Frozen Wetsuit?

[Magnus Lundstedt]

As for OP's question, if you really want you wetsuit to dry, you need leave it in place as warm as possibe. if your leave it outside, the water will just freeze. If you put it on the next day, it will probably be worse than just a wet wetsuit

Thats not really correct, if you want it to dry, put it somewhere as dry as possible.

In the winter, with temperatures down around -30 degrees C , the cold outdoors air is actualy very dry.

When i was a child my mother often hung laundry out to dry in wery cold weather, no problem at all and it dryed faster than it did in the basement, where the humidity was higher.

 

[Magnus Lundstedt]

Mine will (it's a Saab!) Agreed that yours may not start. But it will not fall apart. And it will work just fine once things warm up a bit, with no degradation in performance.

All cars I have owned have started in temperatures south of -30*C down to -40*C without problems, if there is a good battery and overall god condition of the engine.

I have had different brands, Volvo, SAAB, Opel, MB, Ford, Citroen, VW, BMW, Subaru and Chevrolet. But I live 64*North, so we have winter for real sometimes, you have to have a car starting in winter conditions.

 

[Bubblesong]

Thats not really correct, if you want it to dry, put it somewhere as dry as possible.

In the winter, with temperatures down around -30 degrees C , the cold outdoors air is actualy very dry.

When i was a child my mother often hung laundry out to dry in wery cold weather, no problem at all and it dryed faster than it did in the basement, where the humidity was higher.

True, I also hung laundry in winter, miserable work, but ice sublimes on dry conditions. the laundry was pretty stiff though.

 

[Rred]

If you call a wetsuit manufacturer and ask "How much buoyancy does this wetsuit have?" the odds are they won't know. They're just clerks, shoemakers, people who sell rubber clothes.

Call a neoprene supplier like Rubatex--and they'll have real answers.

Neoprene itself is just "rubber". Wetsuits use "foamed neoprene" or "crushed foamed neoprene" and that's different. The bubbles can be made different ways. In theory they are all close cell but as the foam flexes, some bubble walls break and some water can intrude more than when the foam was new. As a wet wetsuit freezes, any water trapped in the surface layer will expand by about 10%, and in theory that shouldn't burst anything but then again...sometimes those cell walls break as they age. So freezing might or might not cause slight "aging".

If you hang things up in really dry freezing weather, you can freeze dry them. That's the good news, the ice will sublimate out and you'll have a cold dry wetsuit.(G)

But why bother, why take a chance? Assuming you live where there are any building codes, or that you have taken reasonable steps in your bathroom, there's some ventilation in it? Just add a "goldenrod" or other dehumidifier is you don't want to just use a fan, and dry the suit and the bathroom at the same time. (A "goldenrod" is a closet dehumidifier, basically a 2-3' long pole that is heated slightly, and sits on the closet floor to keep things dry. Sold in marinas and chandleries if you can't find one at the hardware store.)

But inquiring minds want to know...What setting do you use to dry your wetsuit in the microwave? Or is "permanent press" in the clothes drier ok? (VBG)

 

[TMHeimer]

I do hang it up inside if below freezing, as my OP was hypothetical.
Sweden: I don't know how often it goes below -30 there. Where I used to live in Northern Manitoba that can happen for weeks at a time Dec. through March (with some fun days at -45C--NOT the wind chill). Everyone without a garage "plugs in" their vehicles and truckers leave their motors running constantly.

 

[Magnus Lundstedt]

I do hang it up inside if below freezing, as my OP was hypothetical.
Sweden: I don't know how often it goes below -30 there. Where I used to live in Northern Manitoba that can happen for weeks at a time Dec. through March (with some fun days at -45C--NOT the wind chill). Everyone without a garage "plugs in" their vehicles and truckers leave their motors running constantly.

Depend of what part of Sweden, in the south it is not so cold, in my part 64*North close to the coast (it is colder/more snow if you leav the coast and go 300-400km west) it can be -30*C or below for a couple of weeks or 3 months, i have seen -45*C close to where i live, but it is not that usual. last winters have been awful with no cold to speak of and only little snow, :-(

If you go North for 500 to 700 km, there are real winter