P valve & condom catheter 101

[CamG]

Greetings fellow P-valve lovers just a quick question I use a 1-10 bleach wash on my valve and rinse very well with fresh water. I remove the valve every time and make sure it is completely dry inside and out. I have been doing this since I got it and have had no issues at all. Is this a bad practice or should I be rinsing with something else?
I remove the valve after diving before I rinse. I do not like the idea of bleach on my dry suit!
Obsession600 all the valves I have seen have a barb or quick - disconnect barb that connects the catheter to the hose. I have used both and elect to just use the factory barb. It is a little harder to remove without leakage but has never failed.
I used it today quite a few times very successfully and the water temps were 41 -42 at surface and depth. I also drank a lot of water, both dives were in the 120' range.
It was very comfortable because of the valve, I will never be without it again!
CamG Keep diving....keep training....keep learning!

 

[chrispete]

Are you folks using anything to secure the end of the catheter to the end of the tube or are you just stretching it over and letting pressure do the job?

A couple of o-rings work perfectly for this.

 

[chrispete]

The instructions called for using AquaSeal sealant but I opted for silicone instead.

There's a reason that the instructions say to use Aquaseal. Using silicone on a drysuit invites some real problems down the road. It may hold a seal perfectly well until such time as you need to redo the seal or change out the valve. At that point good luck getting any adhesive/sealant, including more silicone, to stick to the (now) silicone impregnated material. It's a real pain to get the surface free of silicone again.

 

[DaleC]

There's a reason that the instructions say to use Aquaseal. Using silicone on a drysuit invites some real problems down the road. It may hold a seal perfectly well until such time as you need to redo the seal or change out the valve. At that point good luck getting any adhesive/sealant, including more silicone, to stick to the (now) silicone impregnated material. It's a real pain to get the surface free of silicone again.

I call b_llsh_t. Many suit manufacturers use silicone beads and the advice was given to me by someone who installs them. My buddy just pulled his inflator valve off his DS at the beach yesterday and the silicone bead (factory installed) came right off. Silicone will not adhere to a trilam drysuit. Nice try though.
It's funny that you would worry about silicone gumming up the suit but not Aquaseal. What happens when you have to redo a seal that uses that?

 

[ImUrPropofol]

Thanks for the link Jax, I'll check it out.

 

[FishDiver]

A few thoughts after 100 drysuit dives:
-There are two ways to do hose routing. Either in a straight line (gravity positions the "little guy") or with the hose going up, then doing a U to come back down (direct the "little guy" with your underwear) I prefer the U method, as it allows for more flexiblity in the hose and there is never any stress put on the catheter.

My valve was installed with plenty of hose for the "U" method. It works well perhaps 75% of the time. I am thinking of shortening the hose and trying the "straight line" method.

Which routing is more popular? Any downside to the straight down method?

 

[spectrum]

U method here. That puts the QD top dead center where it's easy to work.

 

[Superlyte27]

Thanks for the info guys.

 

[laughingsquid]

U method here. That puts the QD top dead center where it's easy to work.

I must be dense, but I'm as I type this, am installing my pee valve. With respect to the U routing of the hose, do I route it up the middle of the abdomen then down? Will it stay secure that way?

 

[BabyDuck]

yes, exactly. yes, it will. have fun!