Why does nobody talk about how bad drysuit valves are on older models?

A guy I worked with in Louisiana last summer swore by his 20 year old Viking drysuit with those twist valves. He told me to stick with the old gear because new stuff is overpriced junk. I took his advice and spent a full day flooded up to my chest during a bridge inspection in Baton Rouge. Those old valves are impossible to service in the field and they freeze up in cold water. Has anyone else had a older model fail on them like this?

3 comments

3 Comments

taylor.sean1mo ago

I get where you're coming from but I have to push back on that a little. I've been running an old Viking drysuit with those twist valves for like five seasons now and I haven't had a single leak or freeze up. The trick is you gotta work them open and closed real slow, not force them when they're stiff in cold water. I think that guy in Louisiana gave you bad advice about not keeping up with the maintenance though, you gotta clean and grease those threads every few months or they'll seize up on you. Old gear isn't junk, it just needs more attention than the fancy new stuff.

joel_hall171mo ago

That's assuming those old threads were ever greased properly in the first place though.

river_allen1mo ago

Figure out how the old gear works and you'll save yourself a ton of headaches down the line. Ngl, I've seen people trash perfectly good valves just because they didn't bother learning the proper slow twist method from the start. Honestly, reading the manual or watching a quick YouTube video would have saved them a few hundred bucks easy.