Drysuit undergarment vs. thermal underwear?

[Randy43068]

Thanks Jeff. Lucky for me, haven't gotten the DUI undies wet................ yet.

 

[Randy43068]

not sure if anyone said this yet. But "real" drysuit undies dry really fast, too. The real-deal will dry faster than the stuff I tossed together as poor man's undies.

 

[JeffG]

not sure if anyone said this yet. But "real" drysuit undies dry really fast, too. The real-deal will dry faster than the stuff I tossed together as poor man's undies.

The DUI 400 undies take forever to dry if completely water logged. (but its hard to get them into that state.)

Weezles dry quick though.

 

[TSandM]

Don't have a dry suit here, but I've been looking into it, and thing I've 'heard' is that some of the better cold water purpose-made underwear still keeps some insulating value when soaked, as opposed to above-water thermal underwear. How much truth is there to this?

I flooded a suit in 50 degree water with my DC Thinsulate undergarment, and had almost a 30 minute swim back to shore. I was good and cold, all right, but didn't end up in the hospital.

I flooded my suit with my MK3, thought I had a little wrist leak, decided to dive anyway, and POURED water out of the suit when I finished an hour's dive. I didn't know it was there.

I tried using regular heavy Polarfleece stuff under my dry suit at first, because I have a lot of it. (I ride in the wintertime.) To get the same degree of insulation, I ended up with massively thick layering, and tremendous air trapping and need for weight. The purpose-made stuff IS better.

 

[Randy43068]

That's my experience as well, trying to use clothing at hand.

 

[dwhthediver]

My experience is that I have had both off the rack and the specialty undergarments, give me purpose built any day, the only for sure given if you dive a drysuit long enough, you will find out if what you are using for an undergarment will insulate when wet, I have had never had a complete flood, but that d*&^% exhaust valve leak drove me crazy for a weekend on a cold water dive trip to WI