Dry Suit - Oral Inflation

[SpyderTek]

Hi all. I FINALLY got my dry suit I won on E-bay! Poseiden JetSuit neoprene. Perfect condition and for under $200

Something interesting however with it...

Instead of a standard LP hose and Valve it came with an Oral Inflator hose and valve. Anyone else ever hear of this?

I did a quick search on yahoo and came up with a few other models of Dry Suits that had an Oral inflation option (or a power assisted oral inflator) but this particular manufacturer no longer has the oral inflator on this model suit.

Anyone had any experience with oral inflation? how difficult / expensive would it be to swap it out for a standard LP hose and valve? Is the oral much more difficult than "standard"?

Any info would be helpful. Thanks

SpyderTek

 

[trymixdiver]

Good question

isnt this suit considered semi dry and this is why the oral inflation is there. I would be interested to find out the reason as well.

Im probably way wrong but thats my guess.

Andy

 

[Lost Yooper]

The first drysuit I owned was a Posiedon neoprene suit like that one with a corregated hose -- like a BC hose. The LP inflator hose hooked to it just like a BC power inflator. If yours doesn't have a power inflator, then I would get another valve (push style). You don't want to be orally inflating your suit -- no way.

Hope you have better luck than I did .

Mike

 

[SpyderTek]

Hrmmm, Also notice that this suit doesnt have a dump valve either.

I contacted a Poseiden dry suit vendor and they said that the oral inflator was indeed standard on the older model dry suits..but that the company has been taken over by viking now and they couldnt really tell me more...

SpyderTek

 

[Lost Yooper]

You have to dump it using the corregated hose -- like a BC. Basically, it's an antique and not a good design. What you should do is rip it off, put in a new inflator valve on the chest and a new deflator valve on the left shoulder. Do you have any idea how old the suit is? The neoprene on mine wore out -- rotted. It ended up becoming a semi drysuit for someone.

Mike

 

[SpyderTek]

Yup Yoop, this sounds like the same design if not the same model suit you used to own. Your description of the inflator is right on the money.

Still trying to get in touch with any dealer in my area or a website that has info...The old poseiden.se site is next to useless as is the www.trelleborg.com site (Viking). Plus, no one answers the viking toll free number.

On the plus side...the "rubber" neck and such show no signs of rot or even of being old. Still very spongy and nice, just like my brand new Mares Isotherm suit.

Worse comes to worse I wont be able to use the suit till next winter.

SpyderTek