Drysuit Exhaust more difficult then previous suits

[Luke99]

If you push on the valve and it vents, it's not the under suit

It does not vent right now when you push it

The bubble I had under the valve on the last dive was so large I cant even imagine the undersuit would have been touching the underside of the valve to be honest, but I guess its possible.

 

[grantmac]

Remove the valve, blow in it and you should feel almost no resistance.

Try flushing with fresh water while rotating it and see if it improves. Sometimes a little grit gets caught in the mechanism and what you think is open is actually only partially open.
A shockingly large number of gear issues can be resolved with fresh running water.

 

[happy-diver]

or don't remove the valve and blow through it before taking it to the dive shop

 

[AnnikaPersson]

It might be that the location of the exhaust valve on your arm is not optimally located, in addition to the other suggestions coming up here.

If you are looking at getting your own suit (my apologies if you already have), I would personally prefer the high Apeks valves. It ventilates gas out from the suit very efficiently.

 

[DCN]

We think we have the same issue on our suits (both bought used)
WIll definitely try to disassemble and clean the dump valves.
Or maybe it's a technique issue, that we just don't do it right.

 

[Wibble]

It might be that the location of the exhaust valve on your arm is not optimally located, in addition to the other suggestions coming up here.

Ditto problems with the cut of the new suit. Thankfully Santi remade the entire suit and it now fits correctly (the original was made-to-measure/fit). Praise to Santi for doing this. The old new suit was very loose across the shoulders and the dump valve rucked up when in the arms-forward diving position. The new new suit fits correctly across the shoulders and there's no rucking up of the dump any longer. BTW they reversed the zip so it's now top right to bottom left, with the dump on the LH shoulder (normal location).

I personally prefer the Sci-tec high profile valve over the Apeks which came with the suit. I replaced it with a Sci-tec valve from the old suit for a test and it worked. I bought a replacement Sci-tec dump and have been using it ever since.

FYI you can fit a Sci-tec valve (dump and inflate -- ~34mm wide) into an Apeks hole (~38mm wide), but not vice-versa.

I've found the BZ400 does hold on to air and needs a flick down of the legs to get any gas out of my feet (flat, feet up diving stance). Kind of got used to it now but the BZ400 isn't as good for dumping as my old 4th Element Arctic Expeditions. However, without any doubt the (made-to-measure) BZ400 is a fantastic undersuit: warm and fits well and a lot faster to kit up -- would not go back to the 4Ele now I have a BZ400.

 

[Luke99]

Just an update, as i forgot to come back to this.

There was no issue with the actual dump valve. Its the position that it is on the suit.

I have started turning the wrist seal to twist the entire sleeve a bit when I don the suit, and also pushing the dump valve up when I need to vent. This combined with really exaggerating my body and shoulder angle seem to help a BIT, but I am considering getting it moved. I'm spending way too much brain power on getting air out of this suit. If I were to have an issue on a stop that I couldn't pass while also having trouble getting the suit venting I would be concerned...

 

[Wibble]

Just an update, as i forgot to come back to this.

There was no issue with the actual dump valve. Its the position that it is on the suit.

I have started turning the wrist seal to twist the entire sleeve a bit when I don the suit, and also pushing the dump valve up when I need to vent. This combined with really exaggerating my body and shoulder angle seem to help a BIT, but I am considering getting it moved. I'm spending way too much brain power on getting air out of this suit. If I were to have an issue on a stop that I couldn't pass while also having trouble getting the suit venting I would be concerned...

You absolutely don't want this to become a "thing". It's distracting and can be outright difficult to control if you can't get some gas out of the suit.

For my suit problem, the dump would fold over and was a swine to get it to dump. After Santi remade the suit it worked fine, although it's still not as quick to dump as my old Predator suit. This could be down to the BZ400 undersuit though.

 

[vioch]

Its the position that it is on the suit

Faced with the same problem long ago, I initially used an additional cuff dump valve, then repositioned the main dump valve and forgot about the issue.

 

[Luke99]

You absolutely don't want this to become a "thing". It's distracting and can be outright difficult to control if you can't get some gas out of the suit.

For my suit problem, the dump would fold over and was a swine to get it to dump. After Santi remade the suit it worked fine, although it's still not as quick to dump as my old Predator suit. This could be down to the BZ400 undersuit though.

It absolutely has been a 'thing' on dives where that is not something I should be thinking about. So definitely going to look into leaving the suit with my LDS to move it over Feb/March when I wont be diving locally anyway. I do think the BZ400 is making the issue worse, as I'm having to hold what i feel is an awkward exhaust position longer. Awkward compared to how I have dumped air from previous drysuits anyway.