I feel like i have a leak or I'm incontinent...

[fisheater]

My rule of thumb is that if there's liquid soothing in one or both boots, it was a leak. If not, it was sweat condensation.

Another anti-sweat tip: As soon as you get in the water, fully inflate your suit with dry tank air and then fully vent. Repeat as necessary. That will hopefully exhaust most do the moisture-laden air from suiting up and getting in the water.


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[Mitchell Teeters]

I'm getting the moisture in the crotch area. I went for a dive this afternoon and due to weight adjustments I didn't have to fill and adjust the air in the suit. I had considerably less moisture than normal. I was wearing some black underwear and I could see that most of the moisture was in there area of where the zipper closes, the appendix area. i also made certain that the zipper was really closed. I felt of the garment and generally it was much drier as well. I also looked at the inside of the of the suit and i could see that there was dampness in the area near where the zipper closes. Yet on the outside of the garment it is dry. As well as the pocket right there. Jeez

I think if I had a leak I would know without a doubt due to the cold water that would come in. Thoughts?

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[dkktsunami]

Probably normal and is likely sweat wicked to the surface of underwear. I now classify suits in three categories: wet suits, semi-dry suits, and almost dry suits.

 

[TSandM]

It can be really difficult to distinguish heavy condensation from a small leak. The first trick is to figure out if the dampness is fairly evenly spread over the undergarment, or whether it's concentrated in one area. Concentration is more suggestive of a leak, but be aware that where the concentration is may not have much at all to do with where the leak is. If you dive in good trim, leaks from a great variety of places will all result in a wet crotch, because the water seeps down the front of the suit and pools there. (One of the most common culprits for this is a not quite solid neck seal!)

If you strongly suspect a leak, a really great way to find the general area from which it is coming is to put the suit on over a light cotton garment (I love surgical scrubs for this purpose) and get in a hot tub or swimming pool for just one or two minutes. Get out, carefully peel the suit off, and inspect the scrubs for wet spots. If you find one, you have at least isolated the general area of the suit where the leak is. Then you can use any one of a number of techniques for finding the leak. I've had pretty good success with inflating the suit and spraying the area in question with a dilute detergent solution. Where it bubbles is where the hole is. You can also take the suit in a dark room and put a light inside it, or turn the suit inside out and fill it with water (but that technique is really a PITA).

With my first dry suit, I asked the question you are asking for months, and even had my instructors feel my undergarments. Nobody was sure. It turned out there was a seam leak in the crotch that only opened up when the leg was flexed just the right way. It took over a year to find and fix that leak!

 

[Aqua-Andy]

Slight hijack to this topic. Why do some suits experience more condensation inside than others? My first suit a Bare Nex-Gen never had a drop of condensation inside no mater the weather condition I dove it in. My Whites Fusion creates tons of condensation so much that I I thought it was leaking at first, but it happened with both my suit and the demo suit I tried out. I even went as far as tasting the condensation to see if it tasted salty from the sea water. At first I thought maby it was due to the shiny waterproof coating on the inside but then a buddy of mine dives a CF200 and has a similar amount of condensation in his suit.

 

[TSandM]

I wonder if it has something to do with how well the undergarments you are using wick body moisture? If a lot of it gets trapped in the UG, it won't condense on the inside of the suit, but if the UG is very permeable, more moisture will wick to the outside of it and condense on the suit material.

 

[hypertech]

You might be warmer on the surface in the fusion suit and sweating more. Pre-dive I tend to have a lot of air in my suit and that helps keep me from overheating a little bit. When I jump in, that humid air mostly vents out. In the fusion, this probably doesn't haven so much.

 

[Ouvea]

Slight hijack to this topic. Why do some suits experience more condensation inside than others? My first suit a Bare Nex-Gen never had a drop of condensation inside no mater the weather condition I dove it in. My Whites Fusion creates tons of condensation so much that I I thought it was leaking at first, but it happened with both my suit and the demo suit I tried out. I even went as far as tasting the condensation to see if it tasted salty from the sea water. At first I thought maby it was due to the shiny waterproof coating on the inside but then a buddy of mine dives a CF200 and has a similar amount of condensation in his suit.

I'm with you on this one. My Pinnacle Evolution drysuit had condensation but nothing on the order of what I find in my Whites Fusion. I dive with drive gloves as well. To see if there was any leak. I installed my dry gloves. Got a large bottle and stuffed it through the neck seal. Fully inflated the suit and checked for leaks. Could not find any and the suit held pressure for a very long time (over 1/2 hour) until I let the air out. I'm not sure if it's because the Whites Fusion has such a close fit as compared to my Evolution drysuit. With the Fusion, I'm as streamlined as any wetsuit diver. I wear Craft Pro Warm base layers which do a very good job of moisture management.

The thought of a leak always remains in the back of my mind but I never get that cold water seeping that I got when I didn't install my dry glove correctly. Probably is moisture but a good leak test is probably the only way of determining this.

 

[Mitchell Teeters]

I'm probably going to suit up and have the suit sprayed with a soapy solution. The reduced amount of condensation on the last dive leads me to think it is likely sweat. The reduced inflation and deflation seemed to help the wet spot. On the inside of the suit I can see if there is moisture and if there were a stream I could see the trail.

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[Peter_C]

You don't need to suit up to spray the suit with soapy water. Just stuff a food container or the like in the neck and use drygloves or bottles in the wrist seals. Close the exhaust and fill away. I use a hose and my regular air compressor, with an inflator gun, to blow the suit up.