Life without a pee valve

[Rick Inman]

Did you get rid of the quick disconnect?

At first, I thought that my guilty conscious was talking to me... But no. It's you Jeff!:11:

I still have the thing. I don't enjoy it anymore, though. It's so strokishly Rube Goldberg. How many failure points can I snap, glue and zip-tie between the outside of my suit and Mister Happy.

I might as well just pee myself and be done with it.

 

[JeffG]

At first, I thought that my guilty conscious was talking to me... But no. It's you Jeff!:11:

I still have the thing. I don't enjoy it anymore, though. It's so strokishly Rube Goldberg. How many failure points can I snap, glue and zip-tie between the outside of my suit and Mister Happy.

I might as well just pee myself and be done with it.

I have some hose I could ship ya....Get rid of that thing once and for all.

 

[dave4868]

Having just purchased my first dry suite, I am wondering if the urge to pee is the same in a dry suite as it is in a wetsuite when hitting cold water.

In other words, is a P valve a neccesity, or a luxury I can add later.

Spectacular Bladder control

R.

A luxury you can do without probably, for now anyway.

That is, unless you're going to push the off-gassing limits and get into much longer and colder dives.... and are opposed to the simplicity of a diaper.

Just my humble opinion.

If you set up your thermal protection to actually keep you nice and warm, especially your extremities, you'll probably have much less need to pee than you did in a wetsuit.

Diving dry, recreational depths, non-deco, with hands, feet and head well-insulated, even after 90 minutes in 40-degree water, I rarely have any bladder discomfort. I usually can follow a dive like that with a second similar dive without getting bladder discomfort. An urge, maybe, but not discomfort.

YMMV, of course, but you'll probably do better than me with my old kidneys and bladder!

Oh, and I agree with reefugee about hydrating the day before, rather than just prior to the dive.

I'd add that hydrating gradually over several prior days is even better. That way, the kidneys won't be triggered as much to remove the "excess" water.

If you hydrate gradually, more of that water will enter and stay longer in the blood and other body tissues.

Sudden hydration, on the other hand, causes a sudden increase in the blood volume and/or dilution of electrolytes, both of which increase the rate at which the kidneys remove water from the blood. Of course, when they remove water from the blood, they create urine which fills the bladder, which gets inconvenient.

Also, if you keep yourself real warm, especially your extremities, the kidneys won't be stimulated as much to remove water from the body.

The increased urine production, from being cold, like in a wetsuit, is a real phenomenon caused mostly by peripheral vasoconstriction and increased blood pressure, if I remember correctly.

At some point, if you're really pushing the limits of off-gassing, you might be inclined see how much additional hydration just prior to the dive is managable for various situations and conditions.

That's when you might consider a pee valve.

Otherwise, for routine recreational drysuit diving, I wouldn't bother.

Dave C

 

[Rick Inman]

I have some hose I could ship ya....Get rid of that thing once and for all.

Naww... There is some just 2 miles and 2 dollars from my house, thanks.

 

[CompuDude]

Having done plenty of both types of diving (wet and dry), and reading all of the responses here and on other threads, I have this to say:

It all depends on you.

I think the urge to pee is somewhat less in a drysuit than in a wetsuit. I have had to cut a couple dives short in my DS due to the call of nature, so I look forward to adding a P valve at some point. That said, two ain't that bad. I have reduced my hydration levels somewhat from the wetsuit diving levels, however, which I'm not entirely comfortable with. So while I look forward to my next drysuit, which I have a P valve installed into at some point, I don't feel a huge urgency to do so.

Some people seem to have exceptional bladder control and never have this issue, wet OR dry. I'm not one of those people... the urge to go just comes sooner and more urgently with me than with some of my buddies. I know I'm not alone in this, so the only conclusion I can come to is that it very much depends on the individual.

 

[Captain CaveMan]

I have the new style Halcyon balanced valve in my suit. I love it if I'm doing simple dives or big dives in the lake I use it. I do not hold my self at all even on car trips.
When I had kidney stones one question they asked is if I hold going till I need to go or do I go regularly. One reason is when you hold it back if under pressure and time urine can travel up back and go down into the testicles causing lots of pain and infections. Remember its important dont worry about $$$ .

 

[michaelp68]

Bottom line (IMHO): get the pee valve.

Do you "need" one? No.

Should you get one? Probably.

Does the average diver get the same urge to pee diving wet versus diving dry? Perhaps a bit less diving dry, depending on who you ask.

Does knowing that you're diving in a drysuit with no pee valve affect your hydration before you dive? Apparently, for many people, it does. Does that mean it could affect dive safety? Well, ....

Does lack of a pee valve sometimes ruin a dive by making it uncomfortable or causing you to abort? Yes, to dramatically varying degrees for different people.

I started diving dry last season. First OW dive in the drysuit, I had no pee valve. Was in a quarry, pretty much on the opposite end. It was the end of the dive and we were on the surface floating and lazily swimming back to the entry area. I had the most miserable time having to pee. The three other guys had bottles of water and juice in their drysuit pockets that they were enjoying on the relaxed swim back on a beautiful and comfortable sunny day. But unfortunately, there was no enjoyment for me. I thought I was going to explode from pee in me (even though I'd peed right before the start of the dive.) I suffered for another 25 minutes before we were finally back and I was out of the water with drysuit doffed....

Needless to say, I got a pee valve and couldn't be happier.