How To Dry A Dry Suit - Scuba Tech Tips: S04E05
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 24 พ.ย. 2024
- Dry suits have many advantages when diving in cool or cold water. Keeping them clean and dry, inside and outside, is important so Alec shows affordable do-it-yourself drying solutions.
**** Alec Peirce Scuba ****
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Thanks Alec. The broom handle is THE dryier that i will take when doing trips in the mountains. For the boots...... i find that putting some silica balls inside a sock and stuffing the socks inside each boot is pretty efective and of course portable ( in fact there are 2 different situations when you are faced to dry your suit, and when you are off home in remote areas and next day it will be more diving required... you whant your suit as dry as possible. when home the time is sufficient) Your hanger i will build but i willl ad a 90 degree fotting for each leg and put a cap on and a amall hole in the cap. At the bottom a ventilator of some sort with high air flow. I'll send you a link on the construnction . Congrats for the video and nice advice . Thanks again, Theodor.
Man, this guy is awesome.
Even as a current instructor and tech diver, I have learned a lot from this dudes experience.
Thanks for all the good vids!
It's true. Same here.
Hey Alec. I found you can still use the commercially available drysuit hangers. By adding plastic bottles in the foot pockets first it hangs like a damn beauty! ..Or just make your own. Don't always have to feed the beast. Cheers!
Great idea, thanks for sharing. This one really made me laugh. We need more people that do not take themselves too serious PLEASE KEEP MAKING THESE VIDEOS They really do help
I'm glad you enjoyed it Wolf. Hopefully you get some ideas that will help your diving.
And I'm glad you like my sense of humor. I have to have fun too, even if I'm laughing at myself.
Thanks for watching.
Alec
Take two cheap plastic hangers, together cut a cheap kids noodle for the pool with a hole in the middle . Split the noodle and cut a slot for the hanger part. Instant padded hanger. Montana mike. Keep them coming Alec.
Never thought about a noodle. Good idea MM.
Any snow there yet? I used to hunt a lot in the east - the Breaks Area - Powderville, and we always had snow by late September, October. Alec
No snow here yet but it's coming. What about there in the Great White North? Keep the tech tips coming. Montana Mike.
Great video on care of a drysuit. This one made my day. Especially with you being comical with it. I should have made one of those years ago for mine.
Thank you for all the interesting and kind of addictive videos, have been diving for 20 years and still learning a lot from your tips. I have just finished my own "Alec's Dry Suit Hanger" and works great (I live and mostly dive in Chile, at 10-12°C) with a small variation: I used a sun umbrella's base instead of a flange, just because I had one lying around, but I think it might be cheaper, or easier to find, at any Home-Something....thanks again!
Great idea! Your dry suit dryer won't blow over.
The base is always the biggest problem. Your idea is the best!!
You can probably find them pretty cheap at garage sales since the umbrella gets ruined, not the base.
Thanks for watching from Chile.
Alec
Hi Alec. Great video. Would you also show us how to choose a drysuit? I am really curious about what makes the price tags differ from one another so much.
You are now the DYI SCUBA Guy. While I don't have a wet suit you have got me thinking about a couple of other SCUBA handy bits. Something to hold tanks still in the car, some car shelving for cameras, regs, and other things so they don't have to be lumped on top of each other and lost in a dive box. Stuff like that. Actually there might be some DYI projects in those old magazines of yours that would be very useful to resurrect. OK maybe not the DYI tanks and regs....... Maybe just the safe stuff:)
There's lots of neat articles on building dive gear. I'll get them out one day and have some fun with you. Maybe I should do a tech tip on loading your dive gear in a car. I see some pretty silly, maybe unsafe, stuff going on. Alec
actually that is a really, really good idea. Heavens, I could tel some stories on that....
DYI for bottle holders in car (simple pool noddles and rope with washer I just built) and other stuff like that would be useful.
love to see a pic...
I'll do a video on the DIY mayagzines. The noodles and rope is a great idea. They're available commercially but why buy them if you can make 'em?
This is not only useful but HILARIOUS. Thank you.
Perfect!
