Hi everybody, and welcome to Scuba Diver Magazine. I'm Mark, and I've been teaching people how
to scuba dive for well over 10 years now. So you'll probably recognize me from the Simply
Scuba channel and even my own channel, Safe Diving. For this video series, I'm going to
be going back to the basics of scuba diving, so that if you're just starting out or even
if you're just feeling a little bit rusty, you can dive back in, fresh in the knowledge
in the scuba diving basics. If you enjoy this video and find it useful,
then don't forget to like and share it online so that your diving friends can see it as
well, and brush up on their skills. If you have any comments, questions, queries, or
even corrections at any part of the video, then let us know down in the comments below
and we, or even our community, will help you out. Let's get into it.
In the current climate with communicable infections everywhere, guidelines and recommendations
for cleaning and storing your scuba diving regulators have been updated to help reduce
the spread of any infections. Now, how you clean your regulators is going to be different
depending on the regulators and where you're diving.
Because if you're only diving in clean, fresh water, and you are the only person who is
ever going to put that regulator in their mouth, then you don't really have to clean
them quite as thoroughly. It is important that you do still clean your regulators as
often as possible to help prevent bacteria, viruses, fungus, and other nasties from growing
in or on your regulator between dives. If you have a communal set of regulators,
though, that's used in nasty water where your chances of waterborne infections are relatively
high, then you need to be a bit more thorough in your cleaning of your regulators. It's
actually recommended that you clean your regulators after each dive, especially if they're swopping
hands. Most of the methodology today is going to
be much the same for each of these instances, but the cleaning agents will be slightly different.
I'm going to go through the methodology first and then break down the recommended cleaning
agents based on where you're diving and any differences, to save your time and just so
that I'm not repeating myself quite as much. Now, before we continue, I have to put in
one of these statements, I'm afraid. This advice can only reduce, not remove, the chance
of infection transmission from scuba diving equipment. This advice does not replace common
sense, and adhering to guidelines and restrictions in your region. We cannot advise on the efficacy
of all cleaning products and disinfectants out there, but the ones that will be named
have been recommended and tested by a regulator manufacturer.
If you do have any questions about your specific regulators and which product is best for you
and your regulator, then it is best for you to contact your regulator's manufacturer so
that they can better advise you on their recommendations. Okay, now that's all gone through, let's clean
our regulators. The first cleaning procedure is for diving
in low-risk conditions. That is using your own regulators that you don't share with anybody
else, in clean water which contains minimal contaminants. In these conditions, it is recommended
that you wash your regulators out as often as is practically possible. At minimum, after
each day's diving, with warm, fresh water and general house dish soap. Nothing overly
fancy or potent, but good, fresh water and general dish soap.
Personally, I like to have my regulators pressurized during this stage. So I fit my regulators
to a small cylinder and pressurize them whilst I'm cleaning them. The reason for that is
so that water doesn't make its way into the hoses or the first stage. If water gets into
the inside of your hoses or your first stage, then it can start to damage the insides. The
easiest way for water to get inside is when your regulators are depressurized, because
there's no air pressure to push the water out.
The worst thing that you can do when your regulator is submerged and depressurized is
to press the purge button, so never ever do that. So, yes, I like to clean my regulators
whilst they're pressurized. But if that isn't an option for you, then that is perfectly
fine. You can still wash your regulators, just remember to never press that purge button
and keep the inlet to the first stage covered properly so that water cannot get in. Just
be aware that not all dust caps are 100% water tight. So if you are in any doubt, use your
thumb to cover the inlet, to keep the water out.
Flush out the inside of your second stage in both an upright and downward facing position,
to make sure that you're flushing out any nasties that may have made their way into
your second stage. Some divers have found anything from silt and algae to actual living
crabs, stowing away inside of their second stages. So it's best to clean them out thoroughly.
Make sure that all of the water going into the mouthpiece, basically at least some of
it is coming out of the exhaust valve, out of the bottom. That way you can be sure that
the exhaust mushroom isn't sticking and is nice and clean of debris.
