T-zip dead

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Stoo

Contributor
Messages
3,500
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Location
Freelton & Tobermory, Ontario, Canada
# of dives
5000 - ∞
Hi Santi...

The t-zip in my eMotion is leaking like a sieve after about 50 dives, and meticulous maintenance. The rubber seems to be coming off in at least one spot. The suit was purchased about a year ago. This is my travel suit, hence the light useage.

With the change in distributorship here in Canada, can you advise how I can have this assessed and replaced, preferably by someone in Canada?

After speaking to a number of friends who have SANTI and DUI suits with T-zips, these zippers do not appear to appear to live up to the hype. So far, no one I've talked to has had one last for more than 200 dives. That's about half to a third of what I typically got out of a metal zipper on the Vikings I have owned.

Thoughts appreciated!

Thanks!
 
Last edited:
Thanks Dean... I always find it amusing that a manufacturer goes to the trouble to have a presence here, and then doesn't monitor it! I have also yet to get a reply from the dive shop where I purchased it! (which was NOT Dean's!)

I sent a note to the former Canadian Distributor in case he had some bright ideas. He responded within minutes and gave me the name of the Canadian Halcyon rep. He replied to my inquiry within hours, advised the zipper would be covered, subject to inspection and gave me the name of a repair facility in Quebec. I'll ship the suit over the weekend, once it's dried out!

As an aside, I posted about this on a Great Lakes diving FB page. I had about 10 replies from people that had had problems, usually with about 50 - 70 dives on the suit. (I have 67 dives, but certainly the last 12-15 were really wet). I did one test dive on Sunday and within 20 minutes I was soaked.

Anyway, I'll keep you posted here, but it seems that the new-improved zipper of the future may not be quite up to the hype...
 
LOL. I Probably should have updated this thread... There's another generic T-zip thread here someplace...

I was able to track down the Halcyon rep in Canada (Halcyon distributes SANTI in North America). He was quite helpful and acknowledged that there is a problem with the T-zips, that it would be covered by warranty and gave me the address for their repair facility in Quebec.

The issue remained however... If T-zips have issues, what would I replace it with? Only recently the rep advised that Santi is now recommending the YKK plastic zipper so that's what I'm going with.

I am only now sending the suit in as I wanted to be sure what I was doing.

It's my understanding that both Santi and DUI are now using YKK.
 
My Otter has the YKK Plastic Zipper. Only about 50 dives on it so far but no issues and care is easy and simple. Clean the zipper as you would a metal one and squirt a little silicone lube in the grooves where it closes. It then lubricates itself. I use the silicone lube you can buy in most shops. About as thick as the Ikelite lube.
 
He was quite helpful and acknowledged that there is a problem with the T-zips, that it would be covered by warranty and gave me the address for their repair facility in Quebec.

Please share with us just what the problem is. OBTW, I have one on my DUI 350 and so far no problems.
 
The problem is delaminating of the fabric, not the zipper itself. It's a known problem.
 
thanks and I'll keep checking mine. Was there a batch / year that is more than likely to have this problem?
 
I heard there was one batch affected, but I don't know if this is true. The problem exists for some years now. I bought my suit in 2015.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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