Dump valve management

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

Peter McGuinness

Contributor
Messages
252
Reaction score
0
Location
San Diego CA
I am a new drysuit diver with just a handful of dives in my Otter neoprene drysuit. I seem to be doing something wrong with the shoulder dump valve - it's an apex - and it leaks on one dive but not another. I can't work out a consistent practise for keeping it dry. Any suggestions?

_ More info: I use my wing for bouyancy and put very little air into the suit. I have been keeping it > 80% open so as to hold only a small volume of air in the suit and I wear thin underclothes.

Peter
 
Most valves are secured with a nut type affair and come with instructions to make sure it is snug before diving. This is very important on the first 5 or 6 dives when the neoprene sees compression for the first times.

As for running the valve I leave mine wide open except at the end of the dive when I want to pump it up for comfort while breaking gear down. Otherwise moving around slowly expels air through the 1 way valve and you get vacuum packed.

Some divers will start the dive with the valve closed because some valves will weep until a pressure differential is established.

Using the BC as primary BC is generally preferred.

Pete
 
Having just got back from Branson, and having had the same issues as you have I'll relate what happened to me.

My exhaust valve would leak a bit of water when I let the suit get a bit too much squeeze on it, the water pressure I guess would overcome the valve and weep in. I solved that by a double diaphram Viking exhaust valve, it won't do this no matter how much I squeeze myself.

Note, I normally don't squeeze myself that tight but have just to see how much I can take. The other day my toenail hurt from it, tightest I've ever managed to pack myself in. Sometimes on a dive you get bored and try to see what happens by doing X...
 
Peter,

You might want to try tightening the valve - when new, a lot of drysuit dumps are shipped a little loose. Secondly, I had an Apeks low profile dump which initially was fine but after a few dives started to leak. You might want to follow Lamont's suggestion and replace the Apeks dump with a Sitek or if you cannot get the Sitek get the older Apeks higher profile dump instead.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

Back
Top Bottom