Kevin and I make these videos for 2 simple reasons - to inform and to amuse.
Sounds like we hit a home run with you.
Thanks.
Alec
I purposely flooded my drysuit by opening the neck seal during an uncommanded (somewhat of a newbie) ascent from 80 feet towards the end of a dive, later I just put loosely balled up shop paper towels (you can use newspapers) in the feet after rinsing the suit out, it seems to work fine, just keep adding new dry paper once in a while, twice to be exact. It was nice and dry after about a day. That's an old Army trick for drying out boots.
Always enjoy the videos. Happens to have the drysuit you show (Bare Nex Gen) and recently had to wash the inside after a seal leak, but it's easy to reverse and hang to dry with soft boots! only thing is one of the shop owner told me not to reverse the drysuit as that will stress out the zipper (metal in mine) when taking it off as well to have someone else me pull the hand seals off instead of flip inside out.... drysuit are really a 2 man job (with back shoulder zipper) - guess that's what dive buddies are for!
Yet another great use for ABS pipe. One reminder tip for those doing this project remember to deburr all exposed edges and drilled holes in the ABS pipe. Do not risk any sharp edges that could potentially damage your seals! The drilled holes can be chased with a sharp pocket knife and the cut off end of the pipe can be file with a flat file or rounded off with some sand paper in the hand. Then use shop air compressor blow gun or shop vac to clear the ABS pipe of all shaving and debris before shoving your dry suit on. This way you don't get into a dive and have some nasty ABS plastic splinters poking you or potentially damaging a neck or wrist seal when fitting the suit over the hanger! Great idea for a stand and reminds me a typical boot dryer minus the heated air. Don't risk forced heated air as that could loosen the glue compromising neck and wrist seals, that would be a bad day requiring a shop repair...
Yes, Yes. Sand all the edges smooth.
Thanks Jeff. Alec
Me to, I could watch Alec all day long :-)
thank you alec, that's fantastic .. i always struggle with my origin northern diver commercial 7mm with steelies. gonna add a small pc fan to the pipes to blow air into it... brilliant, no more wet foistiy feet for mesa :)
the fan ...... that is what is missing. I also have a trilaminate heavy bulky OTTER armor skin dry suit that is a struggle to dry inside. After every dive the darn boots absorb so much moisture that they are like hell to get dry and not stink
Don't know if the PC fan will be powerful enough... It's got a long way to push the air. What about a modified hair drier with no heating? Good luck with the project, please make a vid....
Good idea. Pick up a cheap hairdryer at a garage sale and hook it up to the bottom. NO HEAT! Alec
Jury-rigging with a hair dryer is one idea, but a faster and easier way, although maybe a bit more expensive, would be to use a boot dryer and add ABS extensions. See: www.walmart.com/ip/Peet-Electric-Thermal-Boot-Dryer-Black/17687503 for example.
You could use a Delta PC fan if you don't mind a little noise and have a 12 volt power supply with at has about 4 amps output. I have some of these fans on my computer and they are nice. www.amazon.com/Original-Delta-TFC1212DE-Inverter-Cooling/dp/B00L5XEKOS
No snow yet but finally nice, cool evenings. Way down to 60 degrees. Our days are still 75 to 80.
I love this time of year. Everything in nature is so alive, and beautiful too.
I want to bring my wife to Montana some day soon. She's never been although she's all my stories too many times. Is there any diving in Big Sky Country?
Great videos--so informative! Looking forward to drysuit episode #3 an #4. Hope you can do them soon!
I hope so John, we have a list 2 years long of ideas, mine and viewer suggestions. It's getting the time to shoot subjects of interest to everyone once winter is over. It's -32C with the wind chill today, a little cool but we just sit by the fire.
Keep watching, a dry suit will be coming.
Alec
Alec Peirce Scuba -14 here in MI this morning. Tough to keep the farm driveway clear. She you get time on the Ranch channel, I want to know buying and maintenance tips for a dozer-or as they used to say, bulldozer
PVC pipe can be done in the states for under $20 or ~$30 with a USB fan as one poster said below. Material list and prices from LOWES 10' 1-1/2" PVC pipe- $5.51, 2-90 degree elbows $1.70; 2-Ts $2.70, 3" spigot Flange $4.48; 3" to 1.5" coupling $2.74 and a USB fan from Amazon $9.95. Total W/O Fan $15.78. With Fan $26.73 Give or take depending your market. Not bad for good drying rack.
