Drying boots of flooded drysuit - solutions?

[Jack Hammer]

A few simple things I've had great success with. When traveling and staying in a hotel I've just hung my drysuit off the curtain rod above the room heat with the zipper open and the feet by the heat. Warms the foot and evaporates is carried out the top by convection.

At home just clipping a cheap clip on fan inside the suit and pointing it downward.

I picked up a set of portable 12v with ac adapter hunters boot driers for a couple bucks. It has 2 wires going to pods that drop into each boot. Uses convection similar to a Peet drier. Also works in car on long drives.

All these have given me dry boots overnight

 

[Nicool]

Neoprene is not a friend of ozone. Ozone is produced by the sparks of the DC electric motors. The electric motor to be used to blow air should be of the squirrel cage type (ac motors) brushless.
I did a boots and gloves dryer following a similar idea posted here in SB in the DIY Forum. Only forcing ambient air to the inside. No air heating.
There is also a hanger with a blower Amazon.com : Underwater Kinetics 9001604 UK Hanger with Built : Hangair : Sports & Outdoors but it's designed for weitsuits.

Thanks i am keeping it for reference - avoid DC electric motors if i do any DIY.

Also the TriDri:

TriDri - dries the inside of your drysuit especially after washing using no heat and less power than a 40W light bulb.

Drysuit drier TriDri Drying System

I have a set of two TriDris and they are great. Two units fit into my Santi Drybag under the drysuit. You don't need a separate hanger, just set your drysuit feet up against a wall.
I use a small 6000mAh cell phone battery bank to power them. That lasts for a few hours, enough to dry the suit completely.
DIY is a viable option, but I can recommend TriDry with its telescopic tubing for easy storage.
Using fans that can be powered with regular USB power like tridri fans is also a good idea to copy from TriDri. Power banks are cheap and make a super easy power source also when traveling.

Thanks both, it looks like a very effective system and designed EXACTLY to solve the problem i've listed. Besides, the TriDri website is very complete with lots of resources, tested drying time, etc.

Alec Peirce has a few tips here on cleaning, hanging and (about 7 minutes into the video) a simple DIY drysuit rack.

Thanks for sharing. Interesting talk on how to wash the suit i found, but regarding his drysuit rack, i don't think it will dry that fast a fully wet suit if he doesnt' include a fan, and i can't see any.

DIY for me. 1½" PVC. Bottom frame glued. Legs slip fit in. The feet have 90° elbows and a short stub.
Slip the legs into the suit and invert the suit, feet up. Slip the PVC into the base.

The base is glued and capped PVC, with a shower floor drain added. A super cheap, super quiet, super low energy 12V computer cooling fan is glued to the drain cover. Random old power supply runs the fan. Doesn't move a lot of air, but what little it moves is enough to dry inside the suit overnight.

A local(ish) option for you is page 44 of the catalog below.
http://www.tfmengineering.com.au/TFM Engineering Catalogue 2017-03.pdf

You can either build yourself or buy assembled / ready to assemble.

I just hang it upside down by the boots with this kind of hanger, and place a small fan or--if the garage is cold--a small electric heater a couple feet in front of it so that dry air will waft up into the legs and feet. Works really well and surprisingly quickly.

View attachment 453967

A few simple things I've had great success with. When traveling and staying in a hotel I've just hung my drysuit off the curtain rod above the room heat with the zipper open and the feet by the heat. Warms the foot and evaporates is carried out the top by convection.

At home just clipping a cheap clip on fan inside the suit and pointing it downward.

I picked up a set of portable 12v with ac adapter hunters boot driers for a couple bucks. It has 2 wires going to pods that drop into each boot. Uses convection similar to a Peet drier. Also works in car on long drives.

All these have given me dry boots overnight

Thanks guys for the various DIY solutions shared. I like in particular the idea to use portable USB mini-fans (i didn't know these things existed!).

At this stage i am set to give a go to the Tridri system, which does drying and suit suspension, plus is very economical (5 Watts, and only few hours usage).

If it doesn't work i'll investigate DIY alternatives further
thanks again
Nicolas

 

[sunshower]

Great topic. I have a new Santi on the way, looks like I may be adding a couple of those Tridri fans. I love the portability aspect.

 

[АлександрД]

To prevent ozone creation you have to use just brushless motors. Most of fan motors is brushless. You can use computers fans (12V) or special fans for vent systems (AC powered, with squirrel-cage rotor).
I do not know exact sizes of imperial units, but for metric system:
92mm PC fan like PFB is very nice for many home applications. I was take it from unused Intel server cases.
Also some people use like Greenhouse Havc 4" / 5" / 6" Small Plastic Centrifugal Duct Fan - Buy Plastic Duct Fan,Havc 4" / 5" / 6" Small Plastic Centrifugal Duct Fan,Havc 4" / 5" / 6" Small Plastic Centrifugal Duct Fan Product on Alibaba.com
both this fans fits very good to PVC plastic pipes, and you can assemble any possible combination of PVC pipes, fittings and fans.
BTW - to use PC fans in PVC pipes you have to cut off (I used cutting pliers) corners, to bring fan to the round shape. Than I used stripes of polyuretane foam rubber, turn it around fan ,and then put it in tautly inside PVC pipe. Also another advantage - it works as shock-absorber very well, decreasing noise.
As I wrote before - I did not use fan systems for my DrySuite, I just turning it inside out to dry but I use such fans for different home use for ventilation purposes.

 

[Compressor]

I know this is a year old thread but I want to ping the thread: Anyone know where to buy the TriDri in the US?

 

[broncobowsher]

Thanks i am keeping it for reference - avoid DC electric motors if i do any DIY.

Not DC motors, brushed motors. Brushless DC motors (PC cooling fan for example) are fine.