Drysuit Gasket is leaking. How to reglue it ?

[TheScubaPanda]

I have a 2 months old DUI drysuit TLS 350, currently in holidays in Mexico and I started yesterday (confirmed today) to get a fair amount of water in my suit.

I believe it comes from under the inflation valve. The glue that retains this gasket : https://www.scubastore.com/scuba-diving/si-tech-o-ring-for-si-tech-valves/660258/p is totally decomposing (only after 2 months, I know...). See photo.

So I need a field repair that would last for at least 10 days and then I can get a proper service back home.

I could obviously aquaseal the gasket, though I would never be able to remove it. So any idea what I can do to reglue that thing in place without having to permanently glue it to the suit??

Thanks for your help

I'm close to Tulum, so there are multiple dive shops around me where I can get different glue for drysuit.

 

[OTF]

Rubber cement from any hardware store. Look up youtube tutorials. It's weird stuff, for best results you put down a layer and let it dry almost completely before sticking together.

Try to remove the old glue if you can without doing damage. Maybe gentle application of a heat gun. Use a solvent and sandpaper to clean and prep the surface before gluing. The existing stuff kinda sorta looks like it was aquaseal.

Or just aquaseal it. Shoe Goo, Goop or similar (urethane adhesives) or Lexel (a non-urethane synthetic rubber adhesive) would also work if aquaseal is hard to get.

You CAN remove aquaseal, it's just a PITA.

 

[TheScubaPanda]

Interesting. Do you know if gear aid is doing something I can find in dive shops

 

[davehicks]

Every dry suit i ever had does not glue in the inflator. It just screws down tight, no glue. You can reverse them to pressure test the suit this way.

 

[Curious_George]

Probably too late to help, but I would not recommend any adhesives such as aquaseal as they likely will be permanent. Assuming this is a trilaminate or compressed neoprene suite: First choice, try to crank the valve down tighter. Second choice, remove the valve and see if you can pull off the gasket and throw away (or save for later). Use a hairdryer to help. Then apply a very thin layer of pure silicone caulking (from the hardware store) on the entire sealing ridge of the side that’s leaking and reattach the valve tightly. Will be easy to remove later and re-seal with whatever method you like. Just be careful you don’t get any caulk in the threads of the valve.