Cheap!! Good for the drysuit and great for the diver.
I suppose you could use a 12 volt fan and dry your suit between dives from your car.
Now you're talking!!
Thanks.
Alec
If you add another T on the main tube, you can add a 40mm x 40mm "computer fan", blowing out, with a 12 volt wall transformer and have a vented dry suit dryer, specially for humid places like Florida.
Another good idea. Blowing out is important, rather than in. That way you won't get into overheating problems. Lots of extra holes in the pipes too especially up the leg tubes so the air has to travel all the way down through the suit.
Boy, I'll soon have all you guys doing the DIY (Do It Yourself) thing just like the 60's. Alec
Bravo awesome! I love PVC/ABS pipe projects so many great uses!
Yep! Perfect for spudguns!
Oh yeah, and drysuit dryers too.
Thanks for watching.
Alec
Great video! I just loved watching this!
I ended up making my own version of the DIY drysuit dryer for my first drysuit and it works perfectly! Love the videos and can’t wait to see what’s next!
Great to hear it worked for you. Did you make any modifications that we should know about?
Alec
Dylan so am I correct when i assume that with this custom drying rack you do not have to turn the drysuit inside out, both sides of it dry at the same time??? I hang my suit on a clothes line and what I do not like is that I first have to dry the outside 2x I got to flip it because where the suit folds it does not dry on the inner side of the fold, then I have to always flip it and dry the inside of my suit so really it is a 3 step process which sucks. So how fast does the inside of the suit dry when you put in on a rack like this.
HealthSupercharger HealthSupercharger I put the removable top that is a U shape with a T in the middle into the legs of the suit, then place the neck of the suit through the base pole and the whole suit sits neatly the right way out . The water on the outside drys down the centre and comes out the neck and the outside drys in the air. Leaving it in a shed in 18 Celsius the inside and outside would be dry to the touch in about 3 to 5 hours, fully dry overnight.
In short, just lay the suit flat on the floor right way out with the zip open, slide the leg holders in and then lift the whole assembly and place the neck over the the base pole and join them up, takes maybe 1:30 when you get used to it
Alec Peirce Scuba So glad to get noticed, it was almost the same as in the video only I made a H style base and had a T junction in the centre of it leading to the centre pole, made the whole thing from 2” PVC waste pipe and it works perfect.
I used T joints on the upper part instead of right angled bends because that’s what I had on hand and it seems to work great!
The suit is heavy with steel toed boots and the like at about 18-20lb but the pvc cement has no problems holding it.
One of my diving buddies has a setup like this in his garage, except he put PC power unit fans in the base piece to increase the ventilation.
That's a common improvement and a good idea.
Just be sure that the fan has lots of ventilation and is not blocked from blowing or it may overheat.
One diver used a hair dryer and burnt out the dryer plus damaged his suit.
Thanks for watching.
Alec
I was working on coming up with a PVC pipe contraption to dry my drysuit, and it was getting complicated, your idea is much simpler. Guess what my Sunday project will be?
You can do it and read all the comments on this video. There may be some improvements to consider adding.
Amazing!
You may need one engineer to build another one to put the dry suit on the dry suit dryer. 😁
It's so simple, the best about this one you foget to tell. It drys in and out side.
What you also fogot to tell, with something similar you could dry a wetsuit too. 👍
These drying racks work on scuba, snowmobile suits and lots of other cloths that need drying. There are lots of designs for drying racks so for a laugh, Google them to see how expensive/complicated some designs are.
That's ingenious.
thanks alec good tips
Alec ....your fabricated ABS suit dryer is a great idea....I`m gonna make one ....just one thought I had was using two extra right angle elbows at the ends that go into the boots....this is a bit smoother and less likely to damage the boot ?
Good idea. Read through the comments as others have made good suggestions too.
