Pee Valve.

[WarrenJElliott]

Hi all. Wondering if those you use good help me on this one. Just had a pee valve installed on the Apollo wet suit. It looks okay but it got me thinking how do they work....my thinking was it should allow the pee to flow free out of the valve and water stay out. Yet and I know this sounds warped but to test the valve flow I blew into it from the cafiter end and found I could not push the air through. Yet I could suck the air in. This seems reverse to me, would I be right in this assumption. Please advice.

 

[ajduplessis]

I assume you are talking about a valve to urinate through? This is a first for me and have no input to your question.

Why not rather urinate before you kit up? I drink at least 500ml -1 liter of water half an hour before kitting up. This keeps me hydrated and will encourage urination before getting into my exposure suite. If you really have to let it go, wash the suite after use with enzyme shampoo (McNetts works great). This will lengthen the suites lifetime too, and keep it looking brand new and smelling fresh.

 

[miketsp]

Hi all. Wondering if those you use good help me on this one. Just had a pee valve installed on the Apollo wet suit. It looks okay but it got me thinking how do they work....my thinking was it should allow the pee to flow free out of the valve and water stay out. Yet and I know this sounds warped but to test the valve flow I blew into it from the cafiter end and found I could not push the air through. Yet I could suck the air in. This seems reverse to me, would I be right in this assumption. Please advice.

I've never actually used one although I've thought several times of installing one on my 7mm semi-dry as it keeps me almost as dry as a full dry suit but it sounds like the reverse to me too. It shouldn't be possible to mount the valve housing itself the wrong way round as it will have the tube connection on the inside and the screw control on the outside. I assume you did loosen the screw control for your test?
Does the valve housing disassemble for cleaning purposes?
If so take a look at the valve mechanism.

 

[ScubaAl]

The valve may be closed. Try turning it counterclockwise and then retry. The reason, I think that you can pull air through it is. Because its a balanced valve and you are really pulling air from what would be the inside of the suit.

Al

 

[elan]

I assume you are talking about a valve to urinate through? This is a first for me and have no input to your question.

Why not rather urinate before you kit up? I drink at least 500ml -1 liter of water half an hour before kitting up. This keeps me hydrated and will encourage urination before getting into my exposure suite. If you really have to let it go, wash the suite after use with enzyme shampoo (McNetts works great). This will lengthen the suites lifetime too, and keep it looking brand new and smelling fresh.

I think after you pee in the undergarment few times no McNetts will help you to get rid of the smell. Given the price of good undergarment can be in a range of US500 it's just cheaper to install the valve.


To OP. You need to open the valve first. Most likely it's closed. You can blow the air in because the valve is balanced and it equalize the space inside the tube with the pressure in the suit.

 

[piikki]

And don't pee to test it. Just take some water and syringe or turkey baster or something of the likes, and push WATER through it on land. You'll see which way liquid pushes through or doesn't. Way nicer to clean that up than realizing that pee did not wanna flow and ended up in all the wrong places

Like said, depending on the type check valves could have been installed wrong way or things could be closed and you'd rather find it out without pee. However, there will be air flowing some weird ways if you have balanced valve, so you might be alarmed for no reason at all.

 

[WarrenJElliott]

Thanks all. seems that it has been installed in a incorrect manner, only figured it out thanks to your comments........and no I don;t think peeing in the dry suit and then cleaning it is quite my cup of tea...but i will try the agent to keep the suit clean. lol. Best of diving all.

 

[superspeed]

you said wetsuit in your first post...which is why i think someone said to just pee in it. Drysuit is a totally different ball game and i dont think maybe people just pee in those (without a diaper of some sort)