P- Valve vs relief zipper vs depends

[Ross19966]

I see from posts that a lot of you use p-valves. I also see a lot of people have leaking issues. My experience is limited to depends. P-valve and depends allow relief underwater. Zipper provides easy access but not in the water.

My experience tells me that if I take a good pee before donning, if I get the urge during the dive it is very little (not a flood). I’m leaning toward relief zipper and depends.

I have chatted with a few who went back to depends after P-valve leaks and failures. Where does everyone stand on this?

 

[broncobowsher]

No.

A good Pee valve is just fine. Most of the leaks are poor Pee valves or not maintained (as I see it).

Your data points are probably highly skewed. Those that have good one, tend to not say anything. The bad ones will be very vocal about it. Therefore the data you are seeing is just those having issues.

 

[eelpout]

My first drysuit was the Posiedon Unisuit wich had a zipper that came down the middle of your front from 8 " above your belly button down between your legs to the about 8" below your neck. It worked very well for relieving yourself without removing the suit (for # 1 and 2) . I also owned a Viking Combat diver suit that had a relief zipper that I rarely used because I didn't want it to break ( I had enough experience having zippers break in and out of the water). I Had my first p-valve in 1998 installed on a CF200 shoulder entry DUI suit. I have had 3 different suits since then, all of them had Halcyon Balanced p-valves, I have the newer model on my present suit. No leaks with the P-Valves. I have installed them on Trilam suits for customers and dive buddies. The issue when we first started was the Condom Catherters, we tested a whole bunch. We unanimously picked Rochester Medical Wideband Catheters (size Medium ; ).... Worth the money to have a p-valve , heck women now use them with a device called the She-P.

 

[Tracy]

I prefer a P valve, I don't want to hold it, and I don't want to limit my water intake.
Leaks can happen, but they aren't a regular thing. Good prep work fixes most issues. A cottonball soaked in Isopropyl alcohol removes all the oils from your skin. Once clean and dry, a rochester wide band is stuck well. Their glue is impressive stuff.
I have probably had 25 leaks out of 1000 dives with a P valve.
90% of my leaks over the years were from hurrying and skipping good prep work.
The other 10% were a kinked hose and I didn't test it while still on the surface.
It is like anything else, develop a routine and stick with it. Deviating from your normal routine tends to cause problems.

 

[Lorenzoid]

P-valves should not leak much if at all. Balanced p-valves may be more prone to leaking, since they involve a one-way valve that opens into the interior of the suit. If it's a problem, the one-way valve can be plugged, disabling the balancing function. I haven't been able to notice any difference diving a balanced versus unbalanced p-valve.

A separate issue from the p-valve itself leaking would be leakage in the connection between the catheter (or She-P in the case of women) and the p-valve. I have found this to be a problem for myself when diving in a warm climate, where sweat and body oils, etc., from being too warm before the dive (e.g., a long walk to the water's edge) begins to loosen the catheter. I have also found it problematic when I have been too cold, due to, er, shrinkage. Total failures have been rare, though.

Any minor leakage is a small price to pay for the ability to relieve myself. My wife wears a diaper as a back-up to her She-P, which, she tells me, is REALLY prone to leakage.

 

[RobPNW]

I see what you did there with the "Depends" comment.

 

[Hoyden]

The ability to use a p-valve is the only thing that I really envy guys over. I tried a She-P and it was not for me... so I am in the Depends group. I do want to say that using a Depends without issues requires good flow control. In other words, don't hold it until you can't hold it anymore. BTDT.

 

[lexvil]

The ability to use a p-valve is the only thing that I really envy guys over. I tried a She-P and it was not for me... so I am in the Depends group. I do want to say that using a Depends without issues requires good flow control. In other words, don't hold it until you can't hold it anymore. BTDT.

Wait, what about our ability to say things without prior brain activity? Especially our ability to be total experts on subjects that we didn’t even know existed two minutes earliner?

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

I've had a number of different p-valves across the different dry suits I've owned. The "best" was Halcyon. By "best" I mean never had a leak (well, besides from me) and less effort. Second was Light Monkey. No leaks. SiTech was absolute garbage. Had a couple of them, and they would leak. The last straw was walking into the water and feeling water shoot into the supposedly 1-way valve into my leg.

Keep it simple, go with Halcyon or Light Monkey.

 

[formernuke]

I'm convinced we don't remember our diaper days for a reason.