Hot Water Suit

[Rich Keller]

I was reminded of a couple of DIY ideas when I was relating a story about oyster divers the other day. These guys made their own hot water suits and a unit to heat the water instead of using dry suits. The suit was a standard wet suit with small tubes running hot water from a garden hose to different parts of the suit. The heater was just a pipe about a foot wide and maybe 2 1/2 to 3 feet long with copper tubing coiled on the inside of the pipe. The pipe was standing upright with a metal plate at the top and burner under it heating the water in the copper tube. The temperature was regulated by how fast the water was being run through the copper tubing. This was used in conjunction with surface supply air and incorporated into the umbilical. Might be something an ice diver could use but not much use for basic scuba.

 

[Sam Miller III]

Dick Long president of DUI developed a commerical hot water suit about 40 years ago.

suggest check out DUI

sdm

 

[CuNanoTube]

Seems like a very risky idea. It is not that the idea is bad, it is just that without some form of discrete temperature you risk burning the diver.
A good modification to the system would be to get a couple of industrial temperature controls (a good company would be "process engineering" or omega) and use them to regulate the burner via a solenoid gas valve. You could also put one near the diver to check to see if the water is too hot / cold, and use it to regulate the pump flow. The total cost of such a modification (depending on IP requirements) would be under $1000 and would keep the divers warmer and safer.

 

[Rich Keller]

Dick Long president of DUI developed a commerical hot water suit about 40 years ago.

suggest check out DUI

sdm

I have dove that suit on many occasions. Just wanted to put a DIY option out there.

 

[Rich Keller]

Seems like a very risky idea. It is not that the idea is bad, it is just that without some form of discrete temperature you risk burning the diver.
A good modification to the system would be to get a couple of industrial temperature controls (a good company would be "process engineering" or omega) and use them to regulate the burner via a solenoid gas valve. You could also put one near the diver to check to see if the water is too hot / cold, and use it to regulate the pump flow. The total cost of such a modification (depending on IP requirements) would be under $1000 and would keep the divers warmer and safer.

I am sure that would work but these guys were just putting this thing together out of stuff they found laying around because they did not have the money to do it right. I have dove hot water suits that were made for commercial use that did not have that level of sophistication either. I do not think they spent $100 on the whole thing. If they had a $1000 dollars to play with they probably would not have gotten in the water to begin with.

 

[CuNanoTube]

I am sure that would work but these guys were just putting this thing together out of stuff they found laying around because they did not have the money to do it right. I have dove hot water suits that were made for commercial use that did not have that level of sophistication either. I do not think they spent $100 on the whole thing. If they had a $1000 dollars to play with they probably would not have gotten in the water to begin with.

My last co-op position I was working on a project with a 1.25 Million dollar operating budget, I have to get out of the mindset that $1000 is not nothing.
You are also right, that may be overkill. Then again, putting a temperature control on the heater honestly would not be hard or expensive. You can get a decent digital thermal switch (will turn something on or off at a certian temp.) for under $200, and a solenoid valve is $50 for gas service. Rig that up in a water resistant housing and you have a better control over the water temp.

 

[Rich Keller]

This was something I saw them using 30 years ago. They may have improved on the system since then.

 

[Ben Dugger]

In Alaska the gold divers use surface supply equipment and have gas driven pumps to run the dredge. They just pull some water off one of the pumps and run it through a coil of copper tubing in the engines exhaust. A hose along the air line into their suits keep them warm as toast.

 

[Rich Keller]

How exactly was coil setup at the engines exhaust? I would not have thought that the engine exhaust would provide enough heat.

 

[Ben Dugger]

These cold water divers wind a coil of copper tubing in a fake muffler. Also having a metering valve in the inlet side allows one to adjust the water temperature. The higher the flow rate, the cooler the water.A hose to the diver and a tee fitting lets one hose in front and the other in the back of the suit to distribute the warm water.