Short to Long Term Reg & Hose Storage?

[A.G.Pennypacker]

Can't say I dive all year long. Even though I live in Florida..one gets spoiled and wants ideal diving conditions. So for the winter months I store my Regs hoses the best way I know how. I usuallly spray or rub down the hoses with a silicone spray (that Prestone Spray), grease the o rings on the hoses (second stage, SPG..etc) and threads and store them in my reg bag? I wonder If they should be laying flat, maybe in one of those shallow rubbermaid tubs, sealed, burped and stored somewhere cool and out of the light. Will hoses become permanetly coiled or will in time straighten out? I wanted to hear from other divers (since I have close to a grand invested in regs alone) on how they store their life support gear? Any other suggestions?

 

[hantzu701]

how r u planning to grease the o-rings?

 

[A.G.Pennypacker]

Usually with a Q-tip cotton swab, tipped in grease and applied around the ring.

 

[The Kraken]

Good point, Double O Seven - 701 !

Avoid excessive heat and excessively arid conditions.
Keep enclosed to keep out foreign materials/matter.

How you do that is up to you . . .

Hose materials have somewhat of a memory. If you store your hoses in a coiled position for a long time, they will have a tendency to want to stay that way when uncoiled. The pressure from the 1st stage helps alleviate that problem, however.

I keep all of my gear in my basement "bonus room". The room is air conditioned and climate controlled. I use one of the heavy plastic hangars that hold the BC and have the regulator attachment point. For my exposure suit I use one of the big exposure suit hangars.

For each of these I had my wife take an old sheet and fashion a bag that, when my gear is suspended on the hangars, I pull up from the bottom and secure around the neck of the hangar with a draw cord that is sewn into the top of the bag.

Works for me, but I'm sure there are many other, and probably better, storage solutions out there.

 

[hantzu701]

I don't know if silicone grease is okay for for your reg o-rings. I'm under the impression that this treatment is okay as long as your regs don't need to be O2 cleaned.

Regs can be completely rebuilt with the service kits. However, this is often unnecessary and you should get all those extra parts that aren't used. My instructor is fond of displaying his first reg, which he got when he first started diving. He uses it as one of his octos.

Regs are separate from hoses. You should inspect your hoses periodically for wear. Generally, people tend to use the hoses until they blow, which seems a little short-sighted to me. This is life equipment, so it makes sense to service or replace long before it's really necessary. I use cristo-lube for regs, silicone grease for camera/light/etc. o-rings,