Adjusting Seals on Drysuit

[Teamcasa]

They may be "easy to replace" but it's a brand new suit, and replacing them is expensive. I guess there's a trade off between buying stock and buying custom. Still, I'm not happy about it. Does anyone reading this have experience with Bare? I'm hoping I won't be charged full price, since it's a new suit.

As said before sizing, unless it was a custom made suit is nothing to be unhappy about. It's no ones fault. Replacing them yourself is not expensive ($33 for the seal and $30 for glue.) and a relatively easy job.

And on the plus side, they will fit perfectly and you will have the skills, extra glue and material to make simple repairs to your suit.

 

[ScubaVideo]

I don't know about other folks here but to me, price matters. Service is important, but I can't have one or the other. I guestimate I've saved myself over $3000 by buying online vs my LDS. I've had this conversation with the shop owner right up front...I can't afford to buy from him even though I would like to. This scenario is being repeated all over the place around here...a lot of shops have closed. Brick and mortar stores must compete, or die. If I can get a new suit for $680 vs. $1150, a BCD new for $250 and the best the LDS can do is $515 on sale, if a reg at the LDS costs $650 but I can get it online for $400 new...it's a no brainer, manufacturer's policy for online or not.

You need to watch out with LP as they are not an authorized dealer for much of what they sell. That means it does not get covered under warranty, and your already finding out about the lack of service that is included. Bare should take care of any warranty issues as they are listing LP as a dealer. But others such as DiveRite, ScubaPro and others will not provide warranty service.

Penny wise and pound foolish - how much will your mail order air fills be anyway?

 

[Aaron528]

You need to watch out with LP as they are not an authorized dealer for much of what they sell. That means it does not get covered under warranty, and your already finding out about the lack of service that is included. Bare should take care of any warranty issues as they are listing LP as a dealer. But others such as DiveRite, ScubaPro and others will not provide warranty service.

Penny wise and pound foolish - how much will your mail order air fills be anyway?

FWIW, I did check in advance to make sure LP is an authorized Bare dealer before buying. But if the seals need to be replaced, I agree it's more trouble than it's worth, unless I do it myself as a previous post suggests. If I can't stretch them, I will probably attempt to do them myself. The worst case scenario is that I "f" it up and have to mail it to them anyway.

The size of my wrist seals is not a warranty issue. It's a size issue. Most people who fit a size small suit don't take large wrist seals. I happen to be one of them. So I'll have to deal with it.

I get my air fills onsite where I dive. I'm not sure what you were getting at. Are you suggesting that the price of service is to pay through the nose for list, in exchange for air fills? We aren't talking pennywise pound foolish here...isn't it pound foolish to pay 50% more consistently on every item, just in case the stuff has a problem?

 

[Bubbletrubble]

Assuming this is something the factory does do for new suits (seems a little bit like the wrong seals are on the suit through no fault of theirs so I would not object to paying for them to be changed to fit me), Bare will take care of you. My suit is on it's way back from them right now. It developed a pinhole leak in a seam. They didn't give me any trouble, replaced the seam and sent it back no charge. Although I did buy it from an authorized LFS, they never asked about where it cane from. They just fixed it.

@hypertech: Your situation is completely different from the OP's. Bare offers a limited lifetime warranty on the seams and material of their drysuits. Fixing the pinhole leak in your drysuit seam is simply the company fulfilling that warranty. I don't think Bare advertises free-of-charge seal adjustments for off-the-rack drysuits, particularly on the low-end discount Nex-Gen line. Perhaps Bare will make an exception in the OP's case.

 

[hypertech]

That's what I was getting at. Bare sold the suit with the right seals, it just turns out they aern't the right size for the OP. So, if replacing them is a service they provide to dealers or otherwise, I'm confident they will take care of the op. But I wouldn't be surprised if they charge a fee to do so.

One of the benefits of going through the LFS was that we figured this before he ordered the suit. They put the seals and boots on the suit that fit me not the standard ones.

I did trim the wrist seals a little though. Reducing the amount that is grabbing your wrist will make them soften up a little but not as much as a cone seal.

 

[oly5050user]

They may be "easy to replace" but it's a brand new suit, and replacing them is expensive. I guess there's a trade off between buying stock and buying custom. Still, I'm not happy about it. Does anyone reading this have experience with Bare? I'm hoping I won't be charged full price, since it's a new suit.

you mean a "trade off " of purchasing online vs at a LDS..If someone purchased a suit from us we would be sure to make the customer happy and get proper fitting seals and a free speciality class in its use.

 

[hypertech]

There is no such thing as a free class. You pay for that class in profit on the suit.

 

[oly5050user]

Looking into it further, I misremembered the MSRP for Nex Gen...it's $1050 not $1150. We're still talking a difference of $370 under list for what I paid.

Again most LDS would throw in a free specialty class(most charge $200-$300., for this course) and the seal problem would have been a non issue.Most LDS can replace latex wrist seals easily in house and no need too send back to manufacturer..after all said and done ,including shipping what would have been the true difference in cost if you purchased it at a LDS and they included a course and access to their pool ANY TIME for no charge as we do? Looks like cost difference is none. What is lost is service that you could have certainly used for this product and possible access to a pool at no charge.
If a customer came in and wanted to price match from an authorized dealer, we will be happy to price match.No problem with that.You get the same deal from us as you would from the online vendor,no more,no less..
But with a price match sale, if seals came in sized wrong from manufacturer due to customer having wrists that did not match suit size we would replace seals in house at a minimal charge.At our standard sale pricing we would replace seals at no charge,and again include a free dry suit speciality and access to our indoor heated pool at no charge whenever you want it..
Of course the specialty course, nor free access to pool will not be included in price match sale.

 

[rongoodman]

If you're going to have to send the suit out, this might be a good time to think ahead a little bit. Consider sending it to Dive Right In Scuba to have Sitech wrist rings installed. You'll them have access to a variety of wrist seals which you can easily install yourself, in addition to a couple of different dry glove systems.

 

[Bubbletrubble]

If you're going to have to send the suit out, this might be a good time to think ahead a little bit. Consider sending it to Dive Right In Scuba to have Sitech wrist rings installed. You'll them have access to a variety of wrist seals which you can easily install yourself, in addition to a couple of different dry glove systems.

rongoodman brings up a very good point. If it's cold enough to wear a drysuit, then it's probably cold enough to consider wearing drygloves. The Si-tech system seems like a good option for adding drygloves and/or replacing wrist seals by yourself. I believe that one can even mount those nifty silicone wrist seals onto the Si-tech system if desired.

Just thinking out loud here...but I wonder if DRIS employees might have problems using the normal "in-house" adhesive for drysuit seal installation. The Nex-Gen bilam material is different from some of the other drysuit materials out there. The DRIS website shows that the company sells drysuits made by Whites, Hollis, Seasoft, HOG/Edge, and Pinnacle, but not Bare. If the OP goes this route, I would be sure to warn DRIS that an adhesive known to work with the Nex-Gen is OS Systems' PB-300.