Cleaning Counter Lungs & Loop Hoses with...

delidiver

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mountain diver

virkon and buddy kleen are still your best choice, not because of what they can do, but what they don't do, that is attack the materials that your rebreather is made of. certain disinfectants will cause premature failure of o-ring's, and counter lungs do to prolonged exposure- listerine is just such a product.investigate the msds sheet on the product, you can get one from the maker of the product, and see what it say's.
hope this helps.

viscya

The MSDS is here, but it does not say much about inhalation.

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Gibbon

There are many “baby bottle” type sterilising solutions out there at the sort of price you are talking about. Most are based on chlorine.
I don’t recommend that you use them other than in an emergency.
In Malaysia we struggled to get hold of Virkon and used chlorine based tablets with the following discolouration impact

Andy Del

Assuming one is using their rebreather for themselves only - i.e not sharing it with others - why do you need to 'disinfect' something that is not actually 'infected' with a foreign pathogen / substance / poison / lergy?

All the extra goop / lung butter / drool that is added to the loop comes from you and as such is essentially not poisonous to you, unless you are allergic to yourself! Add to that bacteria and viruses are going to have a hard time living through a damp sorb environment it just seems a tad overkill to this zealous virgo.

I have industriously and at great expense, used H2O to rinse out my counter lungs and hoses and have lived to tell the tale...

So seriously, let's have some data.

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lizardland

I've disinfected my KISS once in 2yrs (my homebuilds had caustic solution rinsing round them often enough to prevent any contamination ) and even that was about 18mths ago. I swill cold water round it now and again and let everything air dry, other than that it gets no cleaning. Maybe I've been lucky and maybe it's just a matter of time until I get something nasty growing in it but until then I'm going to stick with tap-water (as it's free).

If I lived somewhere hot and damp I might think different though as my dive kit stinks whenever I come back from time abroad.

Cheers,

Stuart

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Hk101gr

.

I cant give you any solid data on this but having some limited expierience working with microorganisms (i'm a biology student) i think disinfecting on a regular basis is quite necessary. We all carry some pretty nasty bacteria in our mouths and nasal cavities(nasty stuff like streptococcus) but our bodies tolerate them in the concentrations they are usually found. If you introduce increased numbers of bacteria you throw the system off balance and you could be in trouble. Nothing can actually grow in a loop (no nutrients hence no bacterial growth) but what bacteria are there could survive for quite sometime. Also consider that if you dive after a cold or an infection you carry increased numbers of pathogens and if you dont disinfect you could get sick again at a later period. So disinfecting is highly recommended on a regular basis and if you dive in the tropics or anything got inside your loop (such as mud etc) is obligatory. However i cant comment on the how often part without any data.

jkromelow

I always rinse with water. If my Rebreather sits for a month or so, and I didn't disinfect in the last cleaning, funky stuff starts to grow in the breathing hoses. I can identify the funk by the smell. If I am continuously diving and rinsing, with maybe a few days or a week between dives, there is usually no problem.

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Janos

Is steramine the same stuff that is used to sterilise Home Brew equipment? If so, then trying to cast my mind back to the days when I was a fecking student then I think Steramine produces Suphur Dioxide to sterilise things which would not be A Good Thing.

Janos

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OceanOpportunity

despite all of the bugs coming from you, whether you share the rig or not, this funk is an optimal habitat for any number of problematic organisms. None of these should be breathed in such high concentrations...bacterial lung infections are very real things...if a pool of funk can grow in your counterlungs, it can grow in your real lungs too. My 2 cents....give them a solid dissinfection if they're going to sit for awhile.

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Oceans of Opportunity
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