Ideas needed for wetsuit drying room

[RiverVentures]

I am looking for some ideas on a room for drying wetsuits. I currently wash and hang wetsuits outside then move them into the building at the end of the day and set up fans, crank the air down and pray that they dry overnight. Sometimes they do and sometimes they are still wet and need to be moved back outside.

I am wanting to create an inside room for washing and drying wetsuits, up to 75 suits per day, The suits are full 3/2 neoprene.

My thought is a double wash bin to rinse and sanitize, a commercial washer to spin them out, then hang them. I was thinking heat on in the room with ventilation and some fans and dehumidifiers. I will need to keep this room as dry as possible, not like outside where I can hang soaking wet suits to drip out.

If anyone has any thoughts or suggestions on how to put a room together for the purpose of drying up to 75 wetsuits at a time please share.

Thanks

 

[VooDooGasMan]

Dehumidifier, is what you need, the bigger for your amount of suits the better, fans and, lets say 65 degree's.

 

[emoreira]

Points to consider :
1) Darkness. Light and solar light affect negatively neoprene.
2) Ozone. Electric motors with brushes do produce ozone. Ozone also affect negatively neoprene. The fans should have brushless motors.
3) Heat. Only a few degrees. Heat also affect negatively neoprene.

Basically heat will reduce ambient humidity, as hot air dilutes more water than cold air. The more air that circulates parallel to the neoprene more water will dilute and faster will them dry. Neoprene suits will be hanging vertical. The fans should force air parallel the the suit skin.

 

[beanojones]

Commercial air mover, rather than a fan of any kind, will better dry things out.

Washing wetsuits, IME, shortens their lifespan considerably, not so much the neoprene as the stitching. "Sink the Stink" will do most of what you are trying to get done with the idea of cleaning the suits, but nothing but better air movement will do much to shorten drying time. The ambient conditions matter, but the amount of air forced past a given area matters more IME.

Commercial Air movers are what stores use to dry wet carpets and floor wax. Why? Because the amount of fresh air circulated by a spot matters most in determining drying time.

EDIT: It's obvious once you think about it, but neoprene does not really get wet, just the lining material. If you really need quick drying wetsuits, find a company that makes a quicker drying lining material on their suits.

You will find that is a balancing act: the fastest drying suits have the thinnest lining (no surprise really), but the thinnest lining suits also get destroyed faster, because the laws of nature do apply to materials.

 

[VooDooGasMan]

Beano has the right Idea on a blower, also river, how is the room for escaping moisture, is there a fan sucking air to outdoors, this is why I mentioned a dehumidifier.

The other thing is what beano said is the type of suit, I live next to the ocean water and the wind works well on some suits, and not so on others.

 

[RiverVentures]

Thanks for the responses. Currently we rely on hanging them outside with fans blowing and some sunlight. Since boats come in at different times during the day we have varying levels of wetness. Wetsuits on the last tours may only get to hang an hour before moving them inside. So, some suits dripping when moved inside and almost dry as they have been under fans outside most of the day.

I move them into my building where I have hanging bars set up in different rooms, I place fans on them and crank the air waaaaay down. I have a shower stall where I hang the wettest suits as these seem to dry the fastest. I turn on the bathroom exhaust fan and place a floor fan at the shower stall door. These suits dry overnights without a problem.

Actually, the set up I have right now isn't that bad and it is workable however we are moving to a larger facility and I would like to move all wetsuit washing and drying into an interior room. This will keep my employees inside during inclement weather and will also keep my suits out of the sun. My plan is to design this room for nothing but wetsuit processing while keeping it dry so as not to affect the rest of the building.

 

[Rich Keller]

Try setting up a greenhouse using a cheep car cover enclosure covered with clear plastic sheeting and a fan to move some air from the top of the enclosure.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

You want to move a lot of air, dehumidifying the large volume of air is impractical.

 

[Rich Keller]

You will have to tweak the amount of air you move. Not enough and the suits just hang in a steam bath. Too much and you loss some of the heat you need to dry the suits.

 

[beanojones]

You will have to tweak the amount of air you move. Not enough and the suits just hang in a steam bath. Too much and you loss some of the heat you need to dry the suits.

IME heat simply does not matter. The drying is done by the less humid fresh new air absorbing moisture. If you do not move the air away from the suits, the air near the suits will reach equilibrium and little drying will happen.

But again fans simply will not cut it at all. Commercial air movers are the only way to go. Until I switched to commercial air movers, none of my gear ever dried.

Source: Lived in the tropics long enough to know hot, humid, and wet.