Water in my BC

[MaverickNH]

I always end up with a fair amount of water in my BC after a 2-tank dive trip. Is that a problem for buoyancy and how best to avoid, if I should?

 

[buddhasummer]

There is no way to avoid water in your BC if diving. No it is not a problem as long as your BC is holding air. After a dive simply pull the lower dump or invert and press deflator and the water will drain. If you are worried take it into a shop and get them to check for you.

 

[Mark Derail]

Was part of my PADI course - at the pool - I empty the BD of water after every dive.

 

[buddhasummer]

Just to add, if you orally infate BC after a dive and then pull lower dump or invert and press deflator it will drain the water faster. Unless your BC is completely filling up a little water is perfectly normal.

 

[grantwiscour]

This shouldn't create a problem. It is normal to get water in the BCD during a dive. Maybe try to notice if you are keeping the inflator open after the BCD's internal air pressure is spent. Water might be entering your BCD as you are trying to deflate an already empty BCD. I hope this helps a little.

 

[TMHeimer]

Drain (particularly) salt water, pool water. Then rinse inside with tap water & a little baby shampoo. The amount of water that gets in there has to do with how often you have to release air from the BC. Some dives I have found basically none at all in there, others quite a bit.

 

[nimoh]

if you are overweighted, you need to add more air to your BC as you descend creating the possibility for more water to enter. If you are getting a lot of water in your BC, you might want to ensure that you are correctly weighted

 

[MaverickNH]

Maybe a quart in my BC after 75min Total timein the water. I guess I could inflate and drain from the lower valve before switching tanks and after the 2nd dive before pulling the tank.

I usually rinse 3 times with fresh water, drain and take the top and bottom valves off to dry. They are simple to unscrew with no tricky parts to lose or install wrong.

But I'd agree I'm probably yanking the dumps a bit longer than needed. I can see shoulder and inflator dump bubbles, but not the low-right dump valve bubbles when horizontal, and am probably taking on extra water there.

Thanks for the help all!

 

[g1138]

Part of my buddy check or self check is to pull the butt dump and drain any water that's in the BC.
It shouldn't affect buoyancy at all; water is water. You probably couldn't carry enough fresh water in your bladder to severely cripple your buoyancy in salt water either.
If you're BC's completey full of water on a dive you can technically inflate while pulling your lowest dump to purge the water in the bladder. Wouldn't recommend trying to purge all of it at depth though since you'd need to fully inflate to do that.

 

[DivemasterDennis]

Water comes in to the bc through the same valves you are using to release air. If you are opening a valve to release air and there is no air escaping, water will enter. Sometimes ( but not all the time) some water will enter even as air is releasing. On some dive I accumulate quite a bit of water. On others, I have none in the bc. Using body movement to position air in the bc at the point where you are releasing it will help reduce water in the bc. Rolling, inverting, going vertical, whatever is appropriate to the location of the vent to be used. Anyway, a good question to post, and, as noted above, nothing to worry about.
DivemasterDennis