Life of a Drysuit

[Dmitchell]

I bought a TLS350 in 1988. Sold it back in 99' and it's still being used today.

[Gill Envy]

If kayak diving, a lot of shore diving, walking a lot in them... expect a lot less life.

My suits since 94:
-Harvey's aquacapsul... aptly named, POS! 50 dives then sold.
-USIA shell suite: 300 dives, worn to rags due to shore diving/kayak diving.
-Apallo closed cell: 300+, it's no longer black, more like sun bleached gray, I replaced the zipper myself (a PITA, but saved lots of $$). I still own it but the seams eventually started leaking in new places on nearly every dive.
-DUI CF200, not sure how many dives I have on it, probably 200+. My favorite suite so far! It's holding up pretty well with a few pin holes here and there that were easy to patch. The boots are ok, but most importantly, user replaceable!!!

For me, in the end, comfort and reliability have turned out to be paramount, not so much about how long the suit lasts as I would have thought. Shell suits are some of the worst for comfort, at lest for me. Being able to flex my back and shoulders under water is key, as I have had neck and back issues. Flexibility is also important to me for kayak diving, which I still get to do on occasion (now that I"m a father of two little ones). Crushed neoprene has been the best all around for me, well worth the investment, though I hear it's not what it used to be. People complain that it's heavy when whet but that is not an issue under water.

g

[deep diver]

Bare called me today and wants me to send it back... again. One of the higher up customer service people is going to take the suit and do another test on it himself and let me know what he thinks. I'll keep you posted as to the out
come.

[renoun]

Here is a $200 suit and undergarment. As long as it fit, the zipper is OK, and there isn't terrible delamination or degradation of the fabric this suit is a good opportunity to tinker with a suit.

[DFessler]

Wow, so many of these comments are on point. I have owned 4 different suits over the course of 14 years of diving and thousands of dives. All of my suits had over 500 dives on them and were sold because they just didn't work for me or I lost weight. I have never replaced zippers thank goodness ($250-$400 to replace on average), and usually only replace my seals about once every year, year and a half (about 200 dives). The big "bad" thing with suits is the delamination with tri-lams or seam failure. You don't here about this very much with any drysuit.

You WILL replace seals, thats a given. Honestly I have never had to do anything with my valves, and my current suit (an Apollo) has over 800 dives on it. I work in a dive shop so I am not going to get into a brand war here, but I can truly say that there are a few common denominators I see when it comes to inbound service requests by customers. I see more leak repairs on neoprene or latex socks over integrated boots. I see more seal repairs on drysuits where they store the drysuit in a garage in which they start their car or lawnmowers (keep the seals away from petroleum distillates). Once zippers start showing fraying or threading maintain them. Folding the suit incorrectly will also cause the zipper to snap in areas (usually associated with back entry suits). Bio-Seals will rot your seals. It says right on the packaging that you must wash your seals after using a bio-seal. And seriously I don't care which friend of a friend told you this was a good idea but do NOT wash your suit in a washing machine. It might work, maybe you've gotten lucky a few times but its funny that the last few suits with leaks I have seen in the seams, are from divers who machine wash their suits.

The one warning with Craigslist Suits is there is that occasional "great buy", but in my last two customers cases that had repairs done on there suits purchased from Craigslist, that the repairs and original purchase ended up being more expensive than a new suit. Every shop in town has the ability to get you into an economy drysuit, sometimes as low as $700. The last customer spent $800 on having a zipper reinstalled and new neoprene socks installed (wrong size). Just sayin'....

[Linedog]

David has a lot of good tips. When I first started diving I didn't know if I would enjoy it (duh). I bought most of my gear used, I have replaced just about all of it with new stuff. I still am diving my used Apollo, when it dies I will probably get another one. It works for me and my style of diving and I have gotten used to it. Not trying to start a brand war, just what I'm used to, if I was a pro or diving a lot more I might do more research. I think if you can find a brand or type that works for your style of diving is part of the key.

[straitscuba]

The best overall suit I have ever had was a Gates Pro-Am 1050. I had TONS of hard diving on that suit. I do alot of marina work and moorings and it eats suit. I wear out boots, knees, and underarms fairly fast. I go through a minimum of three sets of seals per year. With the gates I would just glue new layers of rubber over the wear spots. If I sprung a leak on my first dive of the day I could dry the suit with a towel and put a bicycle tire patch on and be dry for the rest of the day. I would have never gotten rid of it but I lost it in a house fire. I have tried 2 neoprene bare drysuits, a DUI crushed neoprene suit, and an OS tri-lam suit and none of them seem to last much longer than about a year for me, even with patchwork repairs. My current bare was my back up suit and is several years old but has very few dives on it and the seams are coming apart and the armpit area is almost worn through the neoprene from my BCD inflater hose rubbing when I am working and moving around a lot. Gates is now (or at least last time I checked) Hunter dry suits. I have never tried a viking so not sure how they compare. I have found the vulcanized rubber suits to be pretty hardy, easy and cheap to maintain, and very versatile as far as climates (I used mine in a range from 36f-75f degree waters with just adding or dropping layers of undergarment). Talk to everyone that you haven't already driven crazy with dive gear questioning, find out what they dive and why they like it. I have found that doing a TON of homework before i purchase has been very beneficial to me!

[deep diver]

Sent the suit back for the 3rd time 2 weeks ago. Greg from customer service asked it be sent directly to him. He evalulated it and decided to replace the suit. They didn't have one that size in stock so it took a little longer to get it back, but it came today... on a Saturday! I'll be trying it out tomorrow. I'm tired of wearing my old suit that is more wet than dry.

He did say that if the shop you buy it from is gone, it does make it harder to get a suit replace, but sounded like he was really going to try to see what needed to be done. He put a rush on it so I wouldn't be with out for long.

So glad that Bare decided to stand behind their product, because I really do like the look and feel of the suit.

[deep diver]

AHHHHH! new DRYsuit!! I had forgot what it was like to dive dry... it is wonderful! Thanks to Bare for replacing my suit.

[Penopolypants]

AHHHHH! new DRYsuit!! I had forgot what it was like to dive dry... it is wonderful! Thanks to Bare for replacing my suit.

Woohoo! That's great news!

[gutholmj]

It's really great that they stepped up and replaced it. I feel a bit more confidence now about my new suit.

[deep diver]