leaky drysuits

[Matt S.]

I'm not voting, because I have 2 results that cancel out.

My wife's new Bare D6 does not leak at all. (latex seals all around.)

My used Bare CD4 leaks every dive. Not a lot, not usually enough to be really irritating, but it's there. My left shoulder and arm always get wet. I suspect the dump valve may be at fault, but I have cleaned it and inspected it and it LOOKS ok... It might be operator error, but I just can't figure out what I am doing wrong.

 

[drl]

My White's Catalyst has never leaked. I have gotten wet when I flooded a dry glove, and water traveled up the equalization tube. This happened twice; once I just had a wet sleeve, the second time I got completely soaked. Luckily the air was warm that day!

 

[MSilvia]

I get mositure in my suit too, but it's more of a dampness than wetness. It could be condensation, it could be the puffy collar of my Weezle interfering with my neck seal, but either way I don't think it's caused by a problem with the suit.

 

[ClayJar]

If I move my neck just wrong, I get a little dribble through the neck seal. (I can look almost Cardassian, sans the scaly bits, if I stretch my neck just right, and no seal could seal againt a neck that's shaped like a cupcake paper.)

Of course, then there was the time I went for a little between-dives swim without my dry gloves and forgot to pull the vent strings out of the wrist seals... oopsie.

 

[LG Diver]

Never had a leak on my CF200. I can really see the tendons stick out when I flex my wrists, so I preemptively installed DC drygolves on my suit to avoid wrist seal leakage. Besides, I'm a cold water wimp, so I love having toasty hands.

 

[CompuDude]

I often have minor tendon-related leakage at my wrists, but nothing overly bothersome.

I do however, tend to sweat quite a bit in drysuits, so it's usually pretty damp and humid in there when I unzip topside. If only there was a way to make a Goretex drysuit that worked like you'd want it to!

 

[CrateCookie]

Otherwise, only moisture is sweat from the top half of Lake Travis.

 

[TSandM]

My Mobby's suit has been plagued with a recurrent crotch seam leak since I bought it (and before anybody goes there, it leaked BEFORE I switched to a BP/W with a crotch strap). It's been in for warranty repair three times, and keeps recurring; the suit is sitting at Superior Diving Repair and I'm hoping that, given their reputation, they'll find and permanently fix this leak.

On the other hand, the wrist seals, despite my skinny, tendon-rich wrists, have never leaked a drop.

My new Diving Concepts suit has yet to leak.

But my beloved mentor, NW Grateful Diver, taught me the truth about dry suits: All dry suits eventually turn into wetsuits . . . and then you get them fixed

 

[Dive-aholic]

Like Lynne said in quoting Bob - all dry suits eventually turn into wetsuits. My wife's suit started leaking about a year ago. I replaced the zipper and now it stays dry except when she turns her head just the wrong way and a little water seeps in through the neck seal. I'll be replacing the crotch strap on it with a longer one to keep that from happening. My suit has a leak at the zipper, too. I've sealed the hole, but the sealant has failed so now it's time for a new zipper. That will be my project this month. Funny thing is after looking for that leak for months and replacing the wrist seals and working on the shoulder dump, I finally found the hole! I also resealed all the seams in the suit. Not much more left to do to the suit!

 

[Lake-Rat]

Otherwise, only moisture is sweat from the top half of Lake Travis.

Lake Travis in the summer time,.... 85-90F at the surface,......55-60F at depth,
gotta love-it.

But other that sweat induced moisture (SIM)...

I have moved to neoprene wrist seals for durability while working UW. The
neoprene leaks when wrist tendons flex but they don't tear when rubbed
against rusty cables.