Have any Swaylockers devised a fool proof wetsuit drying mechanism or system? I would like to build/work out something capable of drying the suit overnight. I came across an old thread where someone described using a small dehumidifier. That sounds promising. Perhaps I could construct a small closet in the garage for my suit and such a contraption. Cheaper would be better though. I suppose at a point it makes more sense to simply buy more suits and rotate. Still, with all the busy minds here, I’d be suprised if someone hasn’t come up with something.
In SoCal we just left the suit out hanging. In the morning, they would be dry. You can use your stand alone heater to dry the suits. Isn’t wearing a cold damp wetsuit part of the experience though? Everybody knows how it feels to put on a cold and sometimes stinky wetsuit and you grumble and cuss while you put it on. Its a certain surfing right of passage.
Rio
Yeah, it comes with the territory for sure. Sometimes my suit will dry overnight depending on the weather. Many mornings (like this one) I need to take a brief boat ride to get to the surf and good conditions around here ussually correspond to passage of a cold front. I feel like knowing my suit is dry and toasty on the upcoming freezing-ass mornings will give me a little more motivation to drag out of bed at 5 for the pre-work dawn patrol. Of course, nothing is quite as ‘life affirming’ as when a damp suit meets your, ahem, mid-section.
Seems like we are all going to vacuum-bag boards pretty soon.
So, why not vacuum-bag wetsuits by the way? It should vacuum all that water from the cells quite effectively…
I’ve thought about constructing a small box with a lightbulb and a computer fan to dry out the air (I dry my suit in the shower after a rinse), in our area humidity seems to be the major problem. That and 5m wetsuits.
On a similar vein, I once tried using my leak blower to dry my suit. It worked OK, but not as well as I’d hoped. I was thinking it could force all the water out rapidly–not the case. Vac bagging is interesting… I guess you’d need a wet/dry pump to handle the moisture or maybe somekind of filter to collect it.
I hang my wetsuits over a dehumidifier every night. It will dry out multiple full suits (on double session days), booties and hood, nice and dry, without fail. This solution works so perfectly that I wish I’d thought of it 25 years ago. I don’t believe I will ever put on a damp wetsuit again, hoorah!
Hey Keith, that’s really encouraging. What sort of dehumidifier did you get? It looks like sears and lowes have little ones (25pt) for about $150. Do you hang it directly over the top of it? Is this done inside (climate control) or could I do it in the garage or shed? Sorry for the barage of questions. I forsee a serious improvement in my quality of life.
hunter
If I hang mine in the shower with a small fan blowing on it all night it is pretty dry in the morning.
For $150, why not buy another suit then just swap 'em to always have a dry one, plus double the lifetime of your wetsuits.
I Picked up a used ele leaf blower, with parts missing, I bought some PVC tubing and made a Tee. Hang up the wet suit and ran each end of the tee into a leg of my wet suit and put rubber bands on the legs. Turned on the blower and it was dry in a few hours. It made a lot of noise and I quit doing it after a few weeks. But it did work.
I have a maytag dehumidifier w/ electronic controls; I just hang the wetsuits in a door frame (a closet actually, so nobody is walking thru) and put the dehumidifier right underneath. The one I bought is $190 at Home Depot but I’m sure a smaller variety would work fine - you just have to empty the water out more often.
As for saving the $$, my place was kind of damp to start with (near the beach) so I bought the dehumidifier to get rid of excess moisture anyway. The drying of wetsuits is just a bonus. However, I think my suits will probably last longer this way, in the old days I used to dry them outdoors in the sun, and the UV exposure shortened their lives considerably. Plus the lack of wetsuit and bootie “funk” is superb!
!Hiccup! whoops…
I usually lay out a big dry towel, lay freshly rinsed wetsuit on top, roll up bundle from one end tightly, and kind of squish it around so that the towel wicks water before hanging…a week or so ago I got my suit almost dry for the second go round in an hour or so by doing this, then hanging in front of a gas fireplace (not too close!!) with a fan. warm and toasty. (SF)
The solution for a wetsuit dryer is quite simple: purchase ($50-$100) or build a top vented water heater cabinet, place this close to the family clothes dryer, run the dryer exhaust hose into the bottom of the cabinet, add a hanger bar for the wetsuits, run the dryer on low heat and empty.
This should give you a constant supply of warm dry air and quickly dried wetsuits.
With the addition an air flow valve to direct the normal moist dryer exhaust air outside the house the cabinet will double for wetsuit storage.
My drying mechanism? coat hanger +outside natural wind… works every time
edit: make sure its a COAT hanger… not a wire shirt hanger… they are wide and plastic
Buy another wetsuit. Airdry wet wetsuit. Wear dry wetsuit. No fuss, no muss, no chemicals, no electricity.
I don’t think my wetsuits are ever dry after the day I buy them.
I use my super high tech cure box…cardboard box lined with aluminum foil, and a hole for a hair dryer…works great
I haven’t devised it for wetsuits, but for waders and hip boots, this incredibly crude sketch:
Notes:
If you have forced hot air heat, substitute a box for the manifold and hair dryer, set over a heat vent, Variations include the box and a dryer vent pipe sent into it, etc, though the dryer vent air is likely to be kinda moist already.
Attachment to a base not shown. Be inventive.
A timer attached inline to the hair dryer cord would be a smart move.
As would a slit piece of the same pipe, to block lower holes and slide up and down and such
Don’t use a heat gun. Really, I mean it.
Drain pipe, if you can find it, with the holes already in there, that’s the best setup.
hope that’s of use
doc…
I got one of those new $200 US excels . … its made of this weird new material, but it a long time (days) to dry on the inside, unless I flip it inside out. IF I do let the inside dry w/out flipping it inside out, it takes 3-4 days, and it has this musty moldy smell to it. My old 100 US oneill’s inside would be dry if the outside was. I guess change of materials since the excel is so much more warmer than the oneill (a reactor).
I remember stories of guys that would get a bucket of hot water with their wetsuit in it . … two to use on the way in, and one for use on the way out.
I did the dual wetsuit thing . . . one is always damp ( got a excel and a new heat) unless you have more than 2 days between the two.
I know Keith’s idea works; my sister has a dehumidifier (she hates mold) and dried my wetsuit (including flipping it inside out) in one night. . . very nice. Hers is some uber $300 job that can dry out a swimming pool . …