The real 'Bag Trick'!
#1
Posted 14 February 2005 - 03:44 PM
Todays Topic: The Bag Trick
Note: This technique is a generic rinse procedure that you should do EVERY TIME YOU GO DIVING with a few tweaks to deal with some of today's first stages. In particular the sealed type of first stage such as Zeagle, Apeks, etc. do not require the syringe portion of the rinse procedure. The key feature to the 'Bag Trick' is the fact that you are aggressively pressure rinsing accessible portions of the regulator before any of the components of water, salt or fresh, have time to solidify. (Soaking in a tub is very much like putting another lock on the barn door after the horses are gone.)
Unfortunately the way most of us were taught about the conditions of matter was that it went from gas to liquid to solid (and for those that know about this a fourth condition is plasma but we won't be dealing with plasma). In many dive courses the implication was that salt water was just fresh water with salt disolved in it. That implied that when the salt became a solid you could return all of it back to a liquid by soaking it. Unfortunately it doesn't quite work that way. Salt water not only contains salt it contains everything else including minerals that when solidified do not reverse back to a liquid with soaking. An example that we are all familar would be the cement in concrete. When it cures it is solid and in fact it gets more durable if we soak it. Many rock quarries are almost like diving in diluted portland cement.
#2
Posted 14 February 2005 - 03:46 PM
Illustration 1 shows your preventative maintenance kit consisting of a leftover 2 liter cold drink bottle, an ear syringe, and a plastic lined lunch bag (the kind that will hold water). These lunch bags are widely available in grocery stores, drugstores, discount houses, etc.
#3
Posted 14 February 2005 - 03:48 PM
With the regulator still on the tank and the air still turned on, pour some of the drinkable water from your plastic bottle into the lunch bag. Fill the ear syringe with water from the bag and flush out the first stage spring chamber of the regulator.
Note: Access to the spring chamber varies in location from model to model. The one shown is the large flow through piston type. Some of todays 1st stages have sealed spring chambers so there is no access point to flush them out with the ear syringe.
#4
Posted 14 February 2005 - 03:56 PM
#7
Posted 14 February 2005 - 04:27 PM
Calm seas, clear water and clean regulators.
-Senior Tech
#8
Posted 14 February 2005 - 04:33 PM
"Love is blind but lust likes lacy panties" -- SanDiegoCarol
"If you're gonna be dumb, you'd better be tough." -- Phillip Manor
"If I know the answer I'll tell you the answer, and if I don't I'll just respond cleverly." -- Donald Rumsfeld
#9
Posted 14 February 2005 - 04:39 PM
YES...you want to do this literally within seconds of ending your dive. EVERY DIVE. The damage to regs occurs when salt and other minerals harden inside the regs and no matter how long you soak them afterwards....they will not return to liquid.Do you recommend doing this after every dive (i.e. during the surface interval) or just after your last dive on the way back home on the boat?
This is the REAL secret to proper gear maintenance.
#10
Posted 14 February 2005 - 05:44 PM
"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else." C. S. Lewis
#11
Posted 14 February 2005 - 05:56 PM
#12
Posted 14 February 2005 - 07:38 PM
DSSW,
WWW™
#13
Posted 14 February 2005 - 08:08 PM
Can I dunk my regs and gauges in the ice water to perform the same function? Are there any risks or issues related to the ice water versus warm or room temp water?
In other words, can the "Bag Trick" be modified to the "Beer Cooler Trick" without issue. Just curious.
#14
Posted 14 February 2005 - 09:52 PM
i, however, think it's a good question.
whaddya say, jc....can you use cold water? or will the deposits go back into "solutin" better with warm water?
or is it actually the agitation that is the key?
thanks so much for saving my soon-to-be new reg!
#15
Posted 14 February 2005 - 09:55 PM
My guess would be cold water wouldn't make a difference as the concept is to get the salt water out. But I'll wait to hear the correct decision.
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