Cleaning a reeeally dirty drysuit

I need some advice from anybody who has dealt with either smoke damage or just a really icky drysuit. We had a house fire 2 weeks ago, and Brent's drysuit "made it" with no heat/ fire damage, but it's heavily smoked. My poor DUI TLS350 was a bit more well done (we think we found the zipper).
Brent's suit is the DUI FLX 50/50, so the bottom part is made of crushed neoprene..... I think there is no hope of getting the soot/ smell out of it, but he's very optimistic.
Does anyone have any experience cleaning up after a fire, or do you know what detergents or soaps can be used on the inside & outside of a drysuit?

Thanks so much!

I don't specifically have experience, but first thing I'd try is to soak it in a large tub of water and Sink the Stink. I'd even consider Febreeze.

.. but glad you are OK. As for the drysuit... I think that you should contact DUI and ask for their recommendation as to what cleaning agents are acceptable and will not degrade the suit material.

I had an incident a decade or so ago where I ascended into a diesel spill and my CF200 was liberally coated. DUI advised that the suit be condemned. The company responsible for the spill paid for the suit.

Do you have insurance coverage on the personal property lost in the fire?

But I'm really sorry for the destruction of your house and stuff

Sorry to hear about the fire, seakdivers.

While it's unfortunate that your gear got "flavoured" by the smoke, it was good news that no one was injured in the fire.

BTW, I agree with UP: contact DUI & see what they say.

Hey thanks for the concern everyone........ this has certainly been a learning experience.

Uncle Pug - I am with you as far as contacting DUI to find out the prognosis for the suit..... Brent is *just sure* that it can be saved - but I am not altogether convinced.

As far as the insurance is concerned - yes, I have insurance, however as I said before - this has been a learning experience. Note to everyone.....Get *replacement* insurance - although it can be time consuming, it's much better to do an inventory of items that you can see rather than try to inventory of the charred bits & pieces only to have them give you the depreciated value. As I've learned the hard way, replacement insurance is only a couple bucks more a month, and it's well worth the extra few dollars a month to have it. <gotta love hindsight!>

As it stands, we lost all of our personal belongings, and that is ok because they are replaceable. The only irreplaceable things that we lost were our two cats, and it's been terribly hard on our family.

So - moral of the story.........
Check your fire insurance to see what it covers (make sure you have "loss of use" coverage)

Pull the tags off of your furniture and check for the fire hazards for that particular fabric blend (it turns out that our cats died from *cyanide* poisoning from the gasses given off from our burning couches)

Make sure that you really do discuss a fire escape plan with your family members - I know you hear it all the time, but it is really so important!!

seakdivers once bubbled...
So - moral of the story.........
Check your fire insurance to see what it covers (make sure you have "loss of use" coverage)

Pull the tags off of your furniture and check for the fire hazards for that particular fabric blend (it turns out that our cats died from *cyanide* poisoning from the gasses given off from our burning couches)

Make sure that you really do discuss a fire escape plan with your family members - I know you hear it all the time, but it is really so important!!

Click to expand...

Very good points, seakdiver. May I add a couple more?

-Check your smoke detectors. Change the battery twice a year (we encourage this when you change your clocks for DST). New code (and strongly encouraged for older homes) is a SD in each bedroom and at least one on every floor in the hallways.

-If you have children, not only DISCUSS escape plans, but practice them! Try to find 2 ways out of every room - especially bedrooms.

-Try to teach your kids to sleep with the bedroom doors closed. This really slows down the spread of fire through a house. If they are afraid of the dark, try a nightlight or keep a closet light on.

-As a public service, most fire departments will gladly do a fire safety inspection on your home if you ask them. There isn't usually a charge for this and it's totally voluntary. They can make reccomendations if they find areas of concern, but there are no fines or citations if you choose not to implement them.

There are tons more, but these are some of the biggies.

NFPA

Snowbear - those are also some very excellent points.

My daughter's room (which was the closest bedroom to the main fire) had the door closed, and even though it was a hollow-core door her room was almost perfect. No soot on the walls, no smoke damage to anything - other than the smell. My other daughter's room was about 20 feet away with the door opened - the walls were coated with soot, and there were cd's and tapes that melted in her room.

Scary stuff!!

I'm really glad you guys are all OK! Again, I'm sorry about the loss of your stuff and especially the kitties.

:doctor:
You are OK that is important.

I had a friend who had a similar experience. Ask the manufacturer what cleaning agents are best to use. My friend soaked his in a baking soda water mix (?) I don't know if that worked. He still dives the suit. According to him the smell was reduced and you can't smell underwater anyway. Of course in time and enough dives the smell should go away.

Before you do anything confirm the continuity of the suit by plugging the neck and wrist seals using a toy pail coke cans or something. Inflate the suit and see if there are any leaks when you submerse it into a bathtub full of water. Good luck