Continue washing down your regulators, down the hoses, paying particular attention underneath
hose protectors, because that's where contaminants like salt crystals can start to build up.
So do your best to pull them back and clean underneath those. If you do find any buildup,
just use a soft sponge or a toothbrush to clean it up and move onto your Octo, your
gauges, and any inflator hoses that you may have.
Inflator hoses usually have a Schrader valve on the inside or something similar that will
stop the water from getting in, even when it's depressurized. So you can flush them
out and pull back the little collar to clean them out. Just don't poke anything into the
center because that can let some water in. Once you've cleaned everything out, drain
the soapy water away and wash your regulators again with clean, fresh water, to remove any
soap buildup along with any other contaminants that you may have missed.
Once you've done that, drain any excess water and let your regulators dry naturally in a
cool, dark place. Direct sunlight can actually age some parts of your regulator, so it's
best to keep them out of direct sunlight. Once dried out thoroughly, check the parts
again for any salt crystals that may have formed, but if you can't find anything, then
your regulators are nice and clean. All you have to do now is store them properly.
Okay. To store your regulators, it is best done in a cool, dark place and with your hoses
as straight as possible. It's not the end of the world if you have to coil them up.
That's fine, but the tighter you coil them, the more stress that you put on the hoses,
which can cause them to split over time if they're left like that for long periods. So
as loose as possible is best. By all means, keep them in their regulator bag. It is a
good padded place for them to stay safe. Just make sure that the air can circulate around
them, just so they stay nice and dry. To help reduce wear on the sealing seats of
the second stage, I like to dial out the breathing resistance knob as far as possible, because
this will lessen the tension on the spring inside of your second stage. If your regulator
has a storage mode on it, as some regulators do, be sure to activate this, because this
will usually depress the purge button slightly whilst it's in storage, which opens the valve
ever so slightly so the sealing surface doesn't bed in.
Because it's a relatively soft seal, if there's too much force pushing on it for a long period
of time, it beds in and your second stage can leak as air can slip through a small gap
created, and you need to service your regulators again. So do what you can to alleviate the
force on that seat, but don't fiddle around on the inside of your regulator. That is a
big no-no. Now, if you're using regulators in a medium-risk
environment where there might be some nasties in the water... so anywhere near nesting birds
who may be pooping in the water or river systems where the water is less than drinkable...
or if you're using regulators that are fairly communal, then you should wash out your regulators
after each use and swop out the household dish soap for a breathing apparatus surface
disinfectant solution of 100 to 1, of some things such as Chemgene or similar.
That's 100 parts water to 1 part disinfectant solution. Go through the same procedure as
before, washing in warm water and scrubbing key parts. Only, before drying them, it's
best to leave them to soak in that water for a good 20 minutes before washing the disinfectant
off with fresh water as before, and storing them exactly the same. That's all the same.
They just need that good soak to let that disinfectant do its job and kill the nasties.
If you're diving in really nasty waters and you have a relatively high risk of infection
transmission, then do the same as before. After every dive, a warm water scrub and a
20-minute soak. Only this time, you're going to be doubling the concentration to 50 to
1, so it's really going to have plenty of times to kill as many nasties as possible.
Those are the current recommendations on how to clean your regulators properly, and to
store them properly as well. As with so many things in our ever-changing
world, these recommendations are likely to change at some point. So remember to subscribe
to the channel so that we can update you with any changes. Don't forget to like and share
this video so that more of your diving buddies can see it, and you know what, clean their
regulators properly, because remember that maybe one of those second stages will be for
you one day. So you want to make sure that it's nice and clean, and of course looked
after. Okay, so now you're a bit savvier with your
scuba diving basics. Don't forget to subscribe to the Scuba Diver Magazine channel to stay
up to date with the latest scuba diving news and advice, and don't forget to put your comments
down below in the comments. Thank you for watching, and of course, safe diving.