Sand and small rocks in my reg

[TheHuth]

I got rolled around by a wave after finishing my dive last weekend. I was just moving my gear, and bunch of crap fell out of the regulator. I'm sure it must have all been picked up when I got knocked around. I thought I did a good job of rinsing my gear afterwards, but clearly I didnt.

I just connected the reg to a full tank, and its not leaking, and breaths fine. So my question is, is that pretty commonplace, or would you normally have your reg checked out after that?

 

[yle]

It's pretty common if your reg gets dragged through the sand when making a beach exit. In that situation, the best place for your reg is in your mouth (just for future reference.) That being said, anything you take with you to the beach, including your gear for beach diving, will tend to bring home a lot more sand than you realize.

If the sand & rocks are coming just from the second stage mouthpiece and exhaust, you're probably okay. Just rinse it very well, keeping it pressurized while connected to a tank, if possible, and work to get all the sand out. If the sand is coming from anywhere else... you may need to have it checked.

 

[TheHuth]

Yeah, it was coming out of the exhaust. Sounds like it was fairly typical, but next time I need to be a bit more careful. I'll make a mental note to leave the reg in my mouth on the last part of egress.

 

[undrwater]

Very typical. When you rinse, pay attention to the exhaust port flap (small piece of silicone that sits over the port), to make sure all of the sand is out of there. If something got stuck, you'll have a wet breathing reg. This is a pretty rare occurrence, though.

 

[fmerkel]

The reg cover will also come off for better rinsing and inspection. It's a pretty simple job, usually just unscrew it. Sometimes there is a small pin that is preventing unscrewing that needs to be removed first.

 

[Bert van den Berg]

Beach entries/exits can result in debris clogging up other bits of gear as well. Both my wife's and mine dive knives would not unlock one day because small rocks prevented the lock from unlocking. After analyzing the problem we squirted a small amount of silicon rubber into strategic spots to prevent that happening in the future. I believe this to be a design defect that occurred in both our dive knives (different brands). I now make the dive knife unlock check a regular part of our pre-dive checks.

 

[Reku]

I drag my regs through the dirt all the time inside sidemount caves. A quick dismantle of the 2nd stage and cleaning usually clears that up.

 

[Scared Silly]

I drag my regs through the dirt all the time inside sidemount caves. A quick dismantle of the 2nd stage and cleaning usually clears that up.

Agreed, after any dive trip I disassemble the purge cover and diaphragm then rise. Even without being tossed by a wave or a shore entry crap gets in there.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Many regs will allow you to disassemble the second stage so that they can be cleaned out. Some require tools to remove the faceplate. If your does not you just unscrew, remove the plate and diaphragm and rinse well. I prefer to do it when a reg is pressurized.
One thing to note is some will put a plastic or teflon type washer between the rim of faceplate and the edge of the diaphragm that can be hard to get out, or worse very easy so that if you are not paying attention can get lost. Though they are usually very thin they can effect cracking pressure since they put the purge closer to the lever. If the reg is tuned to be very sensitive this change can possibly result in a slight, but constant free flow.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

One more thing...when you reassemble the second stage, there are some regulators where the diaphargm may not be captured by the seal between the cover and the body. Once it is together, do a leak check by not placing it on a tank, and breathing through it (inhalation) with the dust cap on the first stage. The diaphragm should snap down and stay down, without any air leaking. If there is air leaking, you need to open it back up, and see whether the exhaust valve is sealing, and if so, suspect that the diaphragm itself did not seal the first time. Make sure it seals, as if it doesn't your first breath underwater will be mostly water, even if it breaths well in air.

SeaRat