Drying a wetsuit in a modern heat pump dryer?

[Jan Doggen]

The consensus is to never put your (neoprene) wetsuit in a dryer (e.g. Question - Drysuit undergarment and neoprene socks went through dryer with heat and Wetsuit Care: It Isn’t All About Washing Neoprene)

I have a modern heat pump dryer which uses lower temperature and longer cycles. The manual for this Siemens WQ33G2D9NL dryer does not mention temperatures. For other Siemens dryers I see websites mentioning 60C/140F for "Gentle drying for '(easy-care fabrics)'"

Any recommendations/experiences with heat pump dryers? I intend to *only* use this in really wet weather when the garage is too damp for my 7mm wetsuit to dry fast enough.

 

[Wibble]

Different answer:

The Hang Air suit hanger with an inbuilt fan. Dries from the inside, works well in the garage and freshens up the inside of the suit.

Also fantastic for forcing an undersuit to dry after being washed/rinsed

Underwater Kinetics HangAir Drying System

Power dry your gear with the HangAir, a system that dries in hours, not days. Using a built in high power fan, the HangAir dries your suit faster, slows the development of bad odors, and prolongs the life of your gear. Its strong structure and stainless steel hook can support up to 100 pounds!

uwk.com

 

[Still Kicking]

Heat is one issue (weakening the adhesive bonding the fabric to the neoprene) but lots of flexing -- as in a tumble dryer -- also causes the neoprene to break down faster.

Use a passive dryer fan, as Wibble linked above.

 

[broncobowsher]

It's not the heat, it's the tumble that is hard on them.

 

[happy-diver]

I am not sure how much tumbling a 7mm wetsuit will suffer in a residential dryer but
do you have a local coin laundry I only dry the inside of my suits anyway for donning