How dry is a dry suit?

[ZzzKing]

I've finished my Dry Suit SSI course. We had a first practice inmersion in a deep tank facility. Last week I did my dry suit ckeckout (2 inmersions) in open sea.
The dry suit I've used in the deep tank practice was a little deteriorated owing to heavy use and was not exactly of the size I need. the result was that I finished the dive wet. Water came into via the neck collar, exaust valve and some other small pinholes.

In the open sea check-out, the dry suit was not new, but in good shape. However I found out some water coming in via the left leg and also via the exaust valve.

Of course, in both cases the dry suit was rented.

I would like to know which is your experience. If it's "normal" some leakage.
The pics attached show the white salt stains in my cloths that show where they were wet.

From the looks of things, you might try more deodorant and some Depends. (Sorry, couldn't resist)

 

[NudeDiver]

My drysuit is absolutely dry (Bare XCD Tech). The only wetness inside is due to sweat or condensation.

The wrist seals are great - nothing coming in there (latex, no dry gloves either). The neck is is also great (neoprene), but tight. I was thinking of trimming it some, but I'm afraid I'll screw it up.

Don't pee in your drysuit.

 

[GotNoOcean]

I come out with the wrist of my undergarment damp sometimes, but as long as you set the seals properly you should be pretty close to bone dry.

 

[spoolin01]

My suit has neoprene seals and I would occasionally have damp sleeves or upper body - usually not much and hard to know for sure if it was all from leakage, not perspiration. I started using the Apollo BioSeal neck sleeve under the suit seal and that has reduced the leakage considerably. I've seen these made from simple neoprene but don't know how well that works. There's also a BioSeal for wrists but I haven't tried it out. Pulling my undergarment sleeves well back on my forearms seems to help with the seepage. I spend time upside down and changing depth 10 or 20 feet up and down so that may contribute some to seepage at the neck. I'm tempted to think that minimizing head motion also helps but I can't confirm that.

 

[bamamedic]

My suit quit leaking at the neck when I started using a hood, so I think reducing neck motion does potentially help with reducing leaking at the neck seal (the hood tucked in to the warm neck collar and definitely reduced how much I could move my head around).

Unfortunately, the tendons in my wrists pop up like crazy (so my wrists/forearms are nearly always wet to a degree)....I need dry gloves!

 

[spoolin01]

Unfortunately, the tendons in my wrists pop up like crazy (so my wrists/forearms are nearly always wet to a degree)....I need dry gloves!

The BioSeal, which is a very flexible and tacky wristlet that fits under the suit seal, might seal against your tendons in a way that the stiffer suit seal doesn't.