That little vent valve on your drysuit inflator hose is a real pain point

I kept noticing air slowly leaking from my inflator hose during deeper dives and couldn't figure out why. Turned out the tiny vent valve on the end was getting clogged with salt grit after a few jobs off the Gulf Coast near Biloxi. Spent 20 minutes rinsing it out with fresh water and a toothpick and it works like new again. Anybody else run into this or found a better way to clear it out?

2 comments

2 Comments

carter.hugo2d ago

That vent valve is more of a feature than a pain point if you ask me. It lets you dump air quick without fumbling with the main inflator button, which I like for fine tuning buoyancy. The clogging issue sounds like a salt environment problem, not a design flaw. I rinse my gear in fresh water after every salt water dive anyway, so I never see that grit buildup. Maybe try a pre-dive rinse of just the hose end if you are worried about it. Still, I think it works fine for how I use it.

the_phoenix2d ago

Pre rinsing the hose end with fresh water fixed the clogging for me completely.