Ring seals question

[citykid]

Sorry, I don't have time to do a through search as I am at work. But...

I am installing a Diving Concepts dry glove ring seal system on my DUI. To all that use this or something comperable, do you take the rings out to clean the latex seals? I am installing new seals and they guy who's doing that said at the end of each day to do this. This seems like A LOT OF WORK. As well as a lot of wear and tear.

Opinions please.
Thanks.

 

[Camerone]

I leave them in all the time. It is hard on your seals to do that, as the seals will wear through a lot sooner since the latex stays stretched out.

However, putting the rings on and taking them off is really a PITA, and on seals that are less than new, I think the risk of tearing is worse than the shorter lifespan of the seals. Besides, it's only an hour or so in the evening to glue on a new set of wrist seals, anyway. With my CLX450, it takes a good amount of time to get the rings on and situated correctly...the arms are too tight at the wrists of my suit to actually turn them inside out to apply the rings, which means it is an exercise in frustration to install the rings the first time.

Leaving them on all the time, and diving the suit more or less weekly, I get about two years out of a pair of wrist seals. The heavy-duty latex would be preferred over the standard, too, for longevity.

 

[JeffG]

I leave mine in all the time.

 

[Bubbletrubble]

I use the Viking bayonet dryglove system, which is similar to the DC product. As Camerone suggested, just leave the suit side rings on. It's too much trouble to take them off and put them on...and it would probably increase wear-and-tear on the wrist seals. For post-dive maintenance, I rinse the suit in fresh water with gloves attached, detach the gloves and then invert them to allow them to dry fully. After everything dries, I'll put a generous amount of talc on the wrist seals. Every 10 dives or so, I'll clean the o-ring groove and re-lube the o-ring responsible for the waterproof seal between glove and suit-side ring.

Whoever is telling you to remove and replace the suit-side rings probably doesn't dive that often with dry gloves...

 

[citykid]

Thanks everyone. You all echoed exactly what I was thinking. Too much wear and tear. I just need some practice gluing the seals before I am ready to try it for real on my suit.

 

[Soakedlontra]

I use the Viking bayonet dryglove system, which is similar to the DC product. As Camerone suggested, just leave the suit side rings on. It's too much trouble to take them off and put them on...and it would probably increase wear-and-tear on the wrist seals. For post-dive maintenance, I rinse the suit in fresh water with gloves attached, detach the gloves and then invert them to allow them to dry fully. After everything dries, I'll put a generous amount of talc on the wrist seals. Every 10 dives or so, I'll clean the o-ring groove and re-lube the o-ring responsible for the waterproof seal between glove and suit-side ring.

Whoever is telling you to remove and replace the suit-side rings probably doesn't dive that often with dry gloves...

I guess those guys who manufacture the dryglove systems and write instructions about those products don't dive very often after all!

I have just bought an OS system and the instructions suggested to do exactly the same thing as Citykid mentioned earlier. I came here to ask exactly the same question as Citykid and so far not one diver takes the rings off!

 

[Hinalo]

coming in late to echo what others have said: just leave the suit-side rings on all the time and inspect the o-rings now and then, relube and clean as necessary.

Also, a heads-up about keeping your gloves secure in the glove-side rings: With the DC system, which I use and like, there is only one o-ring and a rubber protector keeping your gloves on those rings. The gloves can be pulled out of the rings more easily than I thought. Especially with the black rubber gloves, though the blue Atlas gloves can also be pulled off the rings without much effort.

For instance, with a set of the black rubber gloves installed, I got a finger stuck under one of my spring straps and yanked it free. No problem with the dive, but later I noticed that the flange of rubber that usually extended under the ring and into the glove had been pulled up into the ring and was no longer visible. In removing the ring to inspect I found that the glove material had pulled through and was almost free of the o-ring. Theoretically, I could have just yanked harder and possibly pulled the glove far enough off the ring to create a major flood.

This would be more of a concern if you installed the suit-rings so that there was no internal wrist seal. I had mine this way at the time and realized that a pulled-off glove would have immediately flooded my suit.

Since then I have reinstalled my gloves with a longer tail sticking under the glove ring, and have reinstalled my suit rings in a way that provides me with a wrist seal inside the suit ring. Also, I am careful about yanking my gloves free of any entanglement.

 

[fppf]

I have the new Si Tech glove lock rings.
There easy to install and remove from the suit. If I'm diving the next day I keep them on. If I'm not diving for a few days or more I take them off to save the seals. It does not seem to put much wear on the seals taking them on and off. Just don't want to leave my seals stretched out like that.
But the DC rings are much harder to put on the suit, I would leave those on as well.