Cleaning My Regulators {[Keeping It Simple]}

so dear to Europe and water class your instructor probably showed you several different ways to clean your rig whether you spray it with the water hose where you just simply dip it down into a water bucket and agitate it enough to clean it out he probably even told you do not press the purge button why you dip it down into the water unless the lines are pressurized because water can come up through the hose and get inside the first-stage and corrode it out if he told you that he flat-out lied to you [Music] [Music] what's up guys it's running in from Lake Hickory scuba marina and if you are new to our channel take a few seconds.here make sure you click this little subscribe button over here in ding that little bell as well that way you guys will be notified every time we upload new content now I had this video actually been request for quite a while now and what do you guys want to know how how do I personally clean my regulators what steps do I take and I really can't make a solid video on that simply because it would just take forever to do so what I am going to do for you guys is show you how I do a quick thorough cleaning of my rec set after every dive whether I'm getting out of the pool with students whether I'm diving in a local lake here or even when I'm diving in the ocean and to be honest with you yeah we're an inland dive shop or on the lake but in the last two weeks I've dove in a multitude of environments I've been out in the ocean looking for a lost diver I've been down in a whale at the bottom or the base of a mountain I've been out here on the lake doing some recovery dives and I dive in a lot of different environments so my rigs are getting a lot of wear and tear and a lot of abuse and they're getting a lot of say hazmat ik material on them but still my cleaning procedures really don't change it doesn't matter the environment on the end it really doesn't change now what I'm not gonna be doing in this video is breaking down the individual parts the first stage is the second stages and show you what I do on a yearly basis but I am gonna show you how I clean my rigs and I'm be going over some of the misses maybe your instructor or your dive mentor told you about what you should do and not do now another thing a quickly tall cone is don't overthink this when you're cleaning your system you need to keep it as simple as possible so and that's basically what I do is I try my best to keep it as simple as possible I take a little bit of water whether it's a water hose or some type of container filled with water take a little bit of gear wash and that's it that's really all I'm going to be using in this video because that's what I do in real life the first thing I want to do though is show you just a quick rinse now this is typically what we do after every night and pool with students we get them out of the water they break your system down and of course we're gonna spray it off so I'm just gonna take a water hose get a little bit of water going and I'm just going to spray it all now it is important to note here that the first stage has its dust cap in but I do want to show you something really neat real quick I have two different regulators here this is an old Sherwood Brut and if I show you really quick on camera you'll notice that the first stage the port is actually open on it and if you forget to replace your dust cap and you start spraying water water is obviously going to go up inside that first stage and we don't want that so always make sure that you replace the dust cap of your first stage now if you happen to have a model like this one this happens to be the 82x first stage for Marez it has what's called an ast valve or a dry first stage system in it so if I remove the dust cap you'll notice that there's a little ast valve up in here and what that does is that's a moisture barrier it prevents any water from coming in so if I'm spraying it without the dust cap more than likely no water is ever going to get in that first stage well let's talk about submergence first example let's say if I take this first stage and I actually place it down in a water container I've just got a five-gallon bucket here and I just place it down there maybe agitate a little bit any time I do this I like to use gear cleaner so let's ahead a little bit of gear cleaner this just happens to be pow pow takes about six cap fulls say per five gallons I'm just going to agitate it a little bit I'm gonna set it and I'm gonna forget it after about 15 minutes pull the system out let it dry and I'm good to go well even with that ast valve if I happen to submerge it and I forget to put that dust cap back in what are still not going to go into there now in a first stage such as the Sherwood here it definitely would water's just going to rush into the system and then you're gonna have corrosion start developing your first stage but one of the reasons I really liked Amara is line is simply because of that ast Drive first stage system now is I'm not telling you to never replace your dust cap obviously I replace my dust cap it's always good to prevent any type of damage from your system or to prevent corrosion but if you happen to forget or you just take it off and you're spraying it it's going to be okay if you do it once or twice and forget about it now if you're worried about it let's talk about how we get the water out of the first stage now there's two parts to this one there's something that you could do if it happens once or twice and then there is something that your technician can do if you neglect your system and do it every time you wash it first thing that I would do is obviously hook it to a system or a cylinder pressurize it and that dry air is gonna rush through your first stage and it's pretty much gonna dry just about all the water out that actually collected now if it had a catastrophic failure say underwater and it's been submerged for a lengthy period of time then obviously what you