Dump valve management

[Peter McGuinness]

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

 

[spectrum]

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

 

[cummings66]

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...

 

[lamont]

i fixed this problem in mine by installing a si-tech low profile dump...

 

[dbulmer]

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.