Drysuit leak at P Valve glue?

[napDiver]

First time using a used drysuit I bought a year ago. Felt fine, 30 mins in I open my right pocket and felt a trinkle of cold water on my knee. After the dive maybe 1-2 inch of water in my boots.

I think I found the culprit. Looks like the glue on the light monkey p valve is separating from the light monkey delrin part? Please see pictures.

How do I fix it? Extra details would be appreciated, never patched a drysuit before.

 

[Stoo]

I'm not familiar with the LM p-valve specifically, but my guess is the real sealing takes place on the outside of the suit. Personally, I would be inclined to remove the valve, clean up the area, and re-seal it as new. Aquaseal is is normally used. I've installed 3 or 4 of these things over the years and never had an issue with them. Most of the work in what I'm suggesting will be in removing the old valve.

 

[rjack321]

First time using a used drysuit I bought a year ago. Felt fine, 30 mins in I open my right pocket and felt a trinkle of cold water on my knee. After the dive maybe 1-2 inch of water in my boots.

I think I found the culprit. Looks like the glue on the light monkey p valve is separating from the light monkey delrin part? Please see pictures.

How do I fix it? Extra details would be appreciated, never patched a drysuit before.

Peel off the bad aquaseal and replace - but that is not likely the source of your leak.

Its far more common for the fabric to wear in this area from repeated flexing over in the same spot. Or for the duckbill valve to fail. So before you go gluing I would blow this suit up and find the actual leak. My money is on a bad duckbill.

 

[AdamSa]

While it may be a bad duckbill, i don't think this is highly likely due the significant amount of water found in the boot (1-2 inches), unless he was not wearing any undersuit, this is a very large amount of liquid.

I agree with rjack, i would test the suit first to 100% determine the leakage site. I have had it recently where I was sure the leak was from the pee valve but it was actually from the docking end of the dry zip.

Also, does the P-Valve have a rubber gasket from the outside? If so, make sure that this is not torn or badly deteriorated - in which case it might be worth changing this or adding a new one on top of the old. While I don't know how the light monkey works, usually you don't have to glue the pee valve from the inside - that looks like a band aid solution (I might be wrong!).

 

[Julius SCHMIDT]

Take out the valve clean up the gloop and glue a gasket or gaskets to the suit and reinstall the valve without gloop between the gasket and the valve


grind off all the old muck down to the fabric

 

[napDiver]

What's a duckbill valve and how do I check it? Is it inside the pee valve body?

Ok I'll do a leak test and then clean up the glue and redo it.

I had undergarments on. And I left the pee valve shut since I didn't even connect the condom contraption at all. It doesn't have a quick connect if that matters.

Ty all so much. The vid was helpful, I wonder why they didn't install it like that

 

[AdamSa]

A duckbill is a type of one way valve. It is behind that grab screw you can see in the picture you posted. The valve should let fluid (air/water) pass from inside the drysuit to the outside, but should block fluid in the other direction. If the valve gets dirty or damaged, water/piss can flow into the suit. Since the pee valve is closed, this is not likely the issue. The point of the valve is to equalise the pressure of the pee system so that you can pee with less effort.

You can test it easily by blowing/sucking on the pee pipe. You should be able to suck air through the pipe with the valve closed (through the duckbill). You should not be able to blow through the pipe with the valve closed. Test this with your mouth, compressed air might be too much pressure. If you manage to blow air out of the duckbill, it is probably leaking.

 

[rob.mwpropane]

And I left the pee valve shut since I didn't even connect the condom contraption at all. It doesn't have a quick connect if that matters.

I do not own this model P valve, but I would think if it was shut / closed during the dive then it's the gasket or o ring / flange that's leaking (and most certainly a glue problem)... if you unscrew / open it and then get a leak it would be the internals of the valve and would need to be rebuilt (they sell rebuild kits).

Does that make sense? Again, I have no experience with this valve, maybe someone else can chime in.

And make sure you do some thorough cleaning before any blowing or sucking....they can get pretty nasty inside

 

[napDiver]

@AdamSa @rob.mwpropane

Thank you guys. This is really helpful