Alec
Thank you Alec, always a joy to watch you tec tips, kinda become the late night bed shows to watch. Anyway I do have a follow up question. Since my drysuite rarly dry up (this is a good thing as I am in the water so regulary) i do need to wash it. Bought mine used as the prices here in Norway is insane. So I have not gotten around to washing it yet because I am affraid the soap or cleaning product will damage the latex seals or the drysuit material. Mine is an BARE XDC2 neoprene suite, so my question is: What type of soap should I use and are there anything I need to use to protect the latex seals after the wash? Should you also protect the valves?
The XCD2 is my favorite dry suit. Just use any light duty laundry detergent. You don't need a harsh one. Don't use too much, mixed in water then spray it all over the suit, in and out and scrub with a small brush. Then rinse the heck out of it. Rinse lots and hang to dry out of the sun. The valves will actually enjoy the soap. Rinse them well. The seals the same. You could put some Seal Saver on the latex or a bit of silicon grease. Put a small dab of grease in your palm, rub it around until the hands are greasy and warm then rub the seals between your hands until they are warm and all shiny too. And don't forget to the brush all the teeth and to lightly, lightly, lightly lube the zip with Zip Lube (did I say lightly?!). I can ship an XCDS (they changed the name) to you for about $1500.
Thanks, will keep that in mind for sure Alec. But for now the Rescue Diver course is next in line. Will also put all your advice into play..
Nice drying rack.
Thanks Neptune.
Alec
Enjoyable Alec, I have to make 3 of them we only have 1 broomstick Ha,ha,ha (Thank you for the idea.
I hope it works for you. If you make any improvements, let me know.
Alec
Hi Alec, I have a question about dry suits. Is easy to fix small punctures (eg. some urchin's needles in a knee...don't really know how they got there) in a neoprene dry suit?, or is it better to take it to a LDS?
Small holes or tears are easy to fix. Your LDS does exactly the same.
Get some neoprene cement at the dive store. It has to be neoprene cement, not silicon or Aqua Seal. Neoprene cement is a contact cement which means you must put a thin coat on each side of the hole or tear and keep the 2 sides separate while that coat dries. Use wax paper for tears or a plastic stir stick for holes. Wait about 10 minutes then put another thin coat of cement on, wait only about 2 minutes and then align and press the 2 sides together holding them in place for 2 minutes. Presto! Perfect repair. A bit of practice and you can go into business.
If it's a big tear, the same process works but you should protect the tear by stitching the sides together. This is best done with an iron-on product like Iron Mend from McNett. Cut an appropriate size and follow directions. This stuff sticks to the nylon and protects it from further tearing as well as allowing you to stretch the suit and not open the tear. It's the same stuff my mom used to iron onto the knees of my pants so I wouldn't wear through them - even if they were brand new. I hated going to school in new pants with my mom's iron-on knees!
Good luck.
Alec
Thank you!
Awesome Idea.
Thanks for watching.
Alec
Hi Alec, I have another question about dry suits, about dry suit diving this time. I was taught to use the suit for buoyancy control while diving keeping the BCD deflated, but have heard recently that many divers do it just the other way around: using the BCD for buoyancy control, while adding air to the suit just to avoid squeezing, and keeping its shoulder valve open the whole time. Somehow, this make more sense to me, BCD means buoyancy control after all, but I have not try it yet. What do you think about it? How do you control buoyancy while in a dry suit?
You're right!
The drysuit is to keep you dry and warm. The BCD is for buoyancy control.
Dry suits are not new and the earliest ones with valves like the Poseidon Unisuit were commonly used without a BC. BCs were a new-fangled idea and many divers didn't have them or didn't want them.
So it became common for divers to use their drysuit as buoyancy control. Somehow that idea still hangs around.
But, it's not only not nearly as efficient as a BCD, it can be downright dangerous.
The BCD has typically 25 to 45 pounds of lift. To get that lift in a drysuit it would have to be blown up like a balloon. Inflate the drysuit too much and there's a real risk of a seal popping out - either a wrist seal or the neck seal will simply blow out from the pressure inside. If that happens you are going to get very wet and cold but worse, you also get very negative at the same time. The suit fills with water.
