Dessicants in the drysuit while diving?

[Lenaxia]

So my drysuit is coming in today or tomorrow and I was thinking...

People always complain about all the sweat from drysuits when you're topside and sometimes when you're diving cold. Would it be reasonable to wear a few desiccant packets while diving to help keep you even more dry?

I'm aware that desiccants heat up somewhat while wet. Perhaps a positive? jk, chem burns suck.

Anyway most desiccants are inert and so reacting with the suit is a non issue.

 

[Scott]

How much desiccant would you need to keep you dry inside? I would think those would be some big moisture muchers.
Then another issue would be, where would you put them inside the suit to be effective and without causing problems due to suit compression?

The idea is to keep condensation away from the skin, not necessarily out of the suit. A good moisture wicking garment would be a better solution. IMO

 

[boat sju]

I've been thinking about wearing a large cotton t-shirt on the outside of my undergarments, sort of as a mop to soak up the condensation rather than having it collect on the shell of the suit. Most people won't understand what I'm getting at here and say you can't wear cotton in a drysuit. But I still may experiment with it some day.

 

[Lenaxia]

Scott, I definitely see that dilemma of where to put it. But at some point, lets say you're doing 3-4 dives in hot weather a day, moisutre is going to build up inside your suit and at some point your base layers won't be able to "pump" anymore sweat out and you'll start to chill.

I actually really like boat sju's idea. The only problem I can imagine is that the exhaust valve may have problems, but that's easily fixed with some sleeve removal.

 

[Kevrumbo]

I think the best solution would be the next generation heated vest powered by an external canister battery (another thru-hole to punch through your drysuit along with a P-valve!). That way you can still remain fairly warm even with sweat/condensation saturated base-wicking wear, and can use an thinner overall thermal undergarment as well. . .

 

[Lenaxia]

I wonder if we could eliminate the hole punch via inductive power. Some really strong magnets to hold it together through the drysuit.

It's a trade off between leak potential and tech failure.

 

[skankpile]

Sometimes if I get really hot... I'll take the suit off.