Why do my wrist seals leak?

[rob.mwpropane]

Not too practical an addition to with those with crushed neoprene suits . . .

Not true. Northern diver makes a kit you can glue to neoprene seals. In all fairness though, I have not tried them, but someone here on the board gave them good reviews.

I thought about doing that, but the end result is the seals are still on the suit. I opted to buy the parts to fit the ultima dry system on so I could change my own seals when needed.

@Deep South Divers has the tendon issue with his wrist seals also. Himself and others have opted to just get rid of the seal altogether and just use the dry gloves.

What type of diving do you do?

 

[Bigbella]

you could still get a ring system installed for dry gloves with a neoprene suit.

It is not enough of an issue for me to lose any sleep over; or to go to the trouble to alter the suit . . .

 

[Deep South Divers]

Thanks for the tag, @rob.mwpropane !

Yeah, wrist seals don't work for me AT ALL. I've tried neoprene, latex (three different sizes, and two different shapes), and silicone (the best, but still very leaky).

Here's why:


I solved the problem by adding a set of dryglove rings and drygloves... But I dive for a living, and often scrape/clean the bottoms of boats... So I needed a glove that was both bulletproof at dexterous enough that I could work in that would be reliably dry and not interfere with tactile feel and function.

I've spent years trying different gloves. Here's a list of my favorites, complete with EN388 ratings for resistance against abrasions, cuts, tears, and punctures... Along with my own grade of dexterity.

This chart can be downloaded here:

www.deepsouthdivers.org/gloves.jpg (image file)
www.deepsouthdivers.org/gloves.pdf (Adobe Acrobat file)
www.deepsouthdivers.org/gloves.xlsx (Excel spreadsheet file)

For today's dive, I am using the SHOWA 3416 mounted on the Waterproof Ultima Dryglove Ring System.. Mounted on my crushed neoprene drysuit (@Bigbella). If you look at the numbers on the chart, you can see why. I also have a set of Ansell 58-735s loaded on a second set of rings for testing. One of these two will probably wind up dethroning the king of all drygloves: The SHOWA 720.

The bottom line is that yes, I am very dry in these gloves. In fact, I am so dry that I don't even bother with wrist seals anymore at all, since they never did me any good anyway. Here's a video of how I modify my wrist seals and add the Waterproof Ultima Dryglove Ring System on my suits:


For the record, I have never tried Apollo's BioSeals... Mostly due to the fact that you've got to take an extra step to put the wrist band thing on... And by the time I got to that point in my testing, I was ready to give up on anything trying to seal against those massive tendons of mine. I've heard good things, about the BioSeals, but the dryglove thing has been absolutely fantastic, so I never bothered to go in the direction of the BioSeals.

 

[buddhasummer]

As was previously posted. I had the same issue, I'm skinny with pronounced tendons, Kubi dry gloves solved that problem, I've not had a wrist leak in coming on 5 years, not one since using Kubis. Bonus, my hands don't get cold.

 

[Zef]

Not too practical an addition to those with crushed neoprene suits . . .

Why is it not a practical addition for those with crushed neoprene suits? My wife has a neoprene drysuit that she got with the oval wrist ring system with silicone seals. She currently has a set of si-tech virgo that have worked to good effect and she also has a set of waterproof ultima dgs that she is looking forward to testing out.

If you are diving a crushed neoprene suit with latex seals there are a bunch of options available from the si-tech glove lock, si-tech antares, Ultima DGS, Kubi, Northern Divers system, KWTT, Rolock, etc.

If you have neoprene wrist seals, some of the ring systems mentioned above can work but they will be once and done install as the rings may compress, stretch, or otherwise deform the seal, which probably will not be a problem as long as the cuff side of the system is not removed. For something that won't damage the neoprene wrist seal upon install there is the Viking dry glove system, the Si-tech pullover ring system, and then there drygloves with latex seals wrist seals pre-installed on the glove available from DRIS.

Lots of options out there.

-Z

 

[Rollin]

I have the same problem, deep gullies in my wrists, especially when I have to put force, like lifting or holding up my camera housing. That's the way to test, to know if it is hair or tendons. Lift a rock and when the water pours in, it's the tendons.

I tried apollo bioseals, I tried all kinds of seals, pushed them up my wrist, pulled them down. Nothing worked till I started using drygloves. I have no choice, otherwise, I'm wet to my armpits.

 

[Noctilux]

Thanks for the tag, @rob.mwpropane !

For today's dive, I am using the SHOWA 3416 mounted on the Waterproof Ultima Dryglove Ring System.. Mounted on my crushed neoprene drysuit (@Bigbella). If you look at the numbers on the chart, you can see why. I also have a set of Ansell 58-735s loaded on a second set of rings for testing. One of these two will probably wind up dethroning the king of all drygloves: The SHOWA 720.

The bottom line is that yes, I am very dry in these gloves. In fact, I am so dry that I don't even bother with wrist seals anymore at all, since they never did me any good anyway. Here's a video of how I modify my wrist seals and add the Waterproof Ultima Dryglove Ring System on my suits:

Keep us updated please!

 

[rob.mwpropane]

Keep us updated please!

Most of the updates are in this thread;
Ultima Dry Glove System question