Vacuum-Packing Wetsuit

[ys]

Hi guys,

Have anyone vacuum-pack their wetsuit for travelling? I usually vacuum pack my clothes with one of those vacuum bags and a portable hand pump when travelling.

Will it cause the suit to lose its thickness permanently? I know that diving deep will compress the suit, but rarely for more than 30 mins at a time. I'm planning to travel to SE Asia and the trip could take 24 hours or more during which time the suit will be kept in a compressed state. So, I was wondering if extended compression has a negative effect.

I don't know if it matters or not, but my wetsuit is a 3mm one.

Thanks.

 

[knotical]

I don't think it will work. Vacuum packing clothes works because cloth is porous and you suck the air out of them. Most wetsuits are closed-cell neoprene. As the vacuum pump reduces the pressure it will cause the cells to expand – the opposite effect of what happens when you dive to greater pressure.

 

[Stu S.]

You may not be able to pull enough of a vacuum to damage the foam using home vacuum equipment. But... folding a wetsuit can put creases in it and damage the foam. Those creases also create weak areas in the suit.

To pack a wetsuit, roll it up. Start at the legs and a 3mm suit will roll into a cylinder about 6 or 8 inches in diameter. The cylinder will be as wide as the suit is.

I once purchased a suit on eBay. A brand new suit, the seller folded it up and compressed it into a too-small box. It arrived with multiple permanent creases that was damage. Roll it.

 

[robint]

ditto what they said....... wetsuits need to be rolled with as little creasing as possible when traveling. Smashing them flat and trying to suck air out will probably only do harm to the suit and not get it much flatter... if you do get it completely flat it means you have burst all the bubbles, not a good thing. And a good quality suit won't be able to be compressed unless you have wts sitting on it and once again, that means you have burst the imbedded bubbles and ruined the suit.

 

[Doc]

A 3mm suit is so thin that it would be good to use as "shock insulation" around more delicate objects- mask cases, BC's, stuff like that.

Remember, airline regulations relate to weight, not volume. You're a diver now, get a bigger traveling bag.

 

[ys]

Thanks for the suggestions. Rolling it up seems to save some space. It also fits better with the other stuff.

I do have a large 23.5 gallons trunk. I think that's just 0.5 gal short of the airline oversize limit. With the rolled up wetsuits, the trunk lid now closes easily. Previously I had to sit on it So that's a great improvement!

I wanted to vacuum pack it because I prefer to travel light with as few luggages as possible with some spare space for whatever souvenirs I may pick up during the travel. Since I'm not vacuum-packing the wetsuits, I won't have as much spare space as I'd like, but it's not a big deal since I can just carry another carry-on bag.

In the end, I was able to put these gears in the trunk:
2x BCDs (mine and my wife's)
2x 3-mil wetsuits
2x pair of booties
2x pair of fins

The regs and masks go on the carry-ons.

Thanks all.

 

[pinko]

My sister vacuumed-packed her swimsuit & the foam got damaged so I don't advise it.

 

[herman]

Sounds like a bad idea and likely to do damage to the wetsuit...besides, how are you going to re-vacuum it for the return trip?

 

[Damselfish]

I've never heard airline luggage limits expressed in gallons.

 

[ys]

My bad, I was confused. My trunk's dimension is 61.5 linear inches, only 0.5 inches short of the oversize threshold.