Hey drysuit divers: Do you use your exhaust valves?

[ScubaFreak]

I dive the same way as you do jiveturkey. 1/2 or 1/4 turn away from closed. Keeps me comfy throughout the dive. Totally do the same as reefraff when I'm on the surface...overinflate and close the valve for warmth...I look like the michelin man at times on the boat ride back .

Regarding the weight issue, best thing you can do is take your drysuit and undersuit to the ocean (perhaps a shore- would be safer) and do a proper buoyancy check there.

HTH

SF

 

[ScubaSarus]

Mine is a little bit open and never fully closed

 

[String]

Hate the shoulder dumps. Fitted a cuff dump. Not looked back since.

 

[matt_unique]

I generally close it once I get to depth in case I move into a position that would naturally vent the air (going verticle up a wall or wreck for example). Prior to ascending I open it all the way. I offset squeeze in my suit and use my wing for primary lift.

--Matt

 

[jonnythan]

I noticed you were just in a pool.. I don't generally add air to my suit until I've reached at least 30 or so feet.

Once you get that deep, you're either adding air, or you're getting major hickey lovin' from your suit.. and then you will be glad you have the inflator valve.

On the way back up, you will be very glad you have the exhaust valve.. and you will probably be wondering why the darn thing isn't a vaccum pump. It will dawn on you that you can't keep the squeeze on ascent because the pressure difference doesn't work for you on the way up, and then you will be sad

 

[lamont]

after the temperature of the water around here dropped down to 45 degrees, I find myself hammering on the drysuit inflator going down to keep loft in my 400g thinsulate. now that i don't thrash around as much in the water, i get *cold*. i don't know how i was surviving last year in a 200g in the same temperature of water...

anyway, i don't dive my suit tight. i don't use it for buoyancy and don't inflate it enough to get an airbubble, but i keep it inflated and keep the sqeeze off. i paid a bunch of money for that 400g suit, and i don't see the point in compressing it so that i get cold. that drysuit inflator button on the front of my suit is the warmth button... hitting it is good...

of course that means that if i've got adequate loft in my suit for warmth at 100 fsw that when i come back up i'm gonna be venting. it gets really interesting doing ascent drills with an almost full tank and being 10# overweighted and managing all that expansion of gas and having a bunch of air in the suit. it'd go much smoother if i just shrinkwrapped myself at 30 fsw before doing the drill so i didn't have to vent out of the suit on the way up, but i view that as cheating, since that isn't how i dive most of the time...

since i want that air to get out of my suit, i dive with the (shoulder dump) valve entirely open. i used to have one of the low-profile apeks exhaust valves (stock DC or stock DUI i think come with these) which would flood if you had it all the way open and you got any squeeze on the suit, and it also didn't vent very well or fast. i replaced that with a si-tech low profile and those problems have gone away. the only remaining issue that i have is that the dump valve on the suit is towards my front on the centerline running down my shoulder. that means that i need to roll over so that my shoulders form a nearly vertical line for it to dump and usually means some flopping around to get back properly trimmed again. it would be better to move it to the other side of that centerline down the shoulder so that i didn't have to roll as much. i think the drysuit companies like to put it there because they're selling assuming people use the drysuit as a BC and want to prevent it from venting unintentionally, which isn't at all what i want...

 

[Dan Gibson]

Exactly how I do it. If you don't close it during the descent, it can leak.

I close the valve at the surface as soon as I have purged all the excess gas from the suit and don't reopen it until I have reached depth. This helps avoid any little infiltrations that can result in a chilly shoulder. At the bottom, I open it and it stays open until I reach the surface again. Once at the surface, I sometimes overinflate for warmth and will close the valve to keep the gas from escaping. It's a little fiddling but not bad and it keeps my shoulder dry and lets me know that the valve is fully functional.

 

[Web Monkey]

I shouldl be heading to the ocean for my next dive. The water will be much colder (around 8 degrees C) so I'll have my thick Bare CT-200 undies on rather than the t-shirt and shorts that I wore in the pool. Any idea on how much extra weight I'll have to add considering I have the heavy underwear and it'll be salt water?

Nobody can tell you that.

You need to figure it out for yourself by doing a buoyancy check.

With a mostly empty tank (500 PSI/34-35 BAR?), you'll need enough weight to let you be neutral at the surface with no air in your BC and enough air in your drysuit that you're not being crushed.

Terry

 

[bcsean]

wide open always. when in proper trim position, with legs up, a drysuit being used for buoyancy is gonna pull your feet over your head in a hurry. Just enough air to prevent squeeze in the drysuit. a bcd is a buoyancy control device as far as I recall, so that's what I use it for.

Dynamic instability sucks.

 

[jiveturkey]

I noticed you were just in a pool.. I don't generally add air to my suit until I've reached at least 30 or so feet.

My current pool is 5 meters deep. I tried the suit in a shallow pool the first time but that was no fun at all. Making a difficult experience much more difficult.