Drysuit leaking from the heel

[tstormdiver]

I have a DUI TLS 350 that is about 1yr old & has about 100 dives on it. It flooded in the left leg up to about the knee, yesterday, twice. I have Rock boots with it. From what I can find, it looks like I have some worn spots on the heel of the suit. Even though the suit is custom fit, the neoprene boot area sewn to the suit is a little bit long for my feet, so tend to get bunched up in the boot. Anyone else ever have this problem? It just seems odd that it has started leaking like this in only a year.

 

[spectrum]

Water tightness is not a very forgiving attribute. If it was a stressed fit maybe it's not so surprising.

Does it appear to be a damaged seam or a region of damaged material?

Neoprene foam rubber can tear internally even if the nylon skin looks OK. That is one of the evils of a neoprene drysuit. In your case only the socks are vulnerable.

Look at the bright side. If the damage were elsewhere you may have gotten all wet.

Pete

 

[tstormdiver]

You're right & the other good part, is the water isn't real cold.... just yet. The suit is a trilam, but has neoprene booties sown on that are worn inside the rock boots. It's not really stressed, but the booty is a little long for my feet & it tends to bunch up there in the rock boots, but really doesn't bother me (like having socks that are a bit too big), but obviously must cause some extra rubbing inside of the boot. I can see the wear on the outside,but the inside looks fine, just thin feeling. I checked the legs inside & out & found nothing. I'm taking the suit to the shop this week to have it pressure tested to see where the leak actually is & see what can be done.

 

[spectrum]

Other than trying to pressure test it yourself out of curiosity that sounds like the thing to do at this pint.

It's frustrating when these things turn into money pits and nuisances. I enjoy drysuit for the extra dive opportunities it affords but there are certain disappointments I never get from my wetsuits!

 

[dave4868]

I just recently had the same problem with the DUI "socks" on my CLx450, but it took almost 500 dives to get to that point. And I dive mostly beach dives, with my Rockboots loosely laced, so I would expect more chafing. Yours went prematurely, I'd say.

One of my crushed neoprene socks began to leak a little where the nylon covering and crushed neoprene of the heel had worn through.

After confirming the extent of the leaking areas with soapy water, then a water bath and finally a flashlight test, three pinholes were found in those worn areas.

Then I Aquasealed the inside and outside of those areas and now it's fine again. Good for another few hundred dives maybe.

I Aquasealed the other heel for good measure, since it had worn areas, too.

50/50 Aquaseal/Cotol works pretty well. I used two coats.

Good luck!

Dave C

 

[tstormdiver]

Thanks for the advice. That will help immensely.

 

[karstdvr]

When I read the title,"drysuit leaking from the heal",I knew it was a DUI product. That seems to be an Achilles heel (bad pun) of their suits,and I suffered from the same frustration,and no real solution from DUI. I solved the problem by removing the DUI feet,and replacing them with 905 boots. A chronic problem was solved.

 

[u4ia]

I have turbosoles on my 350 and a couple of weeks ago had some leaking into my right foot. the toe area of my turbos had some obvious wear - applied aquaseal and all is good again. the suit has > 200 dives on it.

I like the flexibility of the turbosoles and I dont really want rockboots (seems an annoyance to me more than anything). My turbos are a bit too big so that contributes to the wear on the toes in my case. apparently DUI custom sizing does not really include the foot. I think DUI can do better on the boot and its the only thing on my suit that disappoints me. neither option seems ideal given the wear and sizing issues.
anybody use the DUI neoprene socks inside a regular wetsuit boot instead?

 

[tstormdiver]

No,you're right, DUI doesn't cover the foot sizing very well. They only ask for a shoe size. I have a rather short, but wide foot (not terribly wide, but wider than the average foot that size- they commonly don't make women's shoe sizes in wides). I usually have to get shoes that are a little bit large so that they will fit me for width.

 

[SDAnderson]

The rockboots are sub-optimal: fix the socks and ditch the boots. I've had excellent results with DeepSee Echozip neoprene boots - they're cheap, warm, flexible, durable, immune to blow-offs and don't grind on the crushed neoprene sock like the rockboots do. Others have had good results with DiveRite 905 neoprene boots. I see some folks wearing canvas tennis shoes but that seems more like a "rockboot lite" fashion statement than a solution.

I have a friend who refers to his DIR-certified Turbosoles as "huffer's heaven" because of the constant patching that goes on at the wear points at the toes and heels. Hard on your liver, they end up looking like a Rorschach blot of Aquaseal and tend to balloon up as soon he gets prone in the water.