wet?
 
As I said, I had no tank at home, so they were not purged after soaking. They were just drying normally in the room I was keeping them.
 
I hose mine (Titan LX Supreme) down after every dive (just shy of 100), fresh or salt water, with either the garden hose or the shower. I have never soaked my reg. I have had it serviced each year for three years and no internal issues at all.
 
I wash mine with all my gear then hang them to dry, making sure I shake all the water out the next day so they are dry inside and out. No issues.
 
If water is being allowed to enter the first stage then that is/was your issue, purge ir not.

N
 
With your regulators, soaking or not soaking shouldn't have any effect on internal corrosion in the 1st stage, because they are sealed regs. I guess it depends on what the definition of "internal" is. 1st stage ambient chamber? 2nd stage? Did the tech elaborate?

This much is a certainty, when salt water dries on any metal surface of your regulator it's corrosive. When fresh water dries on the same surface, not nearly as corrosive. This is really true with exposed threads, i.e. threads that are no protected by an external o-ring. I soak my regs primarily to dilute any salt water that has made its way into the threads. I do typically purge some air through my regs a few times after soaking to dry out the 2nd stage.
 
I have no tank at home either. I know if regs are stored wet for a period you can run into corrosion issues. Rinsing while pressurized and then blowing dry is obviously the way to go if possible. Since they cannot corrode without salt, water or both seems you had one or both present previously and now rinsing under pressure you do not. If you have corrosion in the first stage being sealed water is getting in there somehow either through valve or traveling up the hose.
 
"Significant internal corrosion" is caused by salt water incursion. It does not sound like this is being caused by either of your cleaning routines.
 
When you see the tech again ask him what the filter looked like. If the filter was corroded, I would assume your getting salt water intrusion at the DIN connection. If not then the salt-water is coming through the second stages.

Your first stages are sealed so they really don't require a soaking, just a rinse. You can always elevate the first stage above the second stage to prevent water from backing up into the first stage.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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