Wet spots with drysuit normal?

[Jack Hammer]

Jerry, it looks like your valves may be leaking. Some leaks can be tricky to find as they dont leak all the time or only leak when you are moving. Remove both valves, they unscrew. Try running hot tap water through the exhaust valve for a few minutes from the inside with the valve in the most open position, then reinstall both making sure they line up with any grooves in the suit and see if that helps.

 

[Diving Dubai]

@jerryk1199

I'm no expert on Drysuits, I have only around 20 in mine. However I have a Fourth Element Kevlar, I dive it in "warm conditions" ( between 21-25C) and do not get the wet patches you show in your pictures. I suggest you pick up the phone or email the UK, they were very helpful for me when I was buying.

 

[boulderjohn]

Your post is timely. I have 35 years experience diving Viking drysuits and with the odd exception I always came out of the water 100% dry, until the suit was nearing the end of its life

Recently I added a SANTI eMotion suit for travel as its about 1/3 the weight of my Viking Pro. While I love the design and comfort of the SANTI, I don't think any of the 50-60 dives I have had on it were totally dry. The zipper failed after 35 dives so I spent a week on each of our coasts getting soaked!

I just got the suit back from having the zipper replaced under warranty, but 6 dives later, I am now getting wet on by butt and on one foot. I'm on my way home from a dive weekend as I write this and I have the suit with me and I am going to leak test and hopefully patch the thing.Many of my friends dive DUI suits and I would say that 90% of them get wet to some extent on every dive. Many of them, if not most, own more than one suit since they have one getting serviced more often than not.

I think there is a strange individuality to these issues.

My first dry suit ever was a White's Fusion, and the bad luck I had with it was simply horrendous. It was continually getting leaks, and I would have to send it in for repairs and then use a loaner suit while waiting for the repairs. I quite literally did more dives on the loaner suit than my own personal suit. The loaner suit was identical to mine, but I never had a single leak with it. My original had so many problems that Whites eventually gave me a new core suit at a good price. I never had a leak with it, except for the dump valve. It was an Apex valve, and I was told they are notorious for leaking. If I kept it closed far enough, it was OK. . I eventually sold it to a student, and two years later I saw via a FaceBook post that he is still using it

I eventually bought a Santi, E-Lite, and that is what I have been diving for the last two years. I have not had a leak. It has an Apex dump valve, and I can run it wide open with no leaks.

 

[boulderjohn]

Some leaks can be tricky to find as they dont leak all the time or only leak when you are moving.

Yes, and the leaks you show in the pictures are very minor. It does not take much of a leak to get you really soaked.

 

[tbone1004]

the apeks low profile dump valves had a problem with leaking if they were open all the way a few years ago. If you turned them 2-3 clicks back it was no problem. The have since remedied the problem and the "normal" or "high" profile dumps never had the issue. Just for quick reference.

 

[Stoo]

I tested my SANTI suit last night and found a small leak where a series of seams meet in the small of my back... it's actually under the "expansion flap". There is absolutely no sign of any sort of damage to the suit, inside or out. On the inside, the area is thoroughly taped and there is nothing amiss. I can't see any cause for the leak at all... but none-the-less, it's there. This is a spot where four pieces of fabric meet and are sewn together. It's a nice neat seam, but not waterproof.

I assume that this will be covered by warranty, but this means sending the suit away for several weeks, so I'll likely give it a whirl myself.

While I was at my LDS yesterday, a friend was there picking up some Cotol. He owns two DUI suits and says that he has NEVER had a totally dry dive... He's a fairly new diver, but probably has done 400 "dry" dives. He told me that he has given up returning the suit to DUI since whenever he gets it back, it still leaks anyway, so all he has done is spend a lot of money and lost time with his suit.

The longer I own this suit, the more I realize that Viking has it right with their vulcanized rubber suit. No seams = no leaks.