Vinegar and water rinse for BC

[Addictedtoscubaandjesus]

Would a 50/50 mix of white vinegar and water be appropriate to clean/rinse out my bcd? I just think how well it does preventing mold from growing in my shower. Knowing that a little bit of water may be left behind after I rinse my BCD before drying it, if the last rinse was a 50/50 vinegar water mix, I would be more at ease that no mold was growing internally. Would this be okay?

 

[coldwaterglutton]

Sounds like a douche thing to do.

 

[SwimAway]

I know this has been said many times before, but all SCUBA gear should be fully immersed daily in the largest body of water you have available to you, that will keep it in good working order.

If you find yourself thinking, "I wonder if my BC is getting moldy?" the answer is that it is time to find a way to get it back into the water ASAP.

 

[Kendall Raine]

Another worthwhile piece of preventative maintenance while you’re at it is to remove the inflator cartridge and soak it in 10:1 fresh water/white vinegar. Keeps off accumulated gunk that can eventually lead to sticking. Periodically relube the piston o rings.

 

[Still Kicking]

If you disconnect the inflator elbow from the BC to rinse the bladder, a couple of words of caution:

1. Don't lose the o-ring or gasket that seals the connection. Scubapro, for example, has an o-ring that sits inside the female side of the fitting on many/most of their BCs. It's easy to lose when draining the bladder. To compound things, it's a non-standard size so you have to go to a dealer for another one and hope they have one in stock.

2. Be careful not to cross thread the connection when reattaching the elbow. Some BCs have fine plastic threads that are easy to wreck. If you feel resistance in the plastic threads when screwing it down, back off and start again.

3. Some wings (Dive Rite for example) have a flange on the elbow that has to seat properly in order to seal on the gasket. If you rotate the elbow a bit as you screw it down, you'll feel it click into place as it seats.

4. Whatever you do, if you remove the inflator elbow, fully inflate the BC and check it holds pressure for at least 5-10 minutes before your next dive.

And since you have the inflator hose off your BC, hook the inflator up to your reg, pressurize it and sumberge the BC end of the hose to catch a leaky inflator early.

 

[happy-diver]

Handinable hot water!

No bubbles no troubles!

Chemical free

See the hose going into the wing where the shoulder dump used to be

Magnificent!

No hesitation living inside my bc or using it as a resuscitation bag if I could only lose the weight

 

[happy-diver]

Half an hour later and here we are unloading and reloading included
as I like to avoid a dozen dives of pressurisation in one soak, hey Eric

Best thing about hot, is you can wash the next day, like it's yesterday

Gets in disolves the salt and gets it out, like liquid gets into the chalk

 

[ScubaSteveT]

I only dump the saltwater out, add 16 oz of freshwater and then drain through the inflator - and deflator button and occasionally the pull dumps. You don’t need to do more, if you diligently drain all the saltwater out as a first step. I soak the bc in a rinse bucket for a few minutes with the rest of my gear as well. Unscrewing everything is not necessary.

Same… along with a few steramine tablets dissolved in the water to flush / soak.

 

[coldwaterglutton]

Curious if anyone has used this stuff on gear. I use it on the boat all the time and it does work well as taking off salt residue, but it might be too harsh for regulators/BCs.

 

[FreqFlier]

Same… along with a few steramine tablets dissolved in the water to flush / soak.

+1

 

[Still Kicking]

Curious if anyone has used this stuff on gear. I use it on the boat all the time and it does work well as taking off salt residue, but it might be too harsh for regulators/BCs.

View attachment 870354

They specifically mention scuba on their website. But it's fairly expensive and unlike a boat motor's convoluted cooling system, scuba gear is easy to rinse.

If you need to go the extra mile, 50/50 vinegar is as good as anything.

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