Does anybody have tips to keep the salt from ruining gear?

While I give all of my gear a thorough rinse with fresh water after and sometimes during long/multi-day outings,  I can't seem to keep the salt from ruining my electronic gear and freezing all my zippers.  The on/off knob on my spare handheld vhf is seized-up and several zippers no longer zip.  So I have two questions...

1.  What pre-treatment can protect my gear from the salt? 

2.  What can be be done to unfreeze salt-encrusted zippers?  (I tried WD40,  it doesn't always work)

I am pretty excessive when it comes to rinsing my gear, but apparently that really doesn't it cut most of the time, I notice salt residue on many items once its dried.  Most times I have a small bucket for all my gear (except reels) that I dunk in freshwater for at least 30 minutes and notice that seems to help. 

Zippers, never had issues on my wetsuit or drysuit.  I guess certain metal zippers will seize up eventually. 

Lastly, try using saltway rinse on those problem items, it does work. 

https://www.crcindustries.com/products/food-grade-silicone-10-wt-oz.html

This has worked for me on a couple frozen bag zippers. The application then helps further corrosion build-up and locking up. I use it on a cooler bag that sits on my kayak and it seems to work fairly well.

The only thing I've had to do over the years is heavy rinsing after use but if something gets gummed up, I have had good success soaking the item in warm/hot water then I usually add some fresh lubricant.

We used to use wax on drysuit zippers, helps keep both corrosion and salt crust to a minimum. Not sure about the switch, but dielectric grease on all connections works well.

Strangely, I’ve never had trouble with zippers and my electronics seem to do well too. I rinse everything with fresh water as soon as I get off the water, and rarely add dielectric grease to connectors (less than once/year). I did have a VHF start leaking water into the battery compartment, and it died, but it was old.

For me, it’s reels that are a real big problem. My Shimano Tekota reels do well, but everything else I’ve tried has died within 1 season. Spinning reels are the worst. If anybody has found the secret to keeping reels going, let me know!

I use Windex to unfreeze salt-encrusted zippers.  It works most of the time.

You can try some  WD 40 on your zippers

Garden hose, the pressure nozzle setting, on EVERYTHING (dry suit, wet suit, reels, rods, kayak, net, electronics, PFD, dry bags, you get it…) immediately when I get home. Never put it off. Never had any zippers freezing or problems with electronics. No problems with reels either (Lexa, Avet)

In my experience, any reel that get submerged in saltwater, especially in the surf, must be serviced. I would take my reel off the rod if there’s a high chance of capsizing