DIY Wetsuit Lubricant

[quadsbaby]

Having recently acquired an open cell wetsuit to keep me warm in Monterey, I found I needed a lubricant to get things on easily. There is a lot of discussion about what to use (e.g., hair conditioner, or a ready-made product), but I didn't see a lot of people trying to make their own.

So without further ado, this recipe is my first attempt at DIY Wetsuit lube.

100mL Veterinary Lubricant (essentially, just cheap water based personal lube by the gallon)
200mL water
3mL dimethicone (commonly used in silicone and "hybrid" personal lubricants, as well as. cosmetics)

This is enough for 1-2 wetsuit applications. I haven't tried any of the purpose-made wetsuit lubricants yet, but this seems like it works pretty well (note: I tried it without the dimethicone first and that was far less good).

Here's how it looks from a cost perspective: I can buy a gallon of the veterinary lube for $10 (I've seen it as low as $6 some places). 250g of dimethicone is about $10 on amazon as well (the amount you'd need per gallon of animal lube is around 115g). So for a gallon of wetsuit lube cost comes out to less than $5.

Comparatively, a gallon of lube made from Mako Suit Slide runs about $25 plus shipping at its cheapest.

At its cheapest hair conditioner-based lubricant (assuming $20 / gal for conditioner, 1:5 dilution ratio) would be about the same price as my DIY lubricant, but with the potential for skin breakouts and perhaps other problems. All of the ingredients in my wetsuit lube are (to my knowledge) safe for long-duration skin contact, and I find my skin feels great after a dive using this.

To figure out: the animal lube I used contains methylparaben, which is not reef safe. Of course, so do many hair conditioners. I will seek to find one with fully reef-safe ingredients.

 

[Invader]

50/50 free hotel hair conditioner and water does the trick for me.

 

[quadsbaby]

Doing some research I identified K Lube as a potential alternative to the animal lubricant. It would seem the preservative included is potassium sorbate, which would be reef safe. K Lube also has the benefit of being powdered, so easier to bring along for travel (and in the end, cost is about the same as the animal lubricant).

 

[happy-diver]

Just add water

And NEVER mess around with silicone for anything or that you ever want be able to repair with glue

Like an open cell suit slathered in it

 

[Thunder Struck]

Stream 2 Sea has a reef safe conditioner product.

 

[Dsix36]

half baby shampoo and half water is what I use

 

[Brett Hatch]

Water-based personal lubricant. It's just as good for putting on a wetsuit as it is for, uh, more personal matters. If you don't want to walk around the dive site parking lot with a half-gallon bottle labeled "PERSONAL LUBRICANT FOR INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL USE", you can get a 4oz bottle, and refill it from large bottle... like a coward

 

[quadsbaby]

Water-based personal lubricant. It's just as good for putting on a wetsuit as it is for, uh, more personal matters. If you don't want to walk around the dive site parking lot with a half-gallon bottle labeled "PERSONAL LUBRICANT FOR INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL USE", you can get a 4oz bottle, and refill it from large bottle... like a coward

yeah I mean that's basically what this is a recipe for, it's just cheaper to use animal lube

 

[quadsbaby]

Just add water

And NEVER mess around with silicone for anything or that you ever want be able to repair with glue

Like an open cell suit slathered in it

I'd rather use PG or PEG than glycerin because some microbes can eat the glycerin (e.g., may be more likely to lead to a yeast infection) and glycerin is a little stickier, but it would definitely be an acceptable substitute.

I do have the concern you mentioned about the silicone making repairs hard, but it's a pretty small percentage of the formula so I'm hoping it won't create too much of a problem long term. I guess we will see on that front. Having tried the formula with and without the silicone though I it makes things much nicer.

 

[Russjstewart]

Water-based personal lubricant. It's just as good for putting on a wetsuit as it is for, uh, more personal matters. If you don't want to walk around the dive site parking lot with a half-gallon bottle labeled "PERSONAL LUBRICANT FOR INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL USE", you can get a 4oz bottle, and refill it from large bottle... like a coward

Reminds me of the story of a dry suit diver who needed,ube to get his dry suit on, walked into a chemist asking for personal lube, when the chemist askec how much his reply was enough for two hands and my head. He couldn’t understand why they threw him out