Dump Valve: Shoulder or Wrist?

[Lenaxia]

Hey guys, I'm wondering what your preference is on a dump valve. Shoulder or wrist? And why?

I'm looking at getting a drysuit within the next week and I'm trying to decide if I want to request them to move the dump valve down. I've had a chance to dive dry twice with shoulder mount and feel that as I am right now I'd like a wrist mount, but I'm not sure if I'd feel the same way as I get more experienced with it.

Looking for different and more experienced opinions!

 

[DevonDiver]

My preference is shoulder. I think cuff dumps are relics. Shoulder dump takes care of itself and leaves you with 2 hands free.

 

[Tigerman]

My vote is shoulder, simply because it means all I have to do to dump some air is roll a bit to the side and out it goes. My arms generally is lower in the body than my shoulders so shoulder is the most logic place in my mind..

Wrist dumps sound to me like reaching and/or going out of trim more..

 

[Lenaxia]

Both of you seem to have dump valves where rolling is sufficient to dump. I was diving both a CF200 and a CLX450 with DUI's 300g undies at their DOG Demo days.

I found that I had to roll then reach over and really jiggle the valve to get it to start dumping even if it was fully open (where I left it most of the time) and I didn't have any trapped air. Is this just because of poor design on DUI's part? Or something else?

 

[Tigerman]

I cant say for those suits specifically, but when Ive tried DUI it wasnt the dump valve that made my go for another brand. Dump valves SHOULD however be able to dump without any "jiggeling" with it, just a roll. Why this didnt happen I cannot say for sure, but the undergarment pressing against the dump valve could be a possible reason, especially if its "very lofty". I do notice a few people using a piece of tape around their arm just below the dump valve to make sure it dont get blocked by the undergarment.

 

[taucherguy]

I am with DevonDiver. I prefer a shoulder valve over a wrist valve. Personally I don't want both arms occupied bor dumping and now my have only one arm to share a computer and timer. IMHO

 

[taucherguy]

The drysuit I bought after taking the drysuit class was the CLX450 and I have not had any issues with dumping air. And I prefer those low profile valves to the standard towers they use in other suits. I also used the Thinsulate undergarment which is far thinner than some others. Could that have been your issue?

Both of you seem to have dump valves where rolling is sufficient to dump. I was diving both a CF200 and a CLX450 with DUI's 300g undies at their DOG Demo days.

I found that I had to roll then reach over and really jiggle the valve to get it to start dumping even if it was fully open (where I left it most of the time) and I didn't have any trapped air. Is this just because of poor design on DUI's part? Or something else?

 

[spectrum]

Depending how empty you want to have the suit the automatic feature may not get you there. Depending on your build and gear, the common shoulder placement may be too far around to predictably reach while rolling the shoulder up. For many the standard (DUI) shoulder placement is not a good fit.

In those cases either a cuff (forearm) dump or having the shoulder valve moved a few inches closer can be an improvement. Each will require a modification in technique but reaching the valve is need #1.

At Dog Days my wife could not really reach the stock valve in an otherwise good fitting suit. She went cuff when buying.

Another friend has the stock placement and is looking into moving it for good access.

The cuff dump can be manually actuated with a press against the noggin for one arm operation.

As a new DS diver you may not have really had the valve at the high point or had the bubble worked to the left shoulder quite right. Getting that all to the true highpoint can be a little deceptive.

Pete

 

[TSandM]

I have had both shoulder dumps and a cuff dump, and I prefer the shoulder. With a cuff dump, if you have to lift the arm for any reason, you lose gas from the suit. (So valve drills in doubles are a real pain!)

But it's true that the location of a shoulder dump is important. My custom Diving Concepts suit came with the dump on the front of the shoulder, which meant the only way I could dump gas was to go completely vertical and lean BACKWARDS. Needless to say, THAT wasn't working for me.

In addition, if you weight yourself neutral with no air in the BC and no air in the suit, then that's the state you need to reach at the end of the dive, and it can be difficult, especially if you did your weight check after standing in the water (where the whole lower portion of the suit is really squeezed). I prefer to weight myself about two pounds heavier than that -- having the extra gas in the suit makes it much easier to move it around and get it to the valve to dump.

I'd also add that a cuff dump can get in the way of wrist gauges.

 

[Lenaxia]

Thanks for the feed back guys! I'll take all that into consideration when talking to them about dump location.

Also TSandM, you read my mind! My next question was about weighting, whether to weight for a completely empty suit or for one with a tad bit of air.