Chuck's Drysuit Dryer
Chuck Tribolettriblet@garlic.com
http://www.almaden.ibm.com/cs/people/triblet/
It's easy to get the outside of a drysuit dry, but getting the inside dry can be
problematic, especially in damp weather.
David Dalton has a web page
showing how he built one out of a blower and PVC pipe for about $30,
but I didn't want to listen to the blower go all night, and I wanted
something simpler and more storeable, and I was willing to pay a bit
more.I started with a Peet Shoe Dryer, which which is available from a number of sources, including directly from Peet, for about $40, I think I got mine from Northern Tool. It works by having a very low-powered heat source in each "stack", which warms the air in the stack, which in turn rises into the toes of the boots, dries them a little, cools off, and settles back out down the outside of the stack.
While it would do a fine job on, say, ski boots, it's way too short for a drysuit. Peet has extensions but they run about $13 a foot. Ouch.
The
good news is that the stacks are the same size as 1.5" plastic pipe,
so I just got a couple of lengths of ABS pipe at the hardware store,
put a slip/slip coupling
on one end, and voila, I had a drysuit drier. My ABS pipes are
68.5" long, but I'm 6' 5" tall, so yours may well end up shorter.
You'll note that there's a patch up near the top of the pipes.
They were initially a little too short (design error) and had to be
extended.It will dry the inside of my suit from sopping wet in something less than 12 hours. Since electricity and water don't mix, if the suit's sopping, I let it drip for an
hour or so before I fire up the heater. And it would be a real good idea to have it on a GFCI protected circuit.
In nice weather I use it in the garage, in the winter I put it in the downstairs shower stall. I turn the arms inside out to try (David's has a set of blowers for the arms too).
I got ABS because I THINK it has a higher melting point than PVC. The really correct solution may be CPVC, which can be used for hot water, but I didn't see it in 1.5", and it's more expensive.
Want to dry your suit on the Nautilus Explorer or one of the SoCal bunk-aboards? Peet has propane powered shoe driers too.