Northwest Dive Club

Hello all. I had the remove my chest and shoulder valves to clean and service. I cannot attach them without having them leak. Has anyone used aquarium sealant on a Bare tri-lam suit? I've seen the aquarium sealant on the dui site, but nothing on the bare site. If I do use the sealant, how hard are the valves to remove? Thanks for your help.


www.jessemillerphotography.com

With that type of sealant on a tri-lam suit...to remove the aquarium sealant would cause damage to the fabric.
Have you called Bare and asked for some trouble shooting advise? Should they have been removed in the first place?
When I meet up with you I can show you my imperfect try at a valve...
Kirsten

Before resorting to the sealant, try re-attaching it with some regular silicone lube around the threads and gasket. The sealing surfaces have to be clean and tight.

I had this same problem a couple weeks ago after replacing the chest valve on my suit -- bad leaking, even though it passed a fully-inflated leak test. The two dives after re-sealing it, tighter and with some lube, went a lot better. But if the problem continues I will probably put a thin bead of silicone sealant on myself...

I take mine off my Trilam Bare suit and service it. I always use a very small amount of aqua seal on the valve itself, not on the suit, the plastic spacer glues to the valve and seals to the suit. Never had any problem with it leaking around it.

Whoa, you put aqua seal on the valve? How do you ever get it off again?

It's between the seal and the big plastic washer, comes right off

fmerkel wrote:Whoa, you put aqua seal on the valve? How do you ever get it off again?

Easy breezy

Only put a small bead on the outside flange, not on the inside nut part or the threads.
Whenever you need it off in the future, the back nut will unscrew and you can easily peel the fabric away from the main body of the valve. Aquaseal doesn't stick to plastic very well.

ATV silicon also works and is slightly less sticky on the valve. Both will basically make a rubberized gasket which will stay on the suit.

DUI on the warm neck collars use to use clear silicone (like for around faucets and shower doors) not sure if they still do. Just as a double check as well, you can try sucking (yes I said it) on the threaded male end of the exhaust valve when it's out of the suit. You shouldn't be able to get air to pass. If you can it's the valve.

DFessler wrote:DUI on the warm neck collars use to use clear silicone (like for around faucets and shower doors) not sure if they still do. Just as a double check as well, you can try sucking (yes I said it) on the threaded male end of the exhaust valve when it's out of the suit. You shouldn't be able to get air to pass. If you can it's the valve.

I wanna be there to watch Jesse when he tries this!