Drysuit inflator valve, how tight?

[vondo]

Yesterday I had a very wet dive. When I got back on the surface, I noticed that the inflator valve on my drysuit was almost unscrewed. I tightened it back down "hand tight" and had two dry dives after that, but is that the correct tightness? Should I tighten it more? I was worried about stripping plastic threads.

 

[HenrikBP]

I only have experience with the removable valves on a Fusion suit, but hand-tight is pretty much what I did. The Fusion has a nylon washer on the inside to allow the inside valve part to rotate easier when tightening it down, so if there' something like that on your suit, make sure it's assembled in the correct order.

A small strap wrench can help get a well-tightenend valve off. I wouldn't "crank" too heavily with a strap wrench when tightening though.

Henrik

 

[TSandM]

What Henrik said. I don't use tools to tighten mine, unless you count a husband with stronger hands as a tool . . .

 

[vondo]

Thanks. A Fusion is what I dive too, so I'll just keep it hand tight (and by that I don't mean as tight as I can possibly crank it down with my hands).