How To Clean A Smelly Dive Wetsuit?

wetsuits diving

When Scuba diving, it is important to know and maintain the equipment like BCD and gear like wetsuits. This is important to ensure that all your diving equipment and gear are working properly for your safety.

Buying a new scuba wetsuit can be an expensive purchase. To get the longest wear out of the wetsuit you need to maintain and take care of it. Over time, your diving suits can get smelly or get stained. Do you know how to take care of it?

While it’s normal to get wet under the sea, you can’t just let it go and let it be. Especially when your diving suits can become smelly and stained as a result during dives.

In this post, we will go through how to clean a smelly dive wetsuit. Let’s get started!

Read more on common questions asked by divers

Why Clean A Scuba Wetsuit?

Problems with even only one part of your scuba diving equipment or gear can cause a problem when diving. Diving suits that are smelly or stained can slow down your overall diving speeds as well as limiting movements during diving activities.

If left that way, you could suffer from diseases as allergies or other lung-based diseases.

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How To Clean A Smelly Dive Wetsuit?

After diving is when you should clean your wetsuit. You need to be clear about what you have to prepare and how should you clean those so you will be an awesome diver with awesomely clean diving suits.

  • Get ready and prepare.
  • Soak the diving wetsuit.
  • Scrub the diving wetsuit.
  • Rinse and store.
  • Wetsuit cleaning tips.

Get Ready And Prepare

For handling wetsuits that have any types of stains, baking soda is your #1 best friend. There are two alternative methods you can use to clean up your stained wetsuits using baking soda. You can mix the baking soda in warm water that will cause good bacterias to emerge to their fullest potentials. 

Or, you can put around 3-4 tablespoons of baking soda to the stained areas, one tablespoon after another, until every stained area is fully covered. Then, soak them inside warm water or mixtures between warm water and antibacterial soaps or baby shampoos. 

Repeat these steps at least once to twice every few weeks or so for maximum cleanliness of your wetsuits. In other words, your wetsuits will be free from unwanted odors or stains.

Soak The Diving Wetsuit

Firstly, mix lukewarm water and detergent-like a mild solution of baking soda or wetsuit shampoo. Ensure the water is not too hot as this can cause the suit to lose flexibility.

Then plunge your wetsuit into the mixture, this effective recipe is good for eliminating the odors in smelly wetsuits. Let it soak for 20 to 30 mins.

The length of time to soak it depends on how smelly your wetsuits are. The more smelly your wetsuit is, the more time you need. Don’t forget to turn the wetsuit inside out and let and soak it for another 20 to 30 mins.

scuba diving

Scrub The Diving Wetsuit

While the wetsuit is been soaked you will need to clean zippers with a toothbrush. And pull the zipper up and down to dislodge any dirt.

Rinse and Store

After the soaking is finished, rinse the suit inside and out. Then hang it on a hanger or loosely folded and store it out of direct sunlight where the temperature is consistent.

Wetsuit Cleaning Tips

Remember, don’t ever bleach, tumble dry, or dry clean your wetsuits, unless you want to destroy them.

Instead, after you clean your smelly dive wetsuits or stained wetsuits, it is best to leave them for around 10-15 minutes depending on how much water you used to clean your wetsuit.

Wrapping Up

Finally, now you have learned how to clean your diving wetsuit without worrying that it will be ruined because of dirt and smell. And there is the added bonus, that taking care of your wetsuit will make it last longer.

And that’s it for now! I’d love to know if this guide on how to clean a smelly dive wetsuit has helped you. Let me know if you have any questions and let me know if there is more to add.

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How To Clean A Smelly Dive Wetsuit

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