You're just tightening the valve down on the suit. Hold the part of the valve that is inside the suit, and twist the base of the outer portion clockwise.
Leak in the air dump on my drysuit?
- Thread starter carrielsal
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
OP
jenth
Contributor
I definitely agree with TSandM...it's probably some sand or particles inside the valve. I get this kind of leak more than I'd like to since I tend to get rolled in SoCal surf quite a bit 
What I do is carefully spin the swivel/valve while blasting it with water. Usually I can tell when it has something lodged in it just by listening to the valve as I turn it. It's supposed to be a smooth click, click sort of sound, so I keep blasting water and turning it until I hear this.
I've also taken it off of the suit (it's screwed on pretty tight, so actually my husband helps me with this most of the time ). That's the nice thing about the Fusion...it's not glued on, so it's pretty easy to replace. Just last week, I purchased a back up SiTech valve for my save-a-dive kit ($70 as TSandM says). I've had this leak around 5 times in the 7 months I've had the suit...and each time I was able to fix it after the dive (yeah, the leak during the dive, really sucks...). In the end having a back up seemed like the smart thing to do!
What I do is carefully spin the swivel/valve while blasting it with water. Usually I can tell when it has something lodged in it just by listening to the valve as I turn it. It's supposed to be a smooth click, click sort of sound, so I keep blasting water and turning it until I hear this.
I've also taken it off of the suit (it's screwed on pretty tight, so actually my husband helps me with this most of the time
). That's the nice thing about the Fusion...it's not glued on, so it's pretty easy to replace. Just last week, I purchased a back up SiTech valve for my save-a-dive kit ($70 as TSandM says). I've had this leak around 5 times in the 7 months I've had the suit...and each time I was able to fix it after the dive (yeah, the leak during the dive, really sucks...). In the end having a back up seemed like the smart thing to do!
What type of insulation are you wearing? If it is anything that can pile (that is those little fuzzy balls that some knit clothing get) the pile can get into the valve and will cause it to leak.
Take the suit back to the shop and have it checked under warranty. Unfortunately they may send it out to the manufacturer and it could take a while.
Take the suit back to the shop and have it checked under warranty. Unfortunately they may send it out to the manufacturer and it could take a while.
OP
I'm wearing the White's MK2 or MK3. Since it leaked I've taken it out diving 3 times. The first two dives, no leaks. I wore it today and 10 minutes into the dive I felt water in my arm again. When I finally got out of the water 90 minutes later I had had water all down my left side to my ankle. It's definately coming from the dump valve. I just happen to run into our equipment repair guy at the dive site today and he's going to replace it. They have a Calypso in stock (same SI tech valve), so he's just going to swap it out. I leave Friday for Florida.
Last edited:
OP
I took my DS into the shop tonight. I had been turning the air dump back and forth to make sure nothing was stuck in it, but I wasn't really listening. It sounds almost like there is sand on the inside. Once the valve was off my DS, I tried shaking it but nothing came out. We swapped it out and our repair guy is going to take it apart to see what's in it.
I swear I haven't been rolling in the sand.
I swear I haven't been rolling in the sand.
Similar threads
