Wrist and ankle seal enhancement with silicone

[gert7to3]

Has anyone ever applied silicone to the inner surface of a wetsuit at the wrists and ankles to create a "skin" style seal?

 

[mts0628]

Do you mean a drysuit? As far as wetsuits, you can cover the ankles with the booties under the suit and then as you move, your seams will be streamlined. Your wrists, well the same can be done with gloves if you wear them (but over the cuffs), but overall, remember, we need water to get into the wetsuit. The layer of water in between our body and the neoprene is what is warmed to keep us going. And the bottom line, I have never used anything to don, doff, or seal a wetsuit.YMMV.

 

[Damselfish]

remember, we need water to get into the wetsuit. The layer of water in between our body and the neoprene is what is warmed to keep us going.

that's a common misconception. The neoprene is what keeps you warm. Any water that gets in the suit your body will warm up, so you actually lose heat to it. Once the water is warmed it feels better than cold water, but the "layer of warm water" does not itself do anything to keep you warm. You get water in a wetsuit but you don't need it - the less water the better. Semi-dry wetsuits have seals at the openings to further reduce the amount of water that enters, a feature the poster is trying to imitate.

 

[mts0628]

that's a common misconception. The neoprene is what keeps you warm. Any water that gets in the suit your body will warm up, so you actually lose heat to it. Once the water is warmed it feels better than cold water, but the "layer of warm water" does not itself do anything to keep you warm. You get water in a wetsuit but you don't need it - the less water the better. Semi-dry wetsuits have seals at the openings to further reduce the amount of water that enters, a feature the poster is trying to imitate.

True, the neoprene does keep us warm but the thicker the neoprene, the longer it takes for the water that is warmed to cool off: neoprene is not used solely as insulation from the ambient water temperature. If no water was allowed to enter, then it would after all be a dry suit. The neoprene is merely a layer of insulation: skin, water, and then wetsuit. The water is the happy medium between skin temperature and ambient temperature and while it does get warmer, it will not become body temperature. It will be better than surrounding temperature and thus more tolerable for the diver.

This is what makes the wetsuit less optimal for really cold water- even with a thick wetsuit, the effects of cold will still still affect the diver but later than if they had a thinner suit (as the warmed water layer would become less warm because of the lack of wetsuit thickness). Diver warmth will be dependent on water temperature, wetsuit thickness and construction, activity, and diver health.

And finally, this is why fit is so important: a loose wet suit will allow water to enter but not be warmed sufficiently before allowing more ambient water in, and a tighter wetsuit will not allow any water in, thereby relying solely on the insulative properties of the suit- but at the cost of reduced blood circulation and the result- colder extremities leading to a colder core. I hope this helps.

 

[qrpc]

If I'm getting the physics correct...
heat flow = surface area * temperature gradient * k factor

Given the K factors
Air ~ 0.024
Neoprene ~ 0.3
Water ~ 0.6

You get some insulation value from a trapped layer of water, but only about
half what you would get from the same thickness of neoprene and much less
than what you get from a trapped layer of air in a drysuit.

Of course, having a non-compressable liquid layer inside the suit has a couple
advantages from an engineering perspective.

 

[Thalassamania]

If you get a suit that fits well, that has high quality skin-in neoprene (Rubatex N-231) so that it seals, and you pour warm water in before the dive, you can do about as well as most folks can with a dry suit.

 

[JeffG]

The water is the happy medium between skin temperature and ambient temperature and while it does get warmer, it will not become body temperature. It will be better than surrounding temperature and thus more tolerable for the diver.

Sorry. Try again.


That water is stealing heat from the body. That water is why wetsuits are inefficient in keeping a diver warm. A semi-dry wetsuit tries to fix that problem, but still isn't very good.

Its the gas trapped in the neoprene that is insulating you from the water.

 

[JeffG]

Has anyone ever applied silicone to the inner surface of a wetsuit at the wrists and ankles to create a "skin" style seal?

The zippers would still let water in...so you are doomed.

 

[Thalassamania]

The zippers would still let water in...so you are doomed.

Zippers? I don't have no stinkin' zippers. I've never had no stinkin' zippers.

 

[JeffG]

Zippers? I don't have no stinkin' zippers. I've never had no stinkin' zippers.

How do you get into your wetsuit then?