Question Drysuit Heating. Which valves should I get?

[Sol]

Thanks, all, for your advice and input. I ended up going with Santi -- my friend had it in stock and says he's had good experience with it. Question, though: the connector comes with a little round plastic thingie. Anybody know what it's for?

 

[Wibble]

Thanks, all, for your advice and input. I ended up going with Santi -- my friend had it in stock and says he's had good experience with it. Question, though: the connector comes with a little round plastic thingie. Anybody know what it's for?

Clipped to the underside of the valve to make it:

• More comfortable when the valve is pressed against your ribs/sternum when inflating
• Distributes the gas through by having more holes
• Stops you from being frozen with the cold drysuit inflation gas (air)
• Prevent the (weak and feeble) E/O cable from being squashed

 

[Sol]

Clipped to the underside of the valve to make it:

• more comfortable when the valve is pressed against st your ribs/sternum
• Let the gas through by having more holes
• Stops you from being frozen with the cold drysuit inflation gas (air)
• Prevent the (weak and feeble) E/O cable from being squashed

Ya, I looked at my instructor's set up (see below). That round piece marked with the red arrows is what it clips to. From its positioning, I'm guessing it's what the male threads on the connector screw into from the outside of the drysuit, replacing the original Apeks valve cap. Instructor says the connector should have shipped with it, and of course it didn't, and I don't know why not. Can't even find it on any of the Santi websites, so god knows what it's even called.

 

[Sol]

Followup:

Here's my note to Santi:

I just purchased a heated vest and drysuit connector yesterday. Neither the vendor nor I could figure out what this was:

Today at the dive site, I looked at my instructor's setup (he uses Santi heating system as well). He directed my attention to the part indicated in red here:

He said it should have been included with the drysuit connector when I bought it.

I can see the relationship between it and the first part, but I don't know the name for either one of them -- it's not show in the manual. I'm also assuming that the second part is where the male threads on the connector screw in from the outside of the drysuit. The first part, I'm also assuming, snaps on and protects the cord and disperses the air inflow when the diver presses the chest inflator button.

Can you advise me the names of these parts and please send me one if possible? I'm using an Apeks valve.

Also, I can't register the vest on your website because it won't accept the serial number.





And this is their response:

Hello ,

Stay Dry Club is dedicated only for Santi drysuits.

 

[jborg]

Take a picture of the valve you got? The piece you point to with the red arrows, really a kind of nut (though my English terminology may be wrong), is probably screwed onto it already. Unscrew it, put the valve through the opening in the drysuit, screw on the nut from the inside of the suit. Clip on the piece you don't know what to do with.

 

[Wibble]

The large circular threaded NUT you're pointing at is to tighten the valve to the drysuit.

Personally I use a large footprint pipe spanner to tighten it up.

The other plastic CLIP is to keep the heater wire in place and bent back from the valve button when depressed. Also (as I said above) it's far more comfortable when the inflator's depressed against your chest. That CLIP can be a bit of a sod to remove, but a screwdriver will pop it off. When it clips on, it'll go click and not fall off when you move your hand away.

Some annotations...

(Edit: updated annotations)

 

[Sol]

Take a picture of the valve you got? The piece you point to with the red arrows, really a kind of nut (though my English terminology may be wrong), is probably screwed onto it already. Unscrew it, put the valve through the opening in the drysuit, screw on the nut from the inside of the suit. Clip on the piece you don't know what to do with.

Unfortunately not. "Nut" is the right word, but it didn't come with.

 

[Sol]

The large circular threaded NUT you're pointing at is to tighten the valve to the drysuit.

Personally I use a large footprint pipe spanner to tighten it up.
View attachment 878102

The other plastic CLIP is to keep the heater wire in place and bent back from the valve button when depressed. Also (as I said above) it's far more comfortable when the inflator's depressed against your chest. That CLIP can be a bit of a sod to remove, but a screwdriver will pop it off. When it clips on, it'll go click and not fall off when you move your hand away.

Some annotations...

View attachment 878105

Ya, I worked that out with the help of my instructor, who's been using this for years. Unfortunately the connector arrived with the clip, but not the nut. Doesn't make sense that they'd ship one but not the other, but that's the way it is. Now I'm lucky enough to be learning the dynamics of dealing with Santi service ...

ETA: They said they'd send me one. We'll see what happens.

 

[Sol]

Oh, it gets better. Now they're saying that because it's a connector and not a thermovalve, I'm supposed to use it with the existing Apeks valve cap -- except that the existing Apeks valve cap doesn't have anywhere to route the heater cord. FFS. All this for one little piece of plastic.

 

[SpaceX Aquanaut]

Oh, it gets better. Now they're saying that because it's a connector and not a thermovalve, I'm supposed to use it with the existing Apeks valve cap -- except that the existing Apeks valve cap doesn't have anywhere to route the heater cord. FFS. All this for one little piece of plastic.

Just cut away the center section of the valve cap, and file/de-burr the sharp points of the remaining “spokes”. . .