Dry Suit Dryers, blower sources revisited

[Biodiversity_guy]

Looking back at past posts, there were descriptions of PVC constructed drying racks for dry/wet suits and assorted gear. http://home.earthlink.net/~toddclagett/NovaTech/drysuitdryer.htm

One of the big challenges seems to be locating an appropriate blower that was inexpensive, non-ozone producing if possible, easy to integrate into the PVC frame, and pre-wired for a 120 outlet.

I was thinking of constructing something for drying my wife's and my dry suits, but the blower seems an integral component for establishing the minimum width, etc. Any suggestions or sources for dry suit blowers?

 

[spectrum]

How about a bathroom ventilator, they have a 3 inch diameter outlet ready for hosing up. The shadded pole motor has no brushes so should be ozone safe.

That's a project I toyed with last winter but wet season was quickly aproaching and I set it aside. Now would be agood time to resurrect it.


Pete

 

[Archangel]

Thanks for bringing this up, I have made my PVC man, and will be watching this thread closely to see what you bang whiz insta made stuff diving gurus come up with.

Tevis

 

[Biodiversity_guy]

I ran by Home Depot to look for bathroom ventilators. The ones I saw were not ideal. They were just a simple fan that would be placed within a duct, rather than a blower.

I can see rigging a duct fan (4") and step it down into a 2" or 1 1/2" pvc, but that would not be ideal. Besides, the cheapest duct fan I saw at HD was $25, was hoping for cheaper.

Seems like someone would sell a non-ozone blower with a 2" output somewhere on the internet, but I could not locate thru google.

 

[spectrum]

The bathrrom fans in our house were around $50 as I recall. They are squirril cage construction in a box. They have an intake grill and a 3 inch hose discharge.I have another in the garage that I got cheap at yard sale, I plan to use that. A 3 inch outlet will Tee down nicely to feed a pair of 1-1/2 inch perforated leg pipes.

 

[Meng_Tze]

Go to Lowes and get one of those 'personal fans' (costs about $15) It is a small blower pre-wired and has a base with a swivel. Then connect a piece of duct (the flexible AL type) to it and kit it all up with silicone adhesive. ( I tried ductape, but that came loose in the heat of florida). The other end of the duct is connected to the PVC man and you are done.

You dont need tremedous amounts of air, just a small flow to circulate through the suit. My suit is usually dry in about 4-6 hours.

 

[Biodiversity_guy]

I will go check out the personal fan, and relook at the bathroom fans again, but neither of those seem like the best solutions. If anyone knows of a nice blower with a 3" diameter output opening, I would love to learn about it.

Anyone?

 

[Mark Vlahos]

I went to Home Depot and picked up a Stinger Shop Vac. By hooking up the hose on the blower end of the machine it works well to dry the suit. Plus I get the added bonus of having a portable wet / dry shop vac. The hose fits well with the PVC I used, unfortunately I don't remember the size, but it is really easy to find the right fit if you walk from one end of Home Depot to the other with the parts.

The only major drawback is the thing is pretty noisy, so drying your suit inside your domicile is less than ideal, but the garage is fine.

Mark Vlahos

 

[NorthernShrinkage]

Noma just came out with a new product for drying boots and mits it has four blower hoses and a timer looks kind of interesting there about 50 Canadian , Saw it this week in the Canadian tire Catalog not sure how to post a link to it.

 

[RJP]

I simply picked up a 3" 12v DC brushless fan from RadioShack, the kind that are inside computers/stereos, etc. Added the cheapest AC/DC adapter they had. Spliced the wires together. Done.

Moves a fair amount of air and is almost dead silent. Suit is dry overnight. Can't imagine needing it dry any sooner than "tomorrow."

:-0