Life of a Drysuit

[deep diver]

I am trying to find out the life expectincy of a drysuit. Anyone want to share their information on what suit they have and how many years/dives on average did yours last?

What suits seem to last the longest?

I have a Bare Trilam and would like to know how many years I should be able to get out of it. I have about 2 1/2 years/ 300 +/- dives

[Joshua Smith]

Interesting question. Obviously, there are some variables. A diver who squeezes into tight spots a lot will probably wear their suit out a lot faster than one who doesn't, for example. And I believe trilam suits *might* last longer than Neoprene. But I don't have enough experience to speak directly to the question. Hopefully, one of our members with a few decades of dives under their belt will chime in.

[Blaiz]

one of my mentors was just mentioning that his dui suit was about three years old, has ~1000 dives on it, he said it was showing wear

he also mentioned that dui considers 50 dives to be a years worth, based on "average" dive customs or something along those lines

[deep diver]

Seems to me that they should laast longer than that. 50 dives a year doesn't seem like that many dives for the average dive. It's a big investment to only get 3 years of life

[kdupreez]

My DUI FLX 50/50 is 4 years old and has about 650 dives on it and its still going strong.. This is what it went through in 4 years

- The zipper is still original and fairly OK condition..
- I replaced wrist and neck zip seals about 3 times (takes like 5mins)
- Overlays (color nylon overlay) has de-laminated quite a bit and also color has faded a lot.. (I'll stick with black cordura next time or a primary color tough-duck material)
- The Inflator valve has been serviced by me 3 times in 4 years (after it stuck once)
- I have never completely flooded the suit, but have gotten fairly wet a few times due to various leaks. (see below)
- The boots chafed the Neoprene socks and created leaks in my feet (3-4 holes that I've patched so far)
- Crotch/Inseam has leaked 5-6 times due to neoprene that stretches on seams and starts to leak. (patched it with aquaseal every time)

Thats about it.. It has never gone back to DUI in 4 years and has also never gone back to a dive shop for repairs.. All the repairs I have done was on small leaks and fixed it with "Aqua Seal" and of course I serviced the inflator valve couple of times..

So, If you look after your suit, go easy on zipper and wax it after dives and rinse your suit out and service the valves.. I would say that if you dive 50-100 times per year, a DUI suit could last you 7-10 years EASY!

my wife has the same suit and she dives about that much and her suit seriously looks like it came from the factory yesterday and its also 4 years old.. (and zero problems and zero leaks)..

All this said, I am chasing an intermittent leak right now that could either be a neck seal gone weird, a P-Valve issue, a Inflation leak or a zipper leak..

.

[H20doctor]

My first drysuit ... A neopreem Atlan from canada lasted me 8 years.. And I dive alot.. I'm on my 2nd atlan now, and its 3 yrs old.. Still going strong..

[rcontrera]

That is really a loaded question since the life expectancy of just about any dive equipment depends on how you treat it. I have a drysuit from the 80s that I outgrew but is still going strong for the person I gave it to. On the other hand, back in 1989, when my wife had her dive shop, she had a customer completely toast a new OS Systems suit in one year and only 12 dives because of improper storage.

Keep your suit clean ... dry it out of the sun ... treat all the rubber parts with some sort of protectant ... store it according to manufacturer's instructions and pay attention to what you are bumping into on your dive and it should last you a long time.

[deep diver]

Thanks for the great report, Kdupreez. Seems like you might have had a lot of the same leak issues I have had with my suit.

Ray, you didn't mention what kind of suit yours was that lasted so many years.

I have chased leaks from day one in my suit, but nothing major that I used aqua seal on. Recently I have been getting completely soaked in the suit. I sent it back to Bare for warranty work. They tested it and said it was leaking in 4 different spots and blistering on the seams. They did the repairs and sent it back to me. I used it several times after and was still getting wet on my hip. Contacted them and told them about the leak. The apologized for missing that spot and asked me to ship it back and they would try and rush it out. Got a call from them and they said that the zipper and boots were leaking.... $700. to fix. Then said that the suit is almost completely wore out and they didn't feel it was worth repairing. They also said any work you do to the suit yourself voids the warranty, even putting a dot of aqua seal on it.
I wash this suit and then hang it in my closet every day I wear it. I lube the zipper every 2-3 dives. The suit is made of the new cordura that is supposed to be real tough. I don't bounce or crawls on the bottom. Very seldom would it touch a rock.
Being "completely wore out" seems wrong. The warranty, she told me, is only for the seams ... not for delaminating... they will not warranty any of the work.
The "funny" thing about this is that a buddy and I ordered ours at the very same time, same shop, same order. His started leaking in one spot, sent it back to bare and sent him a brand new suit after 2 years.
I figure it costs me about $600. a year before I have to buy a new suit. Just seems like they should last longer than that.
Guess I will be researching suits to see what to buy next.

[LCF]

My Fusion is about three and a half years old, and has about 500 dives on it. I have had two pinhole leaks in it, one of which I almost certainly caused when I burned the hole for the p-valve, and one major tear which occurred when I fell off a dive boat in doubles in Florida. I have replaced seals a number of times (my neck eats Latex, and this has nothing to do with the quality of the suit) and finally, this year, had to replace the zipper.

