P-Valve Install in Fusion

[laurin]

The LE is very similiar, except it's neoprene and has better knee pads. I thought about this, and leaving the valve on the inside of the skin would not be a good idea. It would just trap the urine between the skin and trilaminate bad. My valve was delivered yesterday, so my plan is to buy a hole punch on the way home and install it tonight. In your original post, you stated that White's did not like Aquaseal and recommended silicone. Where did you find that info? I could not find anything on White's site about how to install a p-valve. I bought a Halcyon valve and it came with Aquaseal. The bag in the Fusion is trilaminate, not different than many other suits.

You don't really need Aquaseal or silicone either, just cut a rubber gasket from an old neck/wrist seal or bike inner tube (or just about any smooth rubber), and put it on the inside between the valve and the suit. This will allow you to more easily service the valve, replace it or even patch the hole, should you need to sell the suit without the valve.

Make sure the sealing surfaces on the gasket, valve and suit are clean, though.

The rubber gasket tightened to the suit with valve will be 100% waterproof without any glue/sealant; the pressure difference between the suit and the ambient pressure is minimal and won't really require any more complex sealing. Think about your neck and wrist seals: they work (usually) pretty well, and they're nowhere near as secure as the gasket in the P-valve.

I don't actually get why the manufacturers recommend glue or sealant, apart from generating business for dive shop service, and making it more difficult to reuse your old P-valve on a new suit... The installation without glue is easier, cleaner, a lot faster and cheaper - and works just as well (or better).

The Aquaseal tubes that come with the Halcyon valves are handy in the travel toolbox, though.

//LN

 

[carrielsal]

You don't really need Aquaseal or silicone either, just cut a rubber gasket from an old neck/wrist seal or bike inner tube (or just about any smooth rubber), and put it on the inside between the valve and the suit. This will allow you to more easily service the valve, replace it or even patch the hole, should you need to sell the suit without the valve.

Make sure the sealing surfaces on the gasket, valve and suit are clean, though.

The rubber gasket tightened to the suit with valve will be 100% waterproof without any glue/sealant; the pressure difference between the suit and the ambient pressure is minimal and won't really require any more complex sealing. Think about your neck and wrist seals: they work (usually) pretty well, and they're nowhere near as secure as the gasket in the P-valve.

I don't actually get why the manufacturers recommend glue or sealant, apart from generating business for dive shop service, and making it more difficult to reuse your old P-valve on a new suit... The installation without glue is easier, cleaner, a lot faster and cheaper - and works just as well (or better).

The Aquaseal tubes that come with the Halcyon valves are handy in the travel toolbox, though.

//LN

What a good idea. I was already starting to wonder how you would remove the p-valve if it failed. Have you actually installed one like this on your drysuit?
I have a bicycle tire tube in my dive box.

Carrie

 

[laurin]

What a good idea. I was already starting to wonder how you would remove the p-valve if it failed. Have you actually installed one like this on your drysuit?
I have a bicycle tire tube in my dive box.

On two of my own suits (1 Fusion, 1 "ordinary" trilam), and some buddies have used this method too. I have about 150-200 dives with the valve installed this way, no leaks (that way at least ).

This also allows you to adjust the P-valve hose angle, if you need to fine-tune it.

I think the silicone sealant is recommended because it allows removing the valve with little force. But it's still messy.

I think suits with a very rough trilaminate surface might need the sealant, like the TLS350. Even then I'd just glue on the gasket, not the valve itself. Then again, my other suit is a pretty typical cloth-laminated butyl trilaminate, and it hasn't leaked between the suit and the gasket. It's easy enough to try out before committing to a glued-on valve, so I'd be interested in TLS350 owners' experiences, if anyone has tried this.

//LN

 

[carrielsal]

I may try this. If it doesn't work, I can always glue it in. How large did you cut the gasket?

Carrie

 

[laurin]

I may try this. If it doesn't work, I can always glue it in. How large did you cut the gasket?

Same size as the valve's sealing surface.

//LN

 

[carrielsal]

OK. I think I'm going to try this first. I won't get a chance to try it out until this weekend.

 

[TSandM]

If I had it to do over again, I DEFINITELY would not have Aquasealed the valve to the suit. It's essentially impossible to remove.

 

[carrielsal]

If I had it to do over again, I DEFINITELY would not have Aquasealed the valve to the suit. It's essentially impossible to remove.

Have you ever needed to remove it and why? Do p-valves ever fail? I looked at my Halcyon and it seems like a pretty simple device.

Carrie

 

[skdvr]

On this particular valve that I have installed in my Fusion (Dive Rite Balanced) the two gaskets are siliconed to the suit and then the valve its self just sandwiches those gaskets so it can just be unscrewed and removed at any time. Basically the same thing that Laurin is takling about except that they are actually glued down. In my other suit I have a Salvo P-Valve which is supposed to be glued into the suit. I went to Home Depot and bought some neoprene washers that look just like the ones that I glued to my fusion. The only difference was the the center hole was tiny, but that did not matter because I have my own punch to take care of that. This time I had intended on glueing the gaskets down but for some reason (that I cant remember now) I had to remove the gaskets just before the silicone cured, and then I decided to just clean them up and use them without glue. It was worked perfectly for over a year. If I can find a package from the gasket which I think I still have I will tell you exactly what I got. I just did not have any extra latex laying around for me to use. But I heard the same suggestions and I am sure it would work perfectly....

The mention of not using Aqua Seal was from the Whites Forum on this board. One of the Whites reps said they do not like it because if there is a problem with the valve install and you need to remove it with silicone you can forceably peal the valve from the suit without damaging anything and then you can fairly easily clean the silicone off the suit. With aquaseal you cannot clean it off the suit even if you can get the valve off, so they have to just cut a big hole around it and then patch the suit. If you do a search over in the Whites forum you can probably find some mention of it.

I remove my valves just about every time after I am done diving for a few days. I like to run a water/vinegar solution through my valve to clean it and I prefer that not be get on my suit. It just makes a good cleaning much easier.


Phil

 

[skdvr]

I went down stairs to look at the gasket package and got side tracked and forgot all about it. If you do decide you want to go and look for these and have any problems finding them let me know and I will get specifics for you...

Phil