Arkansas Canoe Club Forums

what effect does chlorine have on dry tops and gaskets

I cannot answer your question from experience but having recently purchased a Kokatat drytop I had similiar concerns so I called the company and spoke with a very friendly and helpful representative. He assured me that with freshwater rinsing after each session I should not have any trouble. He also assured me that my warranty would not be adversely affected by using my drytop for pool sessions. Like I said however, I can only repeat what I was told and therefore am not sure exactly how much damage chlorine exposure will do to your drysuit or drytop.

Being a textiles major in college and having some experience with vapor barrier fabrics, latex, and composite fabrics, I too worried about that, having finally purchased some items of "dry" apparrel and wanting to practice with them in a pool. I called Kokatat and Dupont for an update and also talked with some commercial renters of dry apparrel and was told about the same thing by each.

Exposure to elevated levels of chlorine such as in a pool is not recommended on a regular (daily) basis for long hours, particularly in sunlight, but if exposure is only occasional, a fresh water rinse immediately after will suffice, as pool chlorine levels are usually less than 3ppm, with 5ppm being the max normally encountered.

Also recommended is treatment with DuPont 303 before exposure, fresh water rinsing after exposure, and reapplication of DuPont 303 after exposure. The small amount of chlorine in municiple potable water systems should not affect either the fabrics or seals in modern dry suits.

Long term exposure of a drysuit to chlorine would help accelerate any UV degredation also going on and could result in accelerated color fading and stiffening of the fabric, cracking in the seals, and result in an overall loss of strength and flexibility. If exposure to chlorine or other chemicals is regular, drysuit fabrics may need occasional re-application of the DWR or water repellancy treatments via a topical method. If the topical treatment requires heat to activate it or cure it, only the lowest possible temperature should be used and never on the seals. Possible ways to carefully apply this heat are by hair dryer using a thermometer to monitor fabric surface temperature or by a calibrated iron with a buffer fabric used between the drysuit and the iron. Extended dwell time application of heat in any method is not recommended.

Hope this answers your question.

Eric

I just talked to our Aquatics Director here at UALR and he confirmed that since his arrival, only sodium cloride has been used in our pool. I haven't noticed any degredation on some of my sprayskirts that have been used in this pool for ten plus years. I can't say what it would do to the latex gaskets on a drytop. I've never needed one in a pool thats heated to eighty degrees.

Thanks guys.That answered my question