Phantom Drysuit Issue

[darylm74]

I bought a TLS350 custom last year and shortly after I got it it started to develop water on the inside. Something I never had with my Viking. I first thought it was sweat but I would have to have drank about 10 cases of beer and sat out in the hot sun to bake to get that much sweat. It has had the seals blocked and blown up and sprayed down with soap water with nothing showing. In fact I left it blown up for a week until the baloons I used started to collapse and it stayed tight until then. The neckseal is tight and I have gone through with my wife's fine mini-shears and snipped anything that resembles an unsmooth edge. The only thing left that I can think of is when the valve is depressed it is letting water in or something. If my neckseal was still leaking, I would think my neck would be soaked but it is more my chest, legs and arms, especially my left one. I thought about the relief valve but I would have expected to find something when I blew up the suit and soaped it down. I don't ever depress the valve either. I just let it release air like it is suppose to. Anyone ever have any explanations or could I really be causing this thing to sweat like a sauna?

 

[spectrum]

I thought about the relief valve but I would have expected to find something when I blew up the suit and soaped it down.

There's what you do with the dump valve and then there is what it does. While it may hold pressure great with significant inter pressure applied consider what it does in automatic use. The valve teeters on a differential pressure and lets aur out when appropriate. While I can;t speak to the specific valve detail if it looks like a duck, and walks like a duck.........

"When all other alternatives have been excluded, that which remains, however unlikely, must be the truth." -- Sherlock Holmes

FWIW I have been amazed at the diffused wetness I can build up in my suit from perspiration and ultimately condensation at the suit wall. 10 degrees F seems to make a big difference in what is the right garment.

Pete

 

[Mark Vlahos]

There was a thread over on the DecoStop that had parts of it that migrated over here about this general issue. The suggestion put forth was that the best leak test for a dry suit is to turn it completely inside out, and securely clamp one wrist and the neck seal shut, then to fill the suit with water from a garden hose, get the suit as full as seems reasonable and then clamp shut the remaining wrist seal.

This is as close to a real world test as I can think of. It really shows if water can migrate from the ocean side of the suit to the body side, just look for little drips or drops of water. If you think they might be from the filling process wipe the suit dry with a towel and come back in a while and look for fresh water. Mo2vation found several pin holes this way that had not been found by filling the suit with air and spraying on soapy water.

Of course the suit will be way too heavy to lift so choose a place where you will not make a mess when you drain the water out (or if a clamp blows off). A driveway would work well, but a bathtub would not, since it would be almost impossible to turn the suit over in the confines of a tub.

Mark Vlahos

 

[darylm74]

There was a thread over on the DecoStop that had parts of it that migrated over here about this general issue. The suggestion put forth was that the best leak test for a dry suit is to turn it completely inside out, and securely clamp one wrist and the neck seal shut, then to fill the suit with water from a garden hose, get the suit as full as seems reasonable and then clamp shut the remaining wrist seal.

This is as close to a real world test as I can think of. It really shows if water can migrate from the ocean side of the suit to the body side, just look for little drips or drops of water. If you think they might be from the filling process wipe the suit dry with a towel and come back in a while and look for fresh water. Mo2vation found several pin holes this way that had not been found by filling the suit with air and spraying on soapy water.

Of course the suit will be way too heavy to lift so choose a place where you will not make a mess when you drain the water out (or if a clamp blows off). A driveway would work well, but a bathtub would not, since it would be almost impossible to turn the suit over in the confines of a tub.

Mark Vlahos

Thanks. Glad I just got my driveway concreted a month ago. Will get some use out of it other than the nice parking.