Nitrox With A Drysuit?

[Storker]

Sounds like a pile of horse poo

Agreed. All my non-vacation dives are dry, and most of those on EAN32. I've never even considered worrying about it. Remember that the oxygen in the ambient air also affects your DS between dives.

Let's try a back-of-the envelope calculation to check how much it might affect your DS. Let's assume that you average two 1-hour dives per week, that's a fairly decent amount of diving for most divers (some 100 dives per year). Let's also assume that the oxygen's deteriorating effect on your DS depends on pPO2, not FO2, and that every dive is on EAN32 to an average depth of 30m/100' (IOW, worse than worst case, because no rec diver is spending one hour at 30m/100'). If my math checks out, the deterioration of your suit is increased by about 2.5%.

 

[WarrenZ]

Just dont fart in your drysuit the suit will trap the gasses and throw off your buoyancy. Has any one done the math on the explosive potential of methane from a human flatus in a 36% O2 environment?

 

[victorzamora]

Just dont fart in your drysuit the suit will trap the gasses and throw off your buoyancy. Has any one done the math on the explosive potential of methane from a human flatus in a 36% O2 environment?

I have that number in megatons as well as propulsive thrust (assuming average "nozzle" diameter). Let me know which you'd prefer

 

[Stoo]

Does fabric even oxidize??? I know metal does, but any metal bits inside a suit would be stainless... if there is any at all.

I call BS... although I have no idea what SSI's motivation would be... selling argon inflation systems to recreational divers perhaps?

 

[boulderjohn]

Am I the only one that finds it a little frightening that the content of the instruction from one of the biggest names in scuba instruction immediately becomes an object of ridicule because it seems so utterly indefensible?

I have seen similar things before, notably in regard to PADI instruction, but in every one of those cases I can recall, it turns out to be a mistake. The original post usually either misunderstood the actual instruction or repeated something he or she had been told but was not true. In some cases, it turns out that the instruction being ridiculed is more mainstream than those ridiculing it believe. In other cases, the information comes from an outdated resource that had long since been changed.

Not being an SSI instructor, I do not have access to the materials in question here, so I cannot check it for accuracy. Can anyone with such access check to see confirm what it actually says?

 

[tbone1004]

they do oxidize, but only in the right presence of radiation *sun*, chemicals *chlorine*, and heat. An elevated PO2 in a drysuit won't cause accelerated oxidation

 

[Steve_C]

Took the SSI drysuit course a few years ago. Not sure about the book but the instructor never said that.

 

[RandomGuy1]

OP was not entirely correct in what he stated, at least per the current SSI drysuit materials. I checked since I had recenly taken the DS course and didn't remember anything like that. Here is what they have to say on diving nitrox in the SSI online materials.

 

[JohnN]

OP was not entirely correct in what he stated, at least per the current SSI drysuit materials. I checked since I had recenly taken the DS course and didn't remember anything like that. Here is what they have to say on diving nitrox in the SSI online materials.
View attachment 371567

The OP said:

In the book, they say NOT to use Nitrox with a drysuit due to increased oxidation of the drysuit with the higher level of oxygen.

To me this is a reasonable paraphrase of the SSI quote you provided.

BOGUS

 

[boulderjohn]

OP was not entirely correct in what he stated, at least per the current SSI drysuit materials. I checked since I had recenly taken the DS course and didn't remember anything like that. Here is what they have to say on diving nitrox in the SSI online materials.
View attachment 371567

Well, that's pretty close to what the OP said. I would call it a fair summary.