Scuba Gear Maintenance Guide: Rinse, Service, Storage

Scuba gear maintenance is mostly the removal of salt, the exclusion of sunlight and the avoidance of stored moisture, plus a short list of scheduled professional services. Dive equipment is not fragile. It is simply used in the most corrosive environment most consumer products ever see, and the damage is cumulative and invisible until something stops working on a boat. Almost everything that fails on a dive trip failed because salt crystals grew inside a moving part, because ultraviolet light broke down a rubber component, or because something went into a bag wet and stayed there.

What do I do after every dive day?

Soak, do not spray. That is the single most useful correction to what most divers actually do. Salt does not sit on the surface of your gear, it works into every seam, hinge, button and valve, and a thirty second hose-down washes the outside while leaving the crystals in the places that matter. A proper soak of fifteen to thirty minutes in fresh water dissolves them.

Step one is the one people get wrong, and it is the one that does expensive damage. The dust cap on a regulator first stage exists to keep water out of the inlet, and it only works if it is dry when it goes on and firmly seated. A wet dust cap carries water straight into the first stage, where it corrodes internals that only a technician will ever see. Blow the cap dry, or dry it against the inside of a sleeve, before you seat it.

While the regulator is soaking, leave the purge buttons alone. An unpressurised second stage with its purge held open is an open channel for water to travel up the hose toward the first stage. Soak the second stages, work the mouthpiece around with your fingers, and let the water get into the exhaust tee, but do not purge. If you want to flow water through a second stage properly, do it with the regulator connected to a charged cylinder, which is how a shop does it.

The BCD needs internal attention that most divers skip entirely. Salt water gets inside the bladder every time you dump air underwater or take a mouthful of water down the oral inflate. Put fresh water in through the inflator, slosh it around, drain it out through a dump valve, and repeat. Then part inflate the bladder and leave it that way to dry, because a bladder stored flat sticks to itself. A Scubapro Hydros Pro Back-Inflation BCD is unusual here in that its harness absorbs no water at all, so it rinses in seconds and does not develop the smell that padded jackets eventually do.

Exposure suits go inside out first, because the inside is where the body salts are and the inside is what smells. A Cressi Fast 5mm Wetsuit or any thick suit takes a long time to dry properly, so give it the time rather than bagging it damp. Boots, hood and gloves get the same treatment and are the items most often forgotten, which is why they are usually the first things in a kit to go bad.

Small items last. Rinse the mask, the computer, the light and the cutting tool with the buttons and clips worked underwater so the fresh water reaches the salt inside them. A OrcaTorch D550 Dive Light has a switch and a threaded battery cap that both trap salt, and a EEZYCUT Trilobite Line Cutter lives in a sheath that holds water against the blade unless you pull it out.

Does a regulator really need servicing every year?

A regulator is a life support device with rubber parts in it, and rubber ages on a calendar rather than on a dive counter. Seats take a set where they press against a sealing surface, diaphragms harden, and o-rings lose elasticity. That happens to a regulator hanging in a garage as surely as to one being dived, which is why a set that has sat unused for several years needs service before it is dived, not after.

The practical schedule is whatever the manufacturer specifies for your model, and for most that is annual, with warranty coverage tied to it. A Cressi MC9-SC/Compact Pro Regulator Set with Octopus follows the conventional yearly cycle. A Atomic Aquatics Z3 Regulator is the notable exception in the category: its seat saving orifice design lets Atomic quote a three year interval rather than one, and over a decade of ownership that is a meaningful difference in running cost rather than a marketing line. The regulator guide covers how first stage design affects both performance and service cost.

Between services there are a few things worth checking yourself. Look at the hoses where they meet the crimps, because that is where a hose cracks, and any bulge or exposed braid means the hose is finished. Check the mouthpiece for splits at the bite tabs. Listen for a slow free flow on a charged regulator, which usually means intermediate pressure is creeping up and the first stage needs attention. And watch the needle on a Cressi Rugged Analogic Mini SPG Console or any submersible pressure gauge: a needle that sticks or lags is not a cosmetic problem, because you are making gas decisions from it.

The BCD inflator deserves specific mention because its failure mode is the worst on this page. A corroded or salted inflator button can stick in the open position, which inflates the BCD continuously and produces a runaway ascent. Test it on the surface before every dive by adding a short burst and confirming it stops, and have the inflator serviced with the same seriousness as the regulator. Know how to disconnect the low pressure hose one handed, because that is the fix underwater.

How often does a cylinder need inspection and testing?

In the United States a scuba cylinder needs a visual inspection every year and a hydrostatic test every five years. Both are stamped or stickered on the cylinder, and no reputable fill station will put gas in a cylinder whose dates have expired.

The visual inspection is an internal examination. The valve comes out, the inspector looks at the interior wall for corrosion, pitting and moisture damage, and checks the neck threads, which is where aluminium cylinders of certain older alloys are known to crack. Moisture is the enemy inside a cylinder: water introduced by a careless fill or by draining a cylinder completely underwater will corrode the interior, and in an aluminium cylinder that corrosion consumes oxygen and quietly changes what you are breathing.

