Leak in the air dump on my drysuit?

[carrielsal]

I have a Fusion. I went out for a quick swim tonight. At about 70' my left arm started feeling wet and cold. I thought I was imagining things, but 10 minutes later I was getting cold.
When I got out of the water I found that not only was my left arm wet, water had ran down my left side. I thought maybe I hadn't closed the zipper all the way, but the top of my shoulder was dry. The wet spot on my undies started at the dump on my arm. I looked at the dump and don't see any problems.
Anyone have any ideas why it would leak? I have about 20 dives in the last couple of months in this DS and never had this problem before.

 

[Web Monkey]

I have a Fusion. I went out for a quick swim tonight. At about 70' my left arm started feeling wet and cold. I thought I was imagining things, but 10 minutes later I was getting cold.
When I got out of the water I found that not only was my left arm wet, water had ran down my left side. I thought maybe I hadn't closed the zipper all the way, but the top of my shoulder was dry. The wet spot on my undies started at the dump on my arm. I looked at the dump and don't see any problems.
Anyone have any ideas why it would leak? I have about 20 dives in the last couple of months in this DS and never had this problem before.

Unfortunately, this is one of those things where someone will need to actually take a look at it and see what the problem is.

The dump valve might be dirty, damaged, mis-adjusted, or not attached to the suit properly, or it might be a coincidence and the leak is somewhere else in the area. It could also be leaking at your wrist seal, and wicking up your arm.

Sorry for the non-answer, but it's really hard to tell without looking at it.

I'm guessing that it's still under warranty, so the shop that sold it to you should be happy to take a look at it.

Terry

 

[carrielsal]

When I got out of the water I checked my wrist seal to make sure I didn't catch something under it. I'm going to take it out tomorrow and see if it leaks again. My DS is only a couple of months old.

 

[Web Monkey]

When I got out of the water I checked my wrist seal to make sure I didn't catch something under it. I'm going to take it out tomorrow and see if it leaks again. My DS is only a couple of months old.

What's "under it" might be you.

Some people have wrists tendons that cause gaps in the seal when flexed. This may or may not be a problem, but is another place where water sometimes comes in.

Terry

 

[tstormdiver]

Druing my first trip down to FL for my cave class, my drysuit sprang 3 leaks,... all of them on the left side. By the last 2 days, I was completely soaked on my left side on every dive. I had a small pin hole on the left latex sleeve, I had worn a hole in the rock boot sock on the left side & then my exhaust valve was leaking. replaced the wrist seal, replaced the socks & then had to take the exhaust valve apart to see why that was leaking, turned out to be a bunch of sand. Cleaned the valve out & then reassembled it. I had to send my new drysuit (the one pictured)back in for repairs. It was only 5mos old & I had one of the suspenders come unsewn & the insoles of the rock boots came unglued.

 

[scubamountaingirl]

HI, its so hard with leaks to identify them unless it is an obvious tear. In my fusion, i have had a lot of wrist seal leaks for various reasons and my whole arm was wet. It was not my valve but it took a couple of more dives with dry undergarments to see what and where... my feedback is rule out the wrist seals and move up. If you did get a pin hole there are many threads on how to check for that. I hope your suit is ok...let us know

ww

 

[Texas Torpedo]

The wet spot on my undies started at the dump on my arm. I looked at the dump and don't see any problems.
Anyone have any ideas why it would leak? I have about 20 dives in the last couple of months in this DS and never had this problem before.

Has anyone had a leak possibly related to the dump valve on their Whites?

 

[TSandM]

Yes, I have had my dump valve leak. It began with getting rolled in the sand at Carmel River Beach. I took the valve apart and serviced it, and it stayed dry for a while, but then began to leak again.

One easy solution to a leak is to click the valve down a couple of times -- that will often stop the leaking, but still allow you to vent the suit easily. If that doesn't work, I have a photo essay on the DMX site about how to take a SiTech dump valve apart and clean it. Do NOT try to play with the spring. It is my belief that they do gradually lose elasticity and contribute to leaking when the valve is fully open, but the calibration is apparently pretty critical, and if you screw around with the spring, you WILL end up buying a new valve. If you have to do that, Bob3 sells them at an excellent price.

 

[MarkH]

I was trying to find where all the water came from on my Fusion a while ago. One of the things I checked was the dump valve. It turned out the valve was not screwed on to the suit very tightly. That wasn't where my leaks were coming from, but you might want to check yours. When they assembled the skin, they might not have screwed it on fully.

 

[carrielsal]

The wet spot on my undergarment started at right at the air dump and that' were I started feeling wet first, so I'm almost certain that was where the leak was. I turned it several times and went out for a couple of dives today. It didn't leak. I wonder if something got caught in it.