dry suit care

Advice
#1

Is it OK to turn a goretex drysuit inside out and wash the interior with mild soap and water? It got alot of use this winter, and now at the end of the season, and after a few long paddles in warm air but cold water, I fear a bit of maintenance is in order.



Thanks for any help…Lyn

#2

Here’s a good
article regarding Gore Tex and it’s maintenance:



http://www.paddles.com/users/wildcamp/goretex.html



Take care.



~Holmes

#3

how bout
neo suits for storage. Hanging em up or folded to store??

#4

Thanks
for that helpful website.



Lyn

#5

I like to avoid any
method that creases the neo.



I usually hang my neo on a wooden coat hanger. Before hanging the suit, take a paper towel cardboard core and split it lengthwise with a sharp knife or razor tool. You can then cut it to length so it will fit over the horizontal bar of the coat hanger.



Instead of hanging the suit through the neck opening, I simply pull the suit through the hanger opening and drape it at the waist area over the crossbar. The cardboard tube gives a nice radius that distributes the suit’s weight over a greater area.



I do this with my drysuits also, but their bulk is a bit much even for a wooden coat hanger. A homemade hanger with wider dimensions and a larger opening makes drysuit storage much easier. I build mine from an assortment of wooden dowels and and the ‘neck’ of factory hangers that I appropriate from old coat hangers.



Also, on any watersports suits, I store them with the zippers left undone and lubed.



Regards,



~Holmes

#6

Zippers undone, yep (they can get
compressed and ruined); gaskets 303’ed, yep. (Might even head down to my dehumidified basement and hit em up ever 3 month or so.) Using a nicer hanger than I use for my business suits, yep. That is my drysuit care routine. My wetsuit is polartec aquashell and I treat it like dirt. No worries



Keep you gear out of high humidity storage, Delaminated goretex is a bear!