Drysuit Leak or Sweat?

[BFRedrocks]

I dive locally in Arizona where outside diving weather temps can reach 110 (higher than that, but I won't dive when it's hotter than 110) with a lake temperature in the 50s at depth. So first off, I sweat a LOT suiting up as you can imagine, and that basically saturates my baselayer. If you take that amount of warm liquid and then submerge a sealed suit in water that is colder by 50-60 degrees, you also get a LOT of condensation inside the suit. So I generally come up with my undergarments soaked without my suit leaking.

BUT, this "natural" wetness will generally be distributed pretty evenly. A leak would be indicated more likely by a focused amount of water, and I've determined leaks in my suit because of that. I'm almost positive that my new drysuit has a leak at the p-valve, but I haven't officially tested it yet or sent it back to the dive shop for future testing.

 

[Dubious]

BUT, this "natural" wetness will generally be distributed pretty evenly.

Thank you. I was unsure how well undergarments wicked moisture to distribute leaks across the entire undergarment. My suit is still at DUI .

 

[Dubious]

Drysuit came back and I was able to take it out on 4 dives. It was nice to be dry, but when I picked up the suit from the dive shop, the manager asked, "did you hear what happened?" I said no. He went on to tell me that when DUI tested the suit the whole neck seal came detached from the suit. I replied, "after you guys reglued it on?" at which he said the shop didn't reglue the neck seal. I told the shop manager that the message left for me stated the neck seal was reglued, drysuit pressure tested and it was determined the valve was the failure point which is why it was sent in.

I guess I should have just listened to scubaboard in the first place. Oh well. $400 later I have a new exhaust valve and new zip-seal with peace of mind (?) that the suit passed DUI $125 inspection service.

 

[CT-Rich]

When I started with my dry suit, I figured more is better. I wore a layer of thermals under my fleece for extra warmth. This was actually a mistake. Your undergarments aren’t just fluffy to provide an insulating air space around your body. They wick the sweat away from your skin. A damp layer of polar tec next to your skin will make you very cold and clammy because the sweat is held close to your skin. Try ditching the polartec and wearing only the undergarments, you will feel much warmer. On hot day, you are going to sweat a ton inside a giant black condom. I like to douse my outer shell with water as soon as the zipper is closed, the evaporative cooling helps a lot.

It is doubtful that two new dry suits would both leak.

 

[Andy_Mason]

Whoever made up the name "Drysuit" lied .
Depends on the person, some are warm by nature some cold. I'm warm by nature, suiting up I get HOT and sweat. Even up here in Ontario by the time I got in the water my feet and legs were drenched. I also do a lot of cave in MX, when there I was soaked from the waist down after every dive.
Have had my suit check multiple times both by myself and by professionals, no leeks.
My solution, used to dive with C400 booties, switched to C200 still had the same problem, eventually just started using regular wool socks, end of problem for the most part.
Worked so well I sent my suit in and had the boots downsized so they wouldn't be to big with the regular socks.
If you are pressure testing your own suit make sure you turn it inside out for the test, you will get much better results.

My boots are the vulcanized rubber style so obviously can't be turned inside out. Would you still suggest turning as much of the suit inside out as possible to do a leak test or in this case is it better to just leak test right side out?