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Gearmiester answers your questions about BCDS (part 2)...

Care and Feeding of your BCD

We’ve devoted the last few months to a crash course in how a BCD (Buoyancy Compensation Device) is made, how it works, and how to find the one that’s right for you. We’re going to wrap up our BCD discussions with how to take care of your BCD.

The Enemy
The biggest enemies of your BCD are sunlight, extreme heat, dirt/sand, and chemicals.

Sunlight not only fades the colors of your BCD but, over long periods of time, can degrade the fabric. Extreme heat can unbond some of the polymers and glues used to construct the BCD. Defeating sunlight and heat are pretty easy – just don’t leave it in that environment. Don’t leave your BCD sitting in direct sunlight for long periods of time (many days), and don’t leave your BCD closed up in hot environments (the inside of your car) for days on end. Leaving your BCD on the beach between dives and while you unpack and pack is no problem.

Likewise, dirt and sand are easy problems to remedy with a little care - don't roll around in the sand (unlike some of my surf entries) and carefully wash off sand and dirt at the end of the day.

Chemicals require a little more work. Since it’s common for water to get inside the BCD, chemicals do their dirty work from both the inside and the outside. The first chemical that comes to mind is saltwater because it leaves a residue that you can feel and see. However, pool chemicals, particularly chlorine, are just as bad. Chlorine actually eats away at the material, first resulting in fading, and eventually a weakening of the materials. The stronger the chlorine solution, the faster the effect. Even after the pool water has dried, the chlorine residue still remains on the fabric continuing its damaging effects. Salt water acts in a similar way with the dissolved salts degrading the fabric and materials. However, salt goes one step further. Once the water component has evaporated, the salt crystals remain. Acting like tiny ice picks, these salt crystals abrade the fabric every time it moves. Imagine taking your wet body and rolling in the sand and then having to get dressed and spend the day at work without washing the sand off. Ouch!

The Solution

Fresh water is your friend. Begin by hosing off any obvious dirt and debris from the outside of your BCD. Follow this with a good soaking of the BCD in clean, fresh water for at least an hour to leach out all the salt and chemicals.



Next, you need to clean the inside by rinsing it with fresh water as well. Begin by draining all the dirty water from the inside. To do this, fill your BCD with air and then hold it upside down making the left shoulder valve the lowest point. Angle the inflator hose down and depress the manual inflation button until all the water is forced out. Now, to get fresh water in, you've got two choices. You can position the BCD upright and put a hose against the mouthpiece while depressing the manual inflation button allowing water to enter the BCD.
Or - quicker and easier - remove the low pressure inflator hose. At the connection between the hose and the BCD, you’ll find a compression ring that can be unscrewed allowing you to remove the entire low pressure inflator as a single unit. Once you separate the pieces, you should find a large rubber gasket that helps make the seal between the two pieces. (This gasket may remain on the BCD side or come out with the hose.) Find it and make sure you don’t lose it! Now take your hose and fill the BCD about half full of water. Rinse any sand from the rubber gasket and place it on the BCD side of the connection.
Reattach the low pressure inflator hose firmly, but only hand tight – no tools.

Inflate the BCD the rest of the way with air. Shake the BCD around so that the water thoroughly rinses the inside. Drain the water by using all of your exhaust ports in turn. This will clean them out and help keep them healthy. Don’t forget the one accessed by pulling the corrugated hose on the low pressure inflator. It may be necessary to add more air to your BCD during this process to help expel all of the water. As the last of the water is drained, give it a quick taste for saltiness. Repeat the process as necessary until the water doesn’t taste salty.

Then fill the BCD with air (are you getting dizzy yet??) and do a general condition check, paying special attention to all the seams and exhaust ports for any leaks. Check the buckles and Velcro for proper function.

Get real!
In theory, we would go through the entire cleaning process after every day of diving. In practicality, it's most important that it be done before the BCD is going to be stored for several days or longer - like at the end of a dive trip or dive weekend. As a general rule, never let saltwater dry inside the BCD and don’t let water remain in the BCD when it’s stored. So, if you know you’re diving again the next day, you may only need to rinse the outside of the BCD since any salt water inside won’t be able to dry and leave those damaging salt crystals.

Storage
Once your BCD is all cleaned up, make sure that no water is left on the inside. Store it by hanging it partially inflated on a thick hanger, in an minimal ozone environment (most garages are OK, but an indoors closet is even better). Fasten all the buckles and Velcro to keep them from getting broken or catching dirt and lint.

And that’s it. Enjoy your BCD!

And remember -it's part of your "life support system." So take care of it and it will take care of you...