Should I be rinsing the cylinder valve and opening after dive?

[William Ryan]

I rinse mine very thoroughly after each day of diving. Salt water is the enemy. I spray them thoroughly with freshwater and also give them a good soaking in freshwater without a regulator attached if possible. They are pressurized after all. Unless they are empty, which they shouldn't be, there is zero chance of water intrusion during this process. I find this helps a great deal to keep them clean and working smoothly.

It is critical to make sure and thoroughly dry the valve before either attaching a regulator or having the tank filled. This is critical. I do agree that this will cause issues if you forget to do it. This is easy to do and part of my normal post-dive gear rinse process. It is second nature at this point. It just takes a towel over the outlet and blast or two of air from the tank. The towel is key! No sense hurting your ears and the ears of those around you!! You'll get some nasty looks if you blow out your valve without covering the outlet first. Don't be that guy.

this is definitely a counter point to those who are saying not to rise. Thanks for the help!

 

[johndiver999]

I've two dozen cylinders and none of them have ever been rinsed after a sea dive -- unless it rained on the way back in. Same with the regulator sets (and multiple stage cylinders); they rarely get rinsed, although all cylinders and regulators are hung up to dry in the garage after use.

Well if you are not going to even rinse your regulators, then I can see why the tanks (and valves) are of little comparative concern.

BTW, I try to soak my regulators for 15 minutes or so after every day of diving - unless it is a multi-day trip.

 

[laikabear]

I rinse mine very thoroughly after each day of diving. Salt water is the enemy. I spray them thoroughly with freshwater and also give them a good soaking in freshwater without a regulator attached if possible. They are pressurized after all. Unless they are empty, which they shouldn't be, there is zero chance of water intrusion during this process. I find this helps a great deal to keep them clean and working smoothly.

It is critical to make sure and thoroughly dry the valve before either attaching a regulator or having the tank filled. This is critical. I do agree that this will cause issues if you forget to do it. This is easy to do and part of my normal post-dive gear rinse process. It is second nature at this point. It just takes a towel over the outlet and blast or two of air from the tank. The towel is key! No sense hurting your ears and the ears of those around you!! You'll get some nasty looks if you blow out your valve without covering the outlet first. Don't be that guy.

Well thank goodness you spoke up, I was starting to get paranoid about always hosing down my tanks and the valves!

 

[Divin'Papaw]

Well if you are not going to even rinse your regulators, then I can see why the tanks (and valves) are of little comparative concern.

It does answer alot of questions doesn't it?

I realize that there are those that prefer to do very little post-dive rinsing. I'm NOT one of those. I prefer to take care of my gear. To each their own with respect to what they do with their own equipment.

When I was primarily a freshwater diver I just laid everything out to dry. IMO saltwater is a completely different beast. I've seen what it can do to materials with repeated exposure. I choose to remove it from my equipment as quickly as possible after use.

 

[MaxTorque]

Diving in fresh water all i do for DIN 1st stages is to purge the pressure, undo the 1st stage enough to ensure the O ring is not seated, and very carefully open the cyl valve a small amount. Just enough to push some air out and round the DIN threads, which also pushes out any water that had crept down and filled those threads (which it does).

Note the small opening of the valve only. We don't need 100's of bar, we don't need a gale force wind and screaming air coming out, we just need a gentle pffft for a few seconds

For salt water, i rinse everything as an assembly if possible, ie run entire scuba unit, pressurised under a fresh water hose or tap, or dunk in large fresh water tank, then repease the blow out step i mentioned before removing the regulators from the cylinder.


For yoke type 1st stages, it's less important, because there really isn't much internal volume to get full of salty water. Here i just take off the 1st stage, rinse the cylinder and valve, then blow a little air out, again, carefully, slowly, no great gushing out with a scream, to ensure nothing is left in the valve passages.

In reality, if you look at a typical cylinder valve, there is only one small passange from the actual sealing face of the valve shuttle up and into the exit area (either for DIN or yoke) The amount of water that will get in there is pretty small, so is unlikely to be an issue.

I tend to wash the valve more to simply keep the valve knob and the PTFE/NYLON disc behind it free of salt, because this is what really makes the valve stiff to turn

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I generally leave the last tank I dive that day attached to the reg and soak that one pressurized. Then after all of it is clean I pull it out of the rinse tank and stand it up still pressurized and let it dry, then disassemble everything later when fully dry.
For the one or two other tanks from earlier that day, I just rinse them off standing up with the hose and make sure to clean under the boot really well, then give the valve a little blast. You can hold a towel over the valve to muffle the noise. You can also hold your thumb over the air hole while you’re rinsing the valve and then wipe it clean with a towel and blast it a little if you think you got water down the air hole. What you don’t want is to have salt water down the air hole then go in for a fill, especially with steel tanks. It will land on the bottom and could cause a rust pit on the inside of your tank.
Like so many have already mentioned, “salt water is the enemy”, for gear anyway. For your skin it’s great!

 

[gamon]

I've two dozen cylinders and none of them have ever been rinsed after a sea dive -- unless it rained on the way back in. Same with the regulator sets (and multiple stage cylinders); they rarely get rinsed.

How often do you shower?

I'm working a theory

 

[rjack321]

How often do you shower?

I'm working a theory

Every time it rains?

 

[halocline]

The post-dive care of a tank valve depends on whether it's DIN or yoke, and especially whether or not it's a convertible valve. The convertible valves really should get the yoke plug taken out after a salt water dive. Those threads are not protected by an o-ring and salt water can really cause problems in there. So for a convertible valve, take the plug out, then squirt a little water in the threads of the DIN valve, then maybe a shot of air. For straight DIN valves (no plug) you can just rinse a bit, then dry. For yoke I wouldn't worry about it. There are no exposed threads in those.

 

[johndiver999]

I tend to wash the valve more to simply keep the valve knob and the PTFE/NYLON disc behind it free of salt, because this is what really makes the valve stiff to turn

Not really, a stiff valve is almost always caused by the threads on the seat and the valve getting corroded. Clean those threads and lube them up and the valve will almost always turn easily.