Northwest Dive Club

Ive been planning some sort of a scuba gear storage area in my garage, and was wondering what some of you have done in your own scuba storage space; such as racking to hang drysuits, regs; shelving for misc. gear; tank storage; and so on. Anybody want to share what they have done with me/us? Looking for inovative ideas! Photos help....!

For hanging my suit, BCD, etc, I bought a clothes drying rack at Walmart. Its on wheels, I had to cross brace it abit.

Other than that most everything hangs on the walls, or floor.

I built a insulated closet in my uninsulated garage. It has a small wall mount electric heater shelving on top and I hang my drysuit, wetsuit and anything else that needs dried below.

You can create some pretty neat storage solutions with metal refrigerator racks from a restaurant supply store or a Business Costco. The racks allow air to circulate so your gear can dry out and one can build the racks on casters so they are mobile.

I just use the plastic ones from Lowe's. That way, things don't rust but there is still plenty of airflow.

Uninsulated garages work, but I find in winter I need to run a small box fan to help circulate air. Otherwise it takes forever to dry out.

The other biggie for me is hot water. I just tap the bottom of the water heater to drain it. It's actually not a bad thing to drain the heater to clear out the tank of sediment now and again and the hot water makes washing gear much more pleasant regardless of time of year.

Oh ... I have fairly high rafters in the garage so I built a pulley system with a couple of small pulleys, a piece of thin black iron pipe, and a pair of hose clamps. The ropes let me pull the pipe with suits on hangers into the rafters when not using them. It helps free up floor space to work underneath. I just make sure they're past the dripping stage but they dry quickly and are easily accessed.

Well, I'm fortunate enough to have an insulated garage. I hadn't thought about tapping the hot water heater, great idea. Keep those ideas coming, any pics of your setup?

I have a large slop sink in my basement that I use for rinsing in the winter. Nice to be inside and have warm water. Mine is an old concrete one from the 40's but I think you can buy new plastic, free standing ones at lowes or Home Depot.

My 35g dunk tank has a 200w aquarium heater in it, so water is around 70.

Its not a garage thing, but I just put a set of stainless 1 5/16" closet rod hangers one on each end of the guest bathtub/shower, used a 1" pipe for a removable rod, and installed a hand spray nozzle. Sure worked great to hang the stuff and rinse it off and dry it with the bath fan running.

I have used various iterations of racks, bins, etc over the years, but the most important thing in my mind is rapid drying of the gear. I have an uninsulated garage, and I have found that it isn't so much heat that is important as air circulation. I have accomplished this by the use of a regular box window fan from target. It only needs to run on low, without even blowing forcefully on my gear. just running it in the same closed room will generate enough air movement to dry things fairly quickly.

I also hate things dripping on my garage floor, so after rinsing my small items (computer, mask, knives, etc.) by a short freshwater soak in rubbermaid bins, I dump out the water and place a sheet of plastic light fixture egg crate (available for about 12 bucks at home depot) over a bin or two. I can then spread everything out on the "table", but the open bins and egg crate let the air circulate while the bins catch the drippings.

I just pull my truck and boat into my dive shop/wash/garage that has high pressure nozzles that wash the truck and boat off as I pull through with warm water and vinegar rinse. Then all I have to do is hang my dive gear on to a pulley system that automatically runs the gear through the same water and vinegar solution to clean in. The suit is hung upside down with insert so it cleans the inside and outside out. Then goes through a air drying system before ending up in the heated dive locker at the end of the line.

I have a dunk tank outside and a locker in my garage. Because my wife and I both do woodworking in the garage I built the locker with a box fan that pulls filtered air through the locker to keep things clean and dry out the gear quickly. It works well but with my daughter now diving it's getting a bit small.

Thanks for the input and photo Ron!

It's a little bit messy because I am re-orging for another project, but, you can see I've got a few stations going here:

From right to left:

These are rugged rubbermaid plastic shelves that were purchased at Home Depot (For wicked sales prices). They will hold all of your gear, and there is nothing on there that will rust. They are deep enough to handle plastic containers, and as you can see, sit about perfect for fins to just pop out of them.

Next up is a hangar pole that is actually part of my garage. On there are Undergarments, and a couple of drysuits. I put these here when they are dry.

The rinse tub cost me around 80 from Dels, and is (if I remember right) 150gal. You can't see behind the bottles, but I went and grabbed pvc piping from Home Depot, and fitted it to the tub, with a ball valve, and a garden hose connector. All I have to do is unravel the house to the outside, flib the gate, and bam. drained. I have future plans for setting up a filter and aquarium pump to prevent the tub from getting mucky so frequently in the summer months.

That hangar I picked up in Seattle at a "Retail store" retail outlet. They've got a ton of cool stuff, this being one of them. I will be going back there to pick up a lab tech rolling workbench/bin that I can set my doubles on, and work on them.

To the left, we enter the really fun places. This is where my Battery charging station for my lights, scooters, etc belong. Along with it is one workbench for electronics, a sonic cleaner, and a workbench for regs and whatnot (as well as other husbandly repairs (motors, house parts, tools, etc). There is also a fan to create circulation throughout the room, and a heater to keep an average climate in the room so as not to destroy seals and other consumables.

Hope this helps,
D

Nice, I like! Great photo. The rack you say is part of your garage? It looks like it is on rollers. It looks like I have about the same amount of space that you do. I have thought about a permanent hanging rack somehow riggged to the garage door rails. A work sink next to the garage door, with hot water plumbed to it as well as cold, and a hose drain to extend outside the garage door. Some shelves for misc dive gear, small area for recharging batteries, and tank and weight storage. Just havent figured out exactly how to go about all of that.

Gdog wrote:Nice, I like! Great photo. The rack you say is part of your garage? It looks like it is on rollers. It looks like I have about the same amount of space that you do. I have thought about a permanent hanging rack somehow riggged to the garage door rails. A work sink next to the garage door, with hot water plumbed to it as well as cold, and a hose drain to extend outside the garage door. Some shelves for misc dive gear, small area for recharging batteries, and tank and weight storage. Just havent figured out exactly how to go about all of that.

On the right, I have a couple dry suits and undergarment hanging off of part of my garage door rail. In the middle of the pic is my drying rack. It's on rollers so I can move it to make room for other items. If I had hot water and a drain, I'd be set.

D

Dehumidifier!!!!

I put a portable 45 liter unit in my garage last summer. During the winter my gear never fully dried out even after a couple of weeks. With the dehumidifier my gear is usually completely dry within a day. Get one that you can attach a hose to so it can dump outside instead of having to empty the bucket.

Mine is just a simple rack on wheels. Holds everything so far.

Fordman wrote:Mine is just a simple rack on wheels. Holds everything so far.

Hahahah!!! Jesus!! That's awesome!

D

Fordman wrote:Mine is just a simple rack on wheels. Holds everything so far.

Are those attack 20 snowmobile tracks on the shelf ?

I was so happy when I first got my scuba shack, now the damned thing is full. :(

Graveler wrote:

Fordman wrote:Mine is just a simple rack on wheels. Holds everything so far.

Are those attack 20 snowmobile tracks on the shelf ?

Good eye. Stop snooping in my garage!