vile smelling wetsuit

[Puffer Fish]

Peeing has little to do with it.

Your suit has accumulated a bio-load of the aquatic food chain and it is rotting. Perfectly normal progression, happens to all suits eventually.

You need an enzyme product that will deal with this. There are dive shop items such as Myrazyme (sp?) and sink-stink that you soak your gear in a dilution of. Remember not to rinse after soaking, you want this stuff in/on the suit through the drying process. You can also buy domestic product such as capet cleaning solutions to deal with odor, look for enziyme based products.

Pete

Follow spectrum's advice and your issue will be gone (great advice - does not get any better)

 

[rickyd]

Try a cup or two of vinegar, diluted into a large trash can of clean water. Let it soak, and don't rinse. The vinegar smell will dissipate after a day, once dry.

 

[pipedope]

Once a suit is stinking I use 'Sink the Stink' and dry.\

To prevent the stink you want to dry the suit as soon as possible.
Believe it or not, quick drying does more to prevent stink than rinsing or washing.
But that is just my opinion based on a few years of commercial diving in stuff optomisticly called "water".

 

[metaldector]

http://www.sinkthestink.com/ I use it, it works.

 

[H2Andy]

One of my wetsuits smells like it has died.

Any ideas or reccomendations chaps?

trash it and spend $100 on a new one

 

[Charlie99]

trash it and spend $100 on a new one

Since it was fix it or trash 'em, as a last recourse, I used bleach on some truly foul boots after sink-the-stink didn't take care of the problem. It worked, with no apparent damage.

My recommendation is to try the Mirazyme/Sink-the-Stink/enzyme based cleaner first. If that doesn't resolve the problem, then use dilute bleach.

p.s. Pointing out the flip side of Pipedope's recommendation on quick drying, what got the boots in such foul shape was being stuffed into a suitcase to fly home while still wet, and then forgetting they were wet and throwing them still inside a plastic bag into the closet for a few days while the nasty stuff had a field day.

 

[Phil TK]

Since it was fix it or trash 'em, as a last recourse, I used bleach on some truly foul boots after sink-the-stink didn't take care of the problem. It worked, with no apparent damage.

My recommendation is to try the Mirazyme/Sink-the-Stink/enzyme based cleaner first. If that doesn't resolve the problem, then use dilute bleach.

.

This was my intention -but I spent some time yesterday looking through the UK's main scuba suppliers websites - and nobody stocks these products! The only ones you can get look like simple surfactant/soap type shampoos with no enzyme.
No doubt a fellow brit will post a supplier very soon -but Charlie -what was the bleach concentration you used?
Phil TK

 

[Charlie99]

There are probably some suitable stuff in the laundry section of your local stores. Various posters have also suggested enzyme stuff that is available in pet stores to remove cat urine smell.

As to the bleach, I just used a couple of ounces of laundry bleach in a 2 or 3 gallon bucket. Not much more than the standard ratio for bleaching laundry.

 

[dherbman]

Just take it diving, you won't smell a thing while you are under.

Sink the Stink if you must.

 

[Bob3]

The commercial enzyme products work great, but if you don't have access to them the vinegar trick will kill the critters camping in your suit.
In addition to wetsuits I've "reconditioned" bedding that I've found floating after big storms that've demolished houses. It takes a gallon in a horizontal wash machine for the really bad stuff so a quart or 2 of vinegar in a tub will work fine for a wetsuit.
Vinegar also works on the skunk pee and is more effective & cheaper than the old tomato juice trick. (It's the acid that makes it work so well)