Due that the dryers we can find are very expensive I thought doing one would be cheaper.
Almost all the materials are recycled:
Bought materials
Next step is the dryer for the lower part of the wetsuit that could also use for boots.
Then I’ll make a panel for both switches and it’ll be ready to use
Looks good!
Pretty cool! Great idea. Nothing worse than pulling on a still wet suit for dawn patrol. Used to be the norm when I was young and dumb(er)
This room you have your drying rack in should be well ventilated. Otherwise will smell like you are drying out a dead hermit crab in a bucket of peepee.
Looks good though. Have thought of starting this type of project many times.
Thank God for the Sunshine…
I own several wetsuits
Very cool. I saw somebody use a bathroom vent fan, like the kind in the ceiling to move moist air out when you shower. It was a box with the fan pulling air out of it, then two pvc pipes sticking up. You put the boots/gloves on the pipes then it sucks air and moisture out of them. Are you blowing air in or sucking it out of the suit? I feel like the glove/boot apparatus I described would be better pushing air into the gloves and boots, but the one I saw reportedly worked fine the other way.
These are a must in winter/cold climates. My boots and gloves will straight up not dry half the time in the winter. Outside drying is not an option.
hahaha Chrisp… I have tried this and then the wife hears the dryer running. She knows I do not do laundry and asks, whats in the dryer but knows the answer. I then go remove it before damage ensues to appliance and relationship. Salt water in the dryer always makes it look grimey inside and definitely smelly.
I opt for draping the sumbitch over a ladder in the cold garage. Never have I had dry boots unless they just came out of the box or a summer flat spell allowed them to dry. Most of the time I just pull on a cold damp suit. Luckily its warm and full of piss within a minute of being on my body
Hahaha bloody hell
Every time I reach home from surfing I rinse it with fresh water then let it drip in the shower (if I Don’t do it my gfr will defo do it for me LOL)
But in the bathroom it takes an eternity to dry and the balcony is not an option (once the wind was so storng that my older wetsuit flew, I live in the center of the city, since then never hang it in the balcony)
This week I’ll finish the project and try it.
Due my calculations it has to be completely dry in 3h
hahahahaha
My wife’s nose is MUCH better than mine also.
No joke though, if you rinse your suit out in the shower or with the hose when you get home, the dryer doesn’t smell at all. Wife approved
5 minutes on low heat, flip it right-side-out and do it again, and it’s dry.
I will usually rinse my suit out when I get home in the outdoor shower then hang it to drip dry. The next morning the suit is still damp so I pop it in the dryer before putting it back on.
And before anybody (who probably hasn’t tried it) comes on here talking about how this will destroy a wetsuit, I call bullsh*t. I have been doing this for years. The suits don’t deteriorate noticeably faster. And, I can guarantee that the abuse I put a suit through while surfing is FAR worse than 10 minutes getting tumbled around in a dryer with warm air blowing on it.
Another thing I like to do when I’m dawn patrolling.
5 minutes in the dryer (again with low heat) then put the suit on AT HOME.
Then put on sweats and a hoodie and cruise to the beach.
Beats the heck out of trying to put on a cold suit next to your car when the air is 50* and the water is probably gonna be the same.
I have put my suit on at home for really cold dawn patrols but dont do it anymore. I get so uncomfortable and itchy in my suit from slight dampness on the way to or home from the beach it is unbearable. One little itch on the thigh turns into pinching and twisting of thigh skin. End up annoyed and no itch relief. Getting an itch under a 6/5/4 wetsuit is super annoying. Rather just put it on or take it off in or next to the car. Being cold for a few minutes is just part of what makes us tougher than the other 99% who will not get out of bed at 5am to jump in the cold ocean in January in New Hampshire.
I never really even rinse out my suit since it doesnt go in the house and the hose is not on at the house during the bulk of surfing months…(summer there is no surf in New England generally)
I can second that even terrible abuse of a wetsuit will hardly deteriorate it. Anyone trying to get more than 3 seasons or so out of a suit either doesnt surf enough or doesnt realize that new suits are just getting better and warmer all the time. Also the cheap factor… they are cheap skates
My second wetsuit lasted 7 years (and still kinda alive) hahahaha and yeah with not more than once a week surf (actually money was the main problem)
Now that I’m in the east of Spain, there’s not lot of waves and the wetsuits last forever.
I never used the dryer machine (coz I don’t have one LOL), so if the wetsuit was wet no problem, a plastic bag solves the sticky problem as for the cold… who gives a fuck
Ive fantasised about making a 6’x 2’ frame but only a few inches thick. Covering it in the darkest polycarbonate roofing sheeting. Put the rinsed wetsuit inside and put it in the sun. The heat from the sun warms the poly sheeting that drys the wettie inside. It can’t get wet, can’t blow away, costs nothing to run and could do beach towels. Add a solar fan for circulation. I’ll have to do it for winter.
Be careful. Heat is a wetsuit’s worst enemy.
A little air circulation will dry a wetsuit quickly. Heat really is not needed
I just urinate in my 6/5mm winter wetsuit twice before I get out of the water. It make things so smelly I’ve stopped noticing and the LBI (NJ) cops have stopped writing me tickets for public nudity (even with a towel on). Yeah me.
But that wetsuit drying rack is AWESOME!
I hang my wetsuit and booties near a dehumidifier, dries them perfectly. The CPU fans tend to be kind of whiny, noise wise?
Mate, Intel it’s good LOL- not noisy at all, even at 16V instead 12v (more rpm).
Maybe the power supply fans will be noisier, but that’s not a big problem coz with the door closed I wont hear anything.
