Disinfecting and Cleaning CCR

[HydroGirl]

How often are you disinfecting your CCR?
What are you using to disinfect?

I not sure what to do, I used to disinfect after each dive (but this is when I was in the tropics) not sure if it is necessary on our weather.

Sandra

[John Rawlings]

I disinfect my CCR based on how long it's going to sit without being used. For example, if I am up in BC on a trip diving for several days, I will disassemble it and disinfect it only after I return home. If I am just diving here locally on the weekend, and it's going to sit for several days or more before I use it again, I thoroughly disinfect it.

I've always used plain old white vinegar, diluted, to clean my canister. I use Dupont RelyOn to clean my hoses, mouthpiece and BOC and counterlungs. I then wipe down the entire unit exterior with Clorox wipes.

Many of my friends use Betadine, and I'm going to try that out as a good alternative to the RelyOn.

- John

[Chris Borgen]

I used to disinfect them after every dive when I first started diving CCR. Now I disinfect my lungs and loop probably once a month. I usually just thouroughly rinse with fresh water and dry them out really good. I don't think this is the "recommended" approach but I haven't had any issues. I also have a revo, so its easy to dry out the lungs and I don't get alot of water sitting in them. When I do disinfect, I use Virkon.

[John Rawlings]

RelyOn is the "human" version of Virkon, which is for veterinary use.

Chris, every now and then do you feel unexplained urges to bark or pee on fire-hydrants???

[Chris Borgen]

RelyOn is the "human" version of Virkon, which is for veterinary use.

Chris, every now and then do you feel unexplained urges to bark or pee on fire-hydrants???

Hahaha, only after spending a long Tuesday night at the Diamond Knot in Muk do I pee on city property!!

[loanwolf]

RelyOn is the "human" version of Virkon, which is for veterinary use.

Chris, every now and then do you feel unexplained urges to bark or pee on fire-hydrants???

Hahaha, only after spending a long Tuesday night at the Diamond Knot in Muk do I pee on city property!!

So So Funny !!!!!!!!!

I will only disinfect mine with RelyOn after a long trip to warm water or if someone else uses it. One nice thing about the rEvo it the lungs are full open to the air so they dry out and do not continue to grow too much scum and the loop gets rinsed all the time. I have black crud in all the crevasses and on the mouth piece but it will not go away just like the inside of my mast has that stuff growing in the crevasses. If you have lungs that you cannot dry out I would do it on a routine bases as they will continue to grow crud.

[HydroGirl]

Thank you for the commends and help.
It isn’t that I don’t want to disinfect my CCR, I am haven’t a very unusual failure on my one way exhalation valve and I was trying to find out if the RelyOn/Virkon was too harsh on this small part.

Thanks

[Gill Envy]

I don't use disinfectant per sey, I do thoroughly rinse the exhale side of the loop every couple of days if diving regularly or after a dive if it's going to be sitting for a week or so. I focus on getting the "food" for bacteria out of the loop and getting it dry, leaving everything as open as possible when it's sitting for any major length of time. getting the loop clean and keeping it dry when possible does a lot to keep things from growing.

i'm not a big fan of chemistry when it's not necessary.

g

[loanwolf]

i'm not a big fan of chemistry when it's not necessary.

g

[Tangfish]

Just a note for you guys, not sure if anyone else has experienced this but I kept getting chest colds/infections when using Virkon. As soon as I switched to RelyOn - problem gone. If you think about it there are a few other instances in which you wouldn't want to use animal-standard products on yourself, especially health related ones. There's also an iodine based solution for disinfecting breathing loops that Josh gave me, but I have yet to try.

Oh, and as far as disinfecting my loop. I pretty much do it once per week minimum. So, 1 dive in a week I disinfect once. 10 dives in a week I disinfect once.

[ljjames]

Things to remember with all the disinfectants

when it comes time to do your dive-ly, weekly, monthly duty, is that basically all of them need some 'kill time'. Usually around 12 minutes of soak time. dipping things and rinsing right away will not have the full desired result with regards to bug kill.

Rely On has a shelf life once mixed.

[Gill Envy]

I'm curious to know if anyone has cultured the inhale counter lung pre and post cleaning to see just what the risk is of not cleaning with disinfectant. Ever since someone pointed out to me that each breath goes through the scrubber, which is caustic and likely deadly to just about any microbe, essentially producing some of the most sterile air we ever breathe, I've been less worried about having to use strong stuff to clean the loop (the strong stuff may have risks of it's own). Surely the difference between the exhale side where all the nasty stuff collects and the inhale side which stays squeaky clean is huge.

Does anyone know if anything infectious can even get into the inhale side?

g

[loanwolf]

I'm curious to know if anyone has cultured the inhale counter lung pre and post cleaning to see just what the risk is of not cleaning with disinfectant. Ever since someone pointed out to me that each breath goes through the scrubber, which is caustic and likely deadly to just about any microbe, essentially producing some of the most sterile air we ever breathe, I've been less worried about having to use strong stuff to clean the loop (the strong stuff may have risks of it's own). Surely the difference between the exhale side where all the nasty stuff collects and the inhale side which stays squeaky clean is huge.

Does anyone know if anything infectious can even get into the inhale side?

g

You can get growth on both side Gorge if you do not rinse things out.

[Gill Envy]

You can get growth on both side Gorge if you do not rinse things out.

yeah, sorry, I wasn't clear. I'm definitely rinsing both sides, just not using chemistry, hardly ever.