HarryWhisman
Contributor
Putting together my first dry suit and I was just wondering-heard it mentioned in another thread.
Wetsuit under dry suit?
- Thread starter HarryWhisman
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
Tried it under a shell, froze my fanny off 
Get good drysuit undies and save yourself some aggravation.
Someone who's been there,
Ber :lilbunny:
Get good drysuit undies and save yourself some aggravation.Someone who's been there,
Ber :lilbunny:
scubadobadoo
Contributor
The neoprene itself doesn't keep you warm. It's the water that is trapped between your body and the neoprene that is heated by YOU that keeps you from freezing to death sooner than you would without the wet suit. So, a DRY suit would be DRY and that water that your body heats when using a wet suit wouldn't exist in a dry environment. Would you use neoprene to keep you warm instead of your fleece jacket in the middle of a snow storm? I hope not. Make sense? I'm sure someone else will do a better job of explaining this. I tried. LOL.
ClevelandDiver
Contributor
Ber Rabbit:Tried it under a shell, froze my fanny off
Someone who's been there,
Ber :lilbunny:
What thickness wetsuit were you wearing?
My buddies new drysuit is still on order and he was thinking of wearing his 3mil inside his leaking old drysuit this weekend.
Thanks,
Mike
JeffG
Contributor
Amazing....
What do you think happens to the wetsuit when you descend?
What is done to counteract this with traditional undergarments?
Could this method be used with wetsuit undergarment method?
What do you think happens to the wetsuit when you descend?
What is done to counteract this with traditional undergarments?
Could this method be used with wetsuit undergarment method?
I tried my 3mm with a skin under it and sweats over it. I've had good luck with polypro expedition weight undies under my drysuit undies keeping me warm even when they are wet from suit leakage.ClevelandDiver:
Ber :lilbunny:
scubadobadoo
Contributor
The thicker neoprene keeps the colder water on the outside of the wet suit from cooling that trapped water sooner. A well fitting wet suit, regardless of thickness, should be pretty tight or it can't do its job.pants!:
It really is all about keeping that trapped water from cooling longer. Your body heats that trapped water and thus your body does cool in the process, but because of the wet suit, that trapped water stays warmer longer and is warmer than the ocean on the outside. Your body temp would sooner equal the ocean temp without a wet suit to keep a layer of trapped water inside your suit warmer.
Dry undies and wet suits are apples and oranges.
JeffG
Contributor
and he misses the fact that the water is stealing the heat from the body.pants!:
Humuhumunukunukuapua'a
Contributor
scubadobadoo:
This is a really typical misconception, and it's entirely untrue. It is most definitely the neoprene that keeps you warm. The water inside the suit is not the insulator, because it, like all water, sucks heat away from you very quickly.
The idea of any wetsuit is to minimize the amount of water that enters the suit so that heat is not lost through convection.
If the neoprene doesn't keep you warm, then why do I wear 12 mils of neoprene over my torso here in California? I don't think a 3 mil would cut it, despite the water in the suit warming.
While I wouldn't personally use neoprene to stay warm in a snow storm, it would be effective at it. Neoprene will warm you up without being wet. Anyone who says otherwise has never worn a wetsuit.
I would think a wetsuit under a drysuit would be effective thermal protection...it's absurd to say that it has no insulative abilities because it is dry. And wouldn't the wetsuit remain uncompressed inside the drysuit? So it would not lose its insulative abilities at depth, the key disadvantage to wetsuits alone as I see it.
But as for wetsuits under drysuits, I have no experience with that, but in theory it seems like it would work. I imagine regular undergarments would be a lot more comfortable.
Similar threads
