"Please return the equipment to its original place after being used."

Question

Are the following sentences accurate?

1. Please return the equipment to its original place after being used

2. Please return the equipment to its original place after use

3. Please return the equipment to its original place after using

4. Please return the equipment to its original place after it has been used

I feel like "after being used" is ambiguous here. Which construction would be correct and preferable among these??

Answer 1

Personally, I would change the order:

"After using, please return the equipment to its original place."

Alternatively, you could go with:

"When finished using the equipment, please return to its original place."

However if you want to maintain the original sentence structure, I would go with the second one:

"Please return the equipment to its original place after use."

You could also go with using, but then I think you should add some extra words:

"Please return the equipment to its original place after you've finished using it."

Answer 2

Examples 1 and 2 are slightly better than the others (but they still sound incomplete):

1. Please return the equipment to its original place after being used.

2. Please return the equipment to its original place after use

It would sound slightly better (to my ears, at least) to say:

Please return the equipment to its original place when you no longer need it.

or

Please return the equipment to its original place when it is no longer needed.

---

Example 3 is just incomplete, additional words are needed.

Example 4 it sounds plain wrong to me, associating "its" and "they".