Tips for chasing down trilam drysuit seam leaks

[BEVANJ]

Hi folks,
I've got a pinnacle evolution drysuit and am having some leakage problems. I've tried the trick of putting my drygloves on the suit, plugging the neck seal and pressurizing the suit. I then rubbed the suit down with dish washing detergent, and found that it is leaking in multiple places along various seams. Most notably under the arms, and in the crotch area. The glue that holds the sealing tape on the inside of the suit is not a heat activated type.

Any tips for fixing this? I want a drysuit, not a dampsuit. From what I gather, trying a leak test with the suit inside out might be a good place to start?

Bevan

 

[Buoy_A]

Any tips for fixing this? I want a drysuit, not a dampsuit. From what I gather, trying a leak test with the suit inside out might be a good place to start?

I would get some AquaSeal and mix it w. a solvent, preferably Toluene, and make it run thin where you can "paint" the seams with it. I actually just finished doing this myself, although in California Toluene is not legal so I had to thin it w. Acetone. (MEK should work as well).

Thinning it does four important things:

• Makes it easier to work with ("normal" Aquaseal is extremely messy to work with and almost impossible to "paint" on)
• Makes it so you can use lesser amts of Aquaseal over a greater surface area.
• Thinning it allows it to seep into all of the little leaking holes and seal them
• It will cure more quickly when thinned

I thin it w. a 50/50 amts. It's not science, you can eyeball it to whatever thickness you think is appropriate. I'd mix it in a glass or tin container, as some solvents dissolve plastic.

You can also use McNett Seal Cement and skip mixing w. solvents, although that option is not nearly as durable as thinned Aquaseal (Seal Cement is neoprene based whereas Aquaseal is Urethane based and will take wear and tear abuse much better).

 

[RJP]

Don't just use dishwashing detergent - need to use "very soapy water" to really find the leaks, especially the tiny ones. Inside out also really needed for seam leaks, since air escaping from a single hole inside the suit can escape all along the seam on the outside... such that you'll either not detect it at all, or not pinpoint it accurately.

Agree with diluting Aquaseal. You can use Cotol, which is sold at dive shops.

 

[BEVANJ]

Cheers guys. RJP, I did use pure dishwashing liquid and really lathe it up. Worked a treat, but made me sad. Leaks all along seams under the arms and the crotch. So, a good tactic is just to paint the entire inside of the seams with toluene diluted aquaseal?

Another odd question, any special tactics for getting the dishwashing liquid off before painting all the seams with toluene and aquaseal? I hosed the suit off constantly for a good 15min, and I'm sure it still has dishwashing liquid in the suit fabric. I can get toluene down this end of the planet though!

I want to do this right.

Bevan

 

[Dive Right In Scuba]

Like RJP said, turn the suit inside out and test it. You might not need to coat the whole seam. There might be one hole, that is tunneling out every possible stitch on it's way out of the suit. If you turn it inside out, the only thing that will leak is the culprit. Then you can just patch it. There could be multiple culprits, but seam leaks need to be tested inside out to make sure you eliminate the problem.

As for the soap, next time dilute it....for now, just keep rinsing it or soaking it. If you soaped the outside of the suit though, you should be good to seal the inside of the suit.

 

[jlovold]

To seal the seams, use Tec7 (other types of silicone I have found does not work as well)

Wipe down the area you are going to seal with some cotol.
Tape you can rub down a bit with fine sandpaper.Put a stripe of Tec7 over the seam/tape that you want to seal off (on the inside of the suit), put some soap on your fingers and form the tec7 by moving two fingers along the seam/tape.

It may not look very pretty, but it works really well.