Where should vs Where do ....

[plclark196]

Previously I posed the question of "where do you store your gear" and I received lots of great feedback. What I actually meant to ask ,however, was - Where should you store your gear? In particular - items with o rings, hoses, etc like bc's , wings, regs is storing these items in an unheated or non air conditioned garage or shed either a good or bad idea . Are these items affected by the changes or weather such as temperature, humidity ?????

 

[gypsyjim]

I have no answer, but am interrested in where this thread goes, as I have similar questions. Living in an area where winters are long and cold, and having little inside storage, I am interrested in which gear can be stored in an unheated garage, and what needs to be kept inside the home all winter.
As much of the gear can be used in freezing cold waters, I have assumed that once everything is thouroughly dry it should be safe to move into the unheated garage. I just don't know if this is a correct assumption or not.

 

[Doc]

I travel to Roatan once, sometimes twice a year.

I knock out 60 or so dives, then my gear is well rinsed, completely dried, then stuffed into a plastic bin and put on the top shelf of a shed where it must regularly hit 140 degrees. It sits 9 feet above the ocean on a dock.

My BC, Flippers (with bungee straps) and complete reg/spg set-up has survived many years. I need a new hose o-ring and such every so often, but in my case- it beats dragging my gear around. It was two or three years old when I left it there, and to give you an idea, it's a Cousteau BC and a Sherwood Oasis Regulator.

Been there a while, I guess.

 

[UncleJoes]

I live in PA where the winters aren't as harsh as they could be, but still cold none the less. I have some gear in the attached, unheated garage, and some in the shed. I keep everything in waterproof (rubbermaid) containers. Most of my gear is 6-8 years old or older and works great. I think the key is to take care of it before you put it away and you shouldn't have a problem. Dive gear is pretty hardy stuff.

Ideally you want everything in a temperature controlled area for storage, but if you are ever unsure of your equipment's condition, Have it Serviced.

 

[SteveAD]

Heat is much worse for gear than cold is. The only problem with cold storage would be storage in conditions cold enough to make things brittle, and then, only if you tried to bend/flex the stuff while it was frozen. Storage in an unheated shed, followed by a gentle thaw is unlikely to cause any problems.

Heat on the other hand is bad. Gear stored in a hot attic for any length of time is likely to suffer significant damage.

Ideally your gear wants to live in the same sort of environment that you do, with the added caveat to keep it away from strong sources of ozone such as electric motors or heaters.

 

[murdrcycle]

I don't know much about scuba gear yet, but I know a lot about 0-rings. And heat isn't much worse for them than cold is. The worst things are temperature and humidity changes, and the more rapid they are the worse it is. I think that keeping your gear in a sealed, watertight container in an outbuilding is probably really stressful on it. It could get artificailly warm during the day from the sun heating up the shed (it would seem much hotter in the shed than outside, and much hotter still in the bin than in the shed), followed by a sharp drop in temperatures at night. These rapid changes cause a constant expanding and contracting of the parts. To make matters worse, there are many different materials used and each one has it's own expansion and contraction rate. Therefore, not only is it expanding and contracting, but it isn't doing it uniformly, so certain parts are squeezed together and other parts are pushed apart.

Now, having said that it is far worse, on the cosmic scale I don't really know what difference that makes. It may mean that instead of having it rebuilt every 12 months you should do it every 11.5.

 

[bfw]

Previously I posed the question of "where do you store your gear" and I received lots of great feedback. What I actually meant to ask ,however, was - Where should you store your gear? In particular - items with o rings, hoses, etc like bc's , wings, regs is storing these items in an unheated or non air conditioned garage or shed either a good or bad idea . Are these items affected by the changes or weather such as temperature, humidity ?????

Usually, all over the house, garage, car, in the motorcycle saddlebags, boat, my parents' house, my girlfriend's garage, her truck, under my desk at work, and lately, anywhere the puppy can't reach. I can lay my hand on a piece of my dive gear pretty much 24/7 without taking a single step. My girlfriend is very anal, it makes her cringe. When we go to the quarry, there's an imaginary line down the middle of the truck bed, and everybody's happy.

Dive gear is really a lot tougher than people seem to think. It gets used in tropics, ice, etc. If it can't take a little abuse and still be reliable, it's probably junk.