How To Prepare Scuba Equipment For Self-Storage
Scuba equipment is highly durable and capable of withstanding the pressures of deep sea exploration, but it can take up a lot of room in your garage during the diving off-season. If you want to free up some space within your home, you may want to consider putting your scuba equipment in a self-storage unit. However, despite scuba equipment's high degree of durability, you should still take care to prepare it for a long period of disuse to ensure that it continues to function properly once you eventually take it out of storage.
Climate Controlled Units
One of the most important things that you can do when putting your scuba equipment into storage is to invest in a climate controlled self-storage unit. While these types of storage units represent a higher initial investment over their non-climate controlled counterparts, they also provide a much higher degree of protection to your scuba equipment. Extremely high temperatures can cause the rubber and plastics within scuba masks, wetsuits, and tanks to begin to break down, so moderate room temperature is ideal for long term storage.
Rinse the Equipment
You should also take care to thoroughly rinse and clean your scuba equipment with fresh water. This is because the salt from actual diving can get stuck on the surface of the equipment and breakdown soft rubber and plastic fibers, causing corrosion to begin to develop on metal components. Rinse everything down thoroughly with fresh water, and dry it completely before moving your equipment into storage either by air or with a lint-free rag. This is because any moisture that remains on your equipment, especially the softer materials, can promote mold and mildew growth on your equipment.
Fill Air Cylinders
For scuba air cylinders, you should ensure that they are still filled. Empty tanks can take on moisture and develop mold, mildew, and rust that require extensive and complicated cleaning to remedy. However, air cylinders should also not be stored completely full, as high pressure tanks increase the amount of strain placed on seals and valves on the tanks and pose a safety risk. Check the owner's manual for the ideal storage air pressure for your air cylinders, but as a general rule of thumb, maintaining around 250 psi will prevent the buildup of moisture safely. In addition, you should make sure that the storage unit facility you will be using does not have regulations against storing pressurized containers within self-storage units.
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