want to do with it pressurize is run that purge button so why it's pressurized just hold that purge button it's going to constantly push dry air through that first stage and run it out into the second stage now with that being said you still want to take it to your local technician as soon as you get a chance let him break it down and see what else needs to be done to it especially if it was in salt water because even though the water might have been dried out now you may have sand or salt inside that first stage and you want to get that out so it doesn't induce corrosion speaking of second stages let's talk about some of the myths of a second stage now back in the 80s which is when I learnt how to dive I was always taught that if you wash your second stage out whether you dip it in water or even if you just spray it out to never actually spray water inside the second stage and that was always crazy to me because think about it if this is my primary and I'm breathing off of it my alternate is hanging around my neck guess what's happening underwater I'm getting water inside the second stage so is there really anything wrong with putting these in water and getting water in them no but if we look at the myth you should never press the purge button and dip it down into the water because now waters gonna rush up through that hose and into the first stage well that's true and not true it's true simply because of what's called Boyle's law and you probably remember this from Europe and water class Boyle's law simply says as pressure increases volume decreases and if I take an open container and flip it upside down as I submerge it pressure is going to push that water up but it's only going to press it up to the top of the water level itself so let's say I've got my second stage submerged about that far I do have the purge valve pressed water is only going to the top of the water so in this fashion waters only win in about that much it no way shape or form overpowered gravity rushed up this hose and got inside the first stage so that's kind of a myth that you either your instructor your mentor probably told you but it's still not a good idea to press that purge but if you do check this out press the purge stick it in water is only going to go to whatever hot or whatever level your hose was in the water even with the first stage lower it's only going to be to the height of that but now we do have a little bit of water in here so how do we get it out simply hold it up or hold it down just like that press the purge shake it let it run out if it's connected to a first stage and obviously you can just pressurize it hold that purge button it's going to blow it out and you're going to be fine you're not going to corrode your system out simply because you press the purge and stuck it in there so let's say that we did get more watering and let's put the whole entire system in the water like so and let's press that purge button one more time so I'm going to put it in I'm gonna find my second stage here okay take my second stage push the whole system down in there and I'm gonna press that purge button stick it in now we may have an issue that water is going to get all the way through that hose and we are going to have an issue with water getting in the first stage this is the only way that I would ever recommend you not pressing that purge button if you completely submerge your regulator in there but you're still probably not going to do that if you're ever worried all you've got to do is take it to your local technician letting depart he can do a good thorough cleaning and drying of the system and you're going to be fine now if you're the top that you don't like spending money at your local dive shop then one of the things that you can do is take an equipment related course SSI has the equipment techniques course and we're gonna teach you some of the tricks that we do on regulators that's actually going to prolong a life and it's gonna save you a ton of money by not having to take your regen and say once a year for a good thorough cleaning that is something that you can be doing at home now it's not a complete technician level course because that's where we get into the rebuild but it is gonna save you a ton of money from not having to take it to a technician at least once a year so with that being said guys it's a simple procedure please don't overthink cleaning your rags what do you dip it out or you use a water hose it's a simple procedure just to remember this if you're gonna be pressing the purge button on your second stage make sure that hoses up because that water is not going to overpower gravity and if you are going to be dipping your first-stage into the water you want to make sure that the dust caps in or in the event that you fail to put your dust cap in make sure you have a model that's got a dry first stage system like the ast system from Marez and you're gonna be fine because I really hope you enjoyed this video if you got any questions please put it down in the comment section below if you guys want to see a more thorough cleaning video what we actually do when customers bring it to us let me know I'll try to make a video for you as well if you got any questions or comments about the equipment techniques class from SSI just let me know and I'll try to answer those questions as well guys if you like the video simply smash out thumbs up button for me and definitely share it as well as always make sure you follow us on Instagram and Twitter like us on Facebook pin us on Pinterest subscribe to us here on YouTube and as always guys we appreciate your business

Channel: LakeHickoryScuba

Views: 8,277

Rating: 4.8924732 out of 5

Keywords: Cleaning My Regulators {[Keeping It Simple]}, How To Clean A Scuba Regulator, Lake Hickory Scuba Center And Marina, Instructor Trainer Bryan Stafford, SSI Equipment Techniques, Scuba Schools International Specialty Diver

Id: TCfO_ZB-7VE

Length: 10min 34sec (634 seconds)

Published: Mon May 18 2020