DUI Zipseals

[systematic.entropy]

Has anyone been using these and what do they think?

[Raiderswim]

Just got a DUI with Zipseals (neck and wrist).  The reason I got the seals in they are easy to change if there is a problem as opposed to sending the whole suit for repair and waitinf 2-6 weeks.  They are very easy to swap out and install taking a few minutes.  They are expensive to replace but you can continue to dive instead of waiting for your dry suit to come back.  So far I'm very happy with my purchase.

[divbum]

Several of my friends are using them in all types of enviorments.  I encourage them at least on the wrist to persons ordering new suits.  I personaly found the neck ackward when I tried a demo suit for a month.  As soon as my seals go in my suit I am sending it in for zip seals on the wrist.

When you consider down time, missed charter, labor and if needed shipping to get a seal fixed, they are worth the cost.

[Tamara Thomsen]

John-

I usually recommend them only on the wrists for new suits that I am selling especially to folks that are taking their suits to obscure places where ripping a seal will ruin your trip and there is no hope for a dive shop that will fix it. 

With the wrist seals you are unable to wear bo1th the dry gloves and wrist seals at the same time, and its best to leave the gloves on all the time -  it's takes a little practice to suit up with the gloves on.  Once the suit is on its very difficult to zip the glove on, so its best to leave them connected all the time.

Tami

[systematic.entropy]

But have you run into a situation yet that required you to change out seals?

[Raiderswim]

Thankfully no, but if I did I can change them in 2 minutes.  It pays to have a backup plan so I don't blow a trip/charter/waste time and $$ shipping etc.  You can use the zip seals with a dry glove system like the SI tech and keep the zip seals in place.

[Chris H]

I don't know if it is a common occurrence, but I was on a charter in Mackinac with a guy who had somehow wrecked his DUI suit.  I don't recall what the issue was.  Anyway, a few phone calls later one of the DUI DOG rental suits was overnighted to Mackinaw City so the guy could dive the next afternoon.  I don't know if you can get better customer service than that from the charter operator or a drysuit manufacturer.  Greg, at Shipwreck Adventures, made the call to DUI, and somebody there did a hell of a job getting a suit to us the next day.

I have used a suit with zip seals on them a few times now and haven't had any issues.  On my Bare suit, the drysuit rings are glued onto the suit so the wrist seals can be easily replaced with standard off the shelf seals in a matter of minutes.  That is possibly another option.

[LKunze]

If you are using wet gloves then I can see the zip seals being worth it.  If you have a dry glove/ring system like the Diving Concepts, Si-Tech or Viking then the zip seals aren't worth it in my opinion.  Sure you can mount your rings to the zip seals and keep the wrist seal intact on the inside but it's pretty unlikely in my experience that you are going to have a wrist seal fail with rings installed to them.  I easily get two years out of my wrist seals with my Diving Concepts rings mounted to them.  The rings never come off the suit until I replace them.  I just replace the seals once they start to check or develop dry rot with age.  Many dive shops can replace a pair of wrist seals for around $70 and turn it around in a weeks time.  The replacement zip seals cost $118 according to DUI's site.  To me the zip neck seal sounds like a decent idea but then again you can always patch a neck seal too with a little Kentucky Chrome and save a dive weekend.  A couple buddy's of mine and myself have done this with great success even with the neck seal split all the way down to where it meets the suit material.  No leaks whatsoever even after multiple dives.  In my opinion the zip seals while a convenience aren't worth the added cost.

[jleech]

I had a zip seal put in my neck on my suit I bought 2 years ago.  I had to it replaced with a standard neck seal because the zip seal makes the head opening smaller.  I thought I was going to rip my ears off when I tried to get it on and off!

I'm one of those buddies who ripped a neck seal, and was able to "temporarily" fix the seal with some duct tape.  You need to make sure the seal is dry when you put the tape on, but it didn't leak, and I made about 15 dives with the neck seal that way over several months.

It made me a firm believer in duct tape!

Jeff