The hydrostatic test is a pressure test. The cylinder is filled with water, pressurised well above its service pressure, and its expansion measured. A cylinder that does not return to its original volume has permanently deformed and is condemned. This is a legal requirement before a fill in the United States, and it is the reason cylinder ownership carries a running cost whether you dive or not.

That running cost is the practical argument for renting rather than buying cylinders unless you dive locally and often. A Sea Elite Cyl-Tec Aluminum 80 Scuba Tank is the standard aluminium 80, holding 77.4 cubic feet at 3,000 psi, and it needs its inspections whether it spent the year on a boat or in a garage. Capacities and service pressures for the common sizes are collected on the tank specifications chart, and the ownership trade between the two materials is set out in the aluminium versus steel comparison.

Two habits protect a cylinder between inspections. Never drain it completely: leave 300 to 500 psi in it so ambient air and moisture cannot get in through the valve. And store it upright with a little pressure, in a place where it cannot fall, because a falling cylinder with a valve on it is genuinely dangerous. Check the XS Scuba Highland Stainless Tank Bands, Pair holding the cylinder to your BCD as well, since a slipping band is one of the most common and most alarming failures on a boat deck.

What actually kills dive gear?

Salt, sunlight, heat and stored moisture, in roughly that order, and each of them attacks a different part of the kit.

Salt attacks anything metal and anything that moves. It grows crystals inside zips, buckles, light switches, knife sheaths and inflator mechanisms, and those crystals are abrasive. Stainless steel is not stain proof: a Cressi Skorpion Dive Knife will rust if it is stowed wet, which is the honest trade for its price. Titanium does not, which is the entire argument for the price step to a Promate Sharp Tip Titanium Dive Knife or a Scubapro Mako Titanium Dive Knife , and the cutting tool roundup covers when that step is worth making.

Ultraviolet light attacks rubber and neoprene. A wetsuit left in the sun on a boat deck for a week of a trip ages more than it does in a year of diving, and the nylon face fabric fades and stiffens first. The same applies to hoses, mouthpieces and mask skirts, and it is the reason a mask skirt that has lived on a dashboard turns yellow and hard.

Heat is the quiet one. A car boot in summer reaches temperatures that will deform a plastic computer case, soften a mask skirt and accelerate every chemical process above. Gear does not live in the car between dives.

Stored moisture is the one that produces the smell. A suit, a BCD bladder or a pair of boots sealed into a bag damp will grow mould within days, and once it is in the closed cell foam of a suit no subsequent rinse gets it out. This is the strongest practical argument for mesh: a AKONA Azul 65L Mesh Backpack drains and breathes, so gear that goes in slightly damp at least has a chance. Getting wet gear out and dried on the day you land is covered further in the dive travel packing guide.

There is a fifth factor that is easy to miss because it is not chemical: neglect between dives. Gear that is used every weekend gets looked at every weekend, and small faults get caught while they are still small. Gear that comes out twice a year sits untouched for months, and the o-ring that was slightly flattened at the end of last season is the o-ring you discover at a dive site. Divers who travel infrequently should assume the first inspection of a trip is the important one, and do it at home with a shop nearby rather than on a boat.

How should gear be stored between trips?

Dry, dark, cool, and hanging rather than folded or compressed. That covers most of it, but a few items have specific requirements worth knowing.

Hang a wetsuit on a wide hanger rather than a wire one. A narrow hanger concentrates load on the shoulders and stretches the neoprene there, and folding puts a permanent crease that eventually splits. Neoprene compresses over its life anyway, which is why a five year old suit needs slightly less lead than it did when new, and a brand new suit of identical thickness will need more.

Store a regulator with the hoses in gentle loops rather than tight coils, because a tight coil at the crimp is where a hose cracks. Do not hang the whole set by the second stage hoses. Keep the dust cap seated and dry, and if the set is going into long storage, note the date so you know how long it has sat.

Store a BCD part inflated so the bladder cannot stick to itself, with the dump valves closed and the whole thing dry inside. Store a computer in a drawer rather than a window. Some units, such as a Suunto Zoop Novo Wrist Dive Computer , take a user replaceable battery, and changing it yourself is straightforward provided the o-ring is inspected, lightly greased with the correct lubricant, and seated without a twist. Get that wrong and the unit floods on the next dive, which is why plenty of divers pay a shop to do it. A rechargeable unit, or a Shearwater Research Swift Transmitter paired to one, should be stored with some charge in it rather than flat.

Finally, store gear where you can see it. Kit that lives in an inaccessible box gets dived without inspection, and the inspection is the part that matters. Two minutes looking over hoses, mouthpieces, straps and o-rings before a trip finds nearly everything that would have ruined a dive, and a Rosemont Scuba Ultimate Save-A-Dive Kit plus a Gear Aid Sea Gold Anti-Fog Gel for Dive Masks covers most of what that inspection turns up.