The suit has its annoyances (some of which Whites fixed after I bought mine -- there are penalties for being an early adopter) but it has been remarkably trouble free.

[Blaiz]

... which occurred when I fell off a dive boat in doubles in Florida....

....

[E_Mo]

My
- The Inflator valve has been serviced by me 3 times in 4 years (after it stuck once)

So, If you look after your suit, go easy on zipper and wax it after dives and rinse your suit out and service the valves.. I would say that if you dive 50-100 times per year, a DUI suit could last you 7-10 years EASY!

.

I have a DUI TLS and have been interested in learning how to service the inflator and shoulder valve, is there a class or a book on how to service these?

[rcontrera]

Ray, you didn't mention what kind of suit yours was that lasted so many years.

Sorry ... OS Systems Nautilus. They don't make that one anymore, though.

[Tom Nic]

My usia tri-lam has about 5 years and 500 dives on it and I just replaced the zipper. Other than seals that's all I've done, and me and my fat ares are pretty hard on suits. I'm guessing that I'll need to switch the boots out in the next 100 dives or so, and it has some wear places from my straps that I've aquasealed to give it something to wear against.

I'll let you know how long it lasts...

[ktb]

The warranty, she told me, is only for the seams ... not for delaminating... they will not warranty any of the work. The "funny" thing about this is that a buddy and I ordered ours at the very same time, same shop, same order. His started leaking in one spot, sent it back to bare and sent him a brand new suit after 2 years.

Ummm . . . I don't want to add salt to your wound, but I just received a brand new suit from BARE because my suit of less than 2 years and ~150 dives was delaminating. Now, I had never worked on it myself and I went through Tacoma Scuba to send my suit back, but as far as I know, we didn't have any issues with them refusing to repair it.

[deep diver]

ouch! that salt hurts. Maybe they were all made around the same time and they had a flaw in the material. Don't know why they would replace some suits and reject others. When I get my suit back I'll be calling their customer service and see what's up. In the mean time I'll continue researching for my next suit.

[rcontrera]

I am just guessing that it has something to do with who sent it in. Tacoma Scuba is probably the biggest Bare dealer in the Northwest and, most likely, Bare would do anything to keep those boys happy. It is usually best to deal with your local dealer but just know that each manufacturer has their "Stars" that will sometimes get better service or pricing than your local store. Bare is Tacoma Scuba; USIA is Underwater Sports; OS is Lighthouse; DUI is Bubbles Below, etc.

[ktb]

I am just guessing that it has something to do with who sent it in. Tacoma Scuba is probably the biggest Bare dealer in the Northwest and, most likely, Bare would do anything to keep those boys happy. It is usually best to deal with your local dealer but just know that each manufacturer has their "Stars" that will sometimes get better service or pricing than your local store. Bare is Tacoma Scuba; USIA is Underwater Sports; OS is Lighthouse; DUI is Bubbles Below, etc.

Absolutely. I think it also helped that I brought my drysuit to the Expo and Aaron (Wally) and I cornered the BARE rep at the booth (that he was sharing with Tacoma Scuba) to make sure he was on-board with sending it back.

[renoun]

Wow this thread is re-enforcing my decision to buy used suits for pennies on the dollar and repair them myself as needed. I suppose at some point I might need to send a suit out for a zipper but I would probably have it done locally. I'm happy to show folks how to do seals if they want to learn.

[Dashrynn]

Wow this thread is re-enforcing my decision to buy used suits for pennies on the dollar and repair them myself as needed. I suppose at some point I might need to send a suit out for a zipper but I would probably have it done locally. I'm happy to show folks how to do seals if they want to learn.

+1 Ross helped me fix my neck seal before and I think wrist seals. Never leaked.

[deep diver]

Yes, it probably is "where you buy it from" helps make their minds up. The company I bought it from has since gone out of business.

[Blaiz]

go away evil spam bitch!

[spudgunman]

you guys and your dry suits ...silly 1 year of diving and I am still happy and wet

[rcontrera]

Yes, it probably is "where you buy it from" helps make their minds up. The company I bought it from has since gone out of business.

Where/what was your shop?

[deep diver]

divetank out of canada. WAS the largest distributor at the time...

[oregondiver]

I have a whites trilam from 1997. I didn't dive for about 5 years so it just sat without use. But it has about 250 dives on it. Had zipper replaced about 200 dives in. And then started leaking...

Ron at Hoodsport n dive is a sweetheart. He would take it in, repair it. Hand it back. I would finish my dive, drop it back off, he would repair and I would pick it up, dive again, and hand it back for repair. A call to whites they said suits are only meant to last a few years and start breaking down after that and I should be grateful I got to use it for so long and no they don't offer a discount to loyal / repeat customers.

I have a Bare (not neoprene version) that is 20 dives old? My elbow/arm is getting damp and I haven't figured out if it is the valve or a leak....