Proper procedure is to have the drysuit empty at the surface as your enter, put air into the BCD to maintain buoyancy. When ready to descend, let air out of the BCD slowly until you are dropping under control.
As you descend you now need to add air slowly to the drysuit to prevent a squeeze and to maintain the air space that's keeping your warm. Add only enough to stop any squeeze! Use the BCD to stop your descent when necessary.
This works perfectly since, as you descend any air in the BCD and the suit is compressed so you get negative and need added buoyancy anyway.
When you reach your dive depth stop and adjust everything - enough air in the suit to keep you warm and comfortable and enough air in the BCD to maintain proper buoyancy for that depth. Any change in your depth may require more adjustment but just be sure you do not have too much air in the suit.
On ascent things get really tricky.
Theoretically you do the same in reverse. That is, you let air out of the suit to stop it from over-inflating but keeping enough to stay warm and not squeezed. At the same time you need to control your ascent by slowly losing air from the BCD so that you reach the surface as you left it - little or no air in the suit and just enough air in the BCD to keep you on the surface.
However, in practice this is very difficult to do. Don't forget that you're also monitoring your air supply, computer readout, looking for that 15' safety stop, watching for your buddy and checking overhead.
Many divers will simply empty their drysuit at depth and use the BCD only for control on ascent. This works well but in the last 30' to the surface, even a little bit of air in the drysuit will expand rapidly and cause problems so be ready to hit that exhaust valve!
When we do our Dry Suit series I'll try to demonstrate this. Hopefully you get the idea.
Take care.
Alec
I got it!, thank you very much...looking forward for those Dry Suit series
There are two ways to operate with drysuit and BCD:
- using both BCD and drysuit inflated: the drysuit to don't squeeze and keep warm, and the BCD for buoyancy, and the people
- using BCD only on surface, and the drysuit to keep warm and maintain buoyancy.
I first learned to use both. But after some dives, I was told that it's much easier to only have to manage one source of buoyancy.
So in my opinion and with many dives, I only manage my buoyancy with drysuit. I find it much easier.
add a small battery operated fan to blow air into the tubes and into the suit would make it more efficient moving damp air out under positive pressure
Lots of guys have rigged up something like that.
Certainly it's a good idea if you need the suit dry in a hurry.
Even something as simple as a computer fan would work - quiet, cheap and easy to power.
Thanks for watching.
Alec
loved your fight with the suit
Ohh my gosh that is so true a fan or hair dryer set on cold would be so perfect.
Love it. Thanks
very useful and very funny thanks
Thanks Fiona. Glad you liked it.
Alec
blow some room temp air through the pvc setup...might dry faster
I'd thought of putting a fan on the bottom with some good sized holes and then some more holes at the top in the leg tubes. It would help but would take a bit of rigging. I'm trying to keep it simple. Someone suggested a hair dryer but I don't think heat is necessary. A hair dryer might burn out if used to long. In cold weather you could just set it over a warm air floor register in your home.
Alec
What about the arms then ? They just hanging on the floor ?
Air flow all through the suit but you can make arms post. Check the comments for ideas from others on drying their suits.
How is best way to locate small leak around zipper hip area best lube
The ONLY way is to locate the leak and seal it with Aqualseal.
And the best way to do that is to inflate the dry suit nice and hard then locate the leak by spraying a soapy water solution where you suspect the leak exists.
The biggest problem you face is inflating the dry suit. To do that you must first seal the openings - the neck and wrists, and that's done by forcing a volleyball-sized ball or large tin can into the neck seal and a large soda bottle into each of the wrists.
Now you can inflate the dry suit hard enough and long enough to look for leaks.
Hopefully it is in the suit or seam or where the zipper attaches to the suit and not in the zip itself.
Let me know how you make out.
Alec
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOd ^^ hahahaha
Okay
🤣🤣
Not as easy as it looks. HA
A
@@AlecPeirceScuba_SeaHunter I know lol.. was having a chuckle as my dry suit flooded and i need to dry my boots 🤣