Rinsing your BCD with antibacterial flush?

[Patoux01]

I know for a fact I wont have to come and pay a visit. I don't intend on breathing from a bcd, ever.

 

[TMHeimer]

I know for a fact I wont have to come and pay a visit. I don't intend on breathing from a bcd, ever.

Is there anyone who intends to?

 

[Patoux01]

Is there anyone who intends to?

And the shocked faces of fellow divers after telling them you practiced breathing from the BCD are priceless.

In reality the risk of fungal infection must be exceedingly low or there were be many more examples to cite. Exposure to bcd air also occurrs when some divers ensure their bladders are empty for hot drops by breathing off the bcd and some exposure is also possible when orally inflating a bcd.

And I might want to suck the last bits of air from my wing to pack it tighter. So even if I plan to never breathe from it... sanitizer is cheap.

So apparently, some people do intend to, yes.
I do none of those things. I dive with redundant gear 99% of the time, the other 1% my buddy is my redundancy or I'm able to surface immediately.
Removing 0.2 l of air out a BCD is not suddenly gonna make you descend as fast as usain bolt, so I have no reason to that either. Happy to compress my rig while holding the dump valve open to remove air. Sucking air out? thanks but I'll give it a pass. Not worth the hassle.

 

[Boaty McBoatface]

Sounds like we need Ty-D-Bol cakes for our BCDs...
....we could even blow blue bubbles!

 

[dmaziuk]

Do you also suck air out of air mattresses or do you simply roll them while pressing on them like every normal camper does?

What is that "camper" thing you are talking about?

 

[Rred]

I always did a fresh water rinse of the BC bladder after diving, mainly because seawater CAN enter when you are dumping air, and seawater is a great nutrient soup for all sorts of crud. I figure why take a chance, especially since a BC *might* be used in an emergency OOA ascent. (Yes, you can rebreath air 4-5x and still get useful oxygen out of it.)

But this year I found out that McNeff(?) and some others do make BC bladder cleaner, a thimble full in the bladder with water will disinfect it without eating the plastic, they say. Cheap enough, simple enough, who needs a sore throat for a week?

 

[TMHeimer]

As mentioned, there is probably a tiny risk of illness from orally inflation. But probably way less than breathing from a BC.
ei- blowing vs. sucking.

 

[g1138]

Uh....guys you kill fungus with antifungals or fungicide, not antibacterial.
Bacteria is killed by antibacterials. Fungi is killed by antifungals.

Listerine contains alcohol which only works to dissolve mold/fungus, but doesn't kill it. It's a solvent, not a killer. So you will still have left overs unless you spend an eternity rinsing and flushing with it.

So if you're worried about that particular case, you're using the wrong product.
Don't worry about it.

Rinse your BC with freshwater, orally inflate it, drain, orally inflate, let sit for the night, drain and repeat till dry.
Not rinsing your BC allows any marine water to really grow some nasty things in it.

 

[uncfnp]

Antifungal activity of three mouth rinses--in vitro study. - PubMed - NCBI

Just the abstract so don't know the particulars of the study.

I started with a vinegar rinse, then after reading SB i switched to Listerine, then Steramine but since read that it is not effective for fungus at stanard strength. Most recently experimented with Dettol but not crazy about the smell and not cheap by the time I order it online. Saw this a while back and think I will order a gallon for dive gear and around the house.

https://www.amazon.com/Simple-Green...qid=1496629292&sr=8-1&keywords=simple+green+5

Looks like it kills it all.

 

[The Chairman]

Breathing from a BC to extend your life is a mythconception. See what I did there? Since there is no way to clear the damn thing, you'll probably aspirate some water and induce a laryngospasm. You'll then have a hard time breathing when you do get to the surface!!!

Better to plan in such a way as to not run out of air or out of buddy. You can't follow a plan you failed to make.

• Determine your ascent pressure
  • 10psi/ft is usually adequate with a 600 psi minimum.
  Determine your turn pressure (OW NDL)
  • Subtract ascent pressure from actual pressure
  • Divide by half
• Know your buddy's air consumption
  • Check the pressure on the surface during your buddy check
  • Compare pressures five minutes into the dive
  • Extrapolate pressures during the dive
  • Check your buddy's pressure when you think they might be getting close.
  • Two heads are better than one!
    • Both of you should be cognizant of each other's pressure.
• Turn your dive at the proper pressure (head back to the boat)
• Start ascending when you hit your ascent pressure.

Here's an example. @sphyon and I start a dive. We are all suited up, and I hear him breathing on his regs. One of us asks how much pressure the other has and share our own. I have 3,500psi and he has 3,000 psi. For this, it doesn't matter what size tank we are using, but I have an HP120 and he has an AL80. We are diving to 100fsw, so our ascent pressure (either tank) will be 1000psi. His turn pressure will be 2000psi and mine will be 2500psi. Five minutes into the dive, we check pressures. He is at 2700psi and I am at 3300psi. I am consuming 200 for each 300 he consumes. I will check with him again when I use another 500psi (2800) as he should be just under that 2000 mark. Jerry turns the dive and we check pressures again. He is at 2000 and I am a skootch above 2800, so we are still 300 of his to 200 of mine. When should we start to ascend? He has a 1000psi to make it back to the anchor, so that means another 630 psi on my tank or when it's down to 2200psi. We got back to the anchor with plenty of air left since we swam into the current and got to ride it back. @sphyon asks for my pressure just to be certain. He's at 1100psi while I'm at 2400psi. We putz around poking our noses into this or that undercut. Just as I think he's at a 1000psi, we start our ascent and do a 5-minute safety stop. On the boat, he has 750psi and I'm at 2100psi. Cool. Depending on our depth, I might get a second dive out of my HP120. If you check our consumption, we are about the same, only our tank sizes have made such a huge difference. Because of that, @sphyon was our limiting diver. As his buddy, it was much my duty to make sure he didn't run out of air as it was his duty to look after me as well. He kept checking his gauges to be sure the plan was on schedule, and I extrapolated his pressures to do the same. Your buddy is your redundant brain as you are his. It's a double fail if either of you runs out of gas. Don't fail yourself. Don't fail your buddy. Plan your dive and dive your plan.