Drysuit Dilemma!

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Andrew Dawson

Contributor
Messages
674
Reaction score
306
Location
Kenmore, WA
# of dives
500 - 999
Greetings:

Background: My neighbor is the original owner of a DUI Norseman drysuit. He recently gave it to me for free. It does not fit me but would fit my brother in law to be [getting married in July to my wife's sister]. I wanted to fix this suit up to gift it to him as a wedding gift.

The suit is in decent shape. The bad: the wrist seals are absolutely gone. The neck seal is ok, the zippers appear to be ok. The exhaust valve I disassembled and it was like new [Apeks high profile] and I treated the diaphragm with Seal Saver. The inlet exhaust valve appeared to work well, I took it apart as much as I could without taking it off the suit and treated the the o-ring on it that I could get to, dripping a bit of Seal Saver down into its middle and cycling the button. I also treated the neck seal and zippers to Seal Saver [yes, silicone on the suit is a no-no to DUI, but I have never had any issues ant it works like magic on the rubber] and put zipper wax on the zipper. The zippers are med-high mileage but work ok.

The suit has integrated boots with about 1/2 the tread left. The suit itself is labled 4/2 trilam.

I shipped the suit off to DUI and they called me yesterday about it. Here is the recommended repair order:

"We have evaluated the Norseman suit but were unable to test the suit due to the condition of the seals. Once the repairs are ok'd and completed we will send to test.
This suit is over 20 years old and although the material looks in good condition it needs quite a few repairs.
Here is a breakdown of requested and recommended repairs:
Replace Waterproof Zipper $384
Replace Relief Zipper $281
Replace Neck Seal latex $117
Replace Wrist Seals Latex $95
Replace Suspender Bases no charge courtesy
Test & Evaluation $125
Total $1002 not including freight
We do not test valves so there is no way of knowing if they will work properly. The only thing we can do is replace them (cost $214)
Please let us know if you would like to move forward with the above repairs, suit is on hold until we hear from you. If you decide to move forward we will need a charge card to attach to the order. Please fill out attached form and return by email or you can give us a call with the number. Repairs are currently taking 6 weeks from the time they are ok'd."

***The wedding is about 7 weeks away***

I asked if they would just fix the wrist seals, test it, and send it back. They said:
"Yes we can try fixing the wrist seals and test it. The relief zipper is worn down to the teeth so it will need to be replaced shortly even if it is not leaking. The main waterproof zipper is original to the suit so the sealing surface may have dry rot. Just a heads up."
IT is about $200 plus shipping but no guarantees if it will pass the leak test.

My options:

1. Roll the dice on the wrist seal fix, if it passes...gift it to my brother in law.
2. Roll the dice on the wrist seals, if it passes, sell it for say $500 and give the money to my brother in law.
3. Roll the dice on the wrist seals, if it fails, gift suit anyway.
4. Roll the dice on the wrist seals, if it fails, try to sell it to break even.
5. Leave suit at DUI and they will cut it up.

What would you do? :D Thank you for the opinions :D
 
Pic of the suit, you can see a bit of glue on the seam of the neck seal...that is a bit degraded.
Resized_20210426_215002.jpeg
 
Pic of the suit, you can see a bit of glue on the seam of the neck seal...that is a bit degraded.View attachment 658688
How much free time do you have? I can loan you my dry suit repair/maintenance manual.

You'd need someone likely to replace some of the stuff, but you could do some of the maintenance/checks on the seams.

Though I'd also wait for feedback from others. You talk to Aaron Moser?
 
You can have them replace the wrist seals or, if it was me, I would have them ship it back, make some clamps to seal the arms just above the wrists, place a bowl in the neck and do my own leak test to determine just what I was dealing with. If you have multiple leaks and the zips aren't holding then it is probably time to dump the suit. I should add that I would have done this and not sent it to anyone first. If there are few or no leaks and the zips are tight replace the wrist seals yourself, it is quite easy.
 
If it was for yourself, I would roll the dice and do as much as you could. If it doesn’t workout, no harm no foul. If you are gifting it to someone, I would offer it to him as future family member and make it a team building project. Everything is up front and no feelings are hurt regardless of the outcome.

If you repair it and it falls apart after a month, not really a great gift. As a joint project, it says welcome to the family.
 
Greetings:

Background: My neighbor is the original owner of a DUI Norseman drysuit. He recently gave it to me for free. It does not fit me but would fit my brother in law to be [getting married in July to my wife's sister]. I wanted to fix this suit up to gift it to him as a wedding gift.

The suit is in decent shape. The bad: the wrist seals are absolutely gone. The neck seal is ok, the zippers appear to be ok. The exhaust valve I disassembled and it was like new [Apeks high profile] and I treated the diaphragm with Seal Saver. The inlet exhaust valve appeared to work well, I took it apart as much as I could without taking it off the suit and treated the the o-ring on it that I could get to, dripping a bit of Seal Saver down into its middle and cycling the button. I also treated the neck seal and zippers to Seal Saver [yes, silicone on the suit is a no-no to DUI, but I have never had any issues ant it works like magic on the rubber] and put zipper wax on the zipper. The zippers are med-high mileage but work ok.

The suit has integrated boots with about 1/2 the tread left. The suit itself is labled 4/2 trilam.

I shipped the suit off to DUI and they called me yesterday about it. Here is the recommended repair order:

"We have evaluated the Norseman suit but were unable to test the suit due to the condition of the seals. Once the repairs are ok'd and completed we will send to test.
This suit is over 20 years old and although the material looks in good condition it needs quite a few repairs.
Here is a breakdown of requested and recommended repairs:
Replace Waterproof Zipper $384
Replace Relief Zipper $281
Replace Neck Seal latex $117
Replace Wrist Seals Latex $95
Replace Suspender Bases no charge courtesy
Test & Evaluation $125
Total $1002 not including freight
We do not test valves so there is no way of knowing if they will work properly. The only thing we can do is replace them (cost $214)
Please let us know if you would like to move forward with the above repairs, suit is on hold until we hear from you. If you decide to move forward we will need a charge card to attach to the order. Please fill out attached form and return by email or you can give us a call with the number. Repairs are currently taking 6 weeks from the time they are ok'd."

***The wedding is about 7 weeks away***

I asked if they would just fix the wrist seals, test it, and send it back. They said:
"Yes we can try fixing the wrist seals and test it. The relief zipper is worn down to the teeth so it will need to be replaced shortly even if it is not leaking. The main waterproof zipper is original to the suit so the sealing surface may have dry rot. Just a heads up."
IT is about $200 plus shipping but no guarantees if it will pass the leak test.

My options:

1. Roll the dice on the wrist seal fix, if it passes...gift it to my brother in law.
2. Roll the dice on the wrist seals, if it passes, sell it for say $500 and give the money to my brother in law.
3. Roll the dice on the wrist seals, if it fails, gift suit anyway.
4. Roll the dice on the wrist seals, if it fails, try to sell it to break even.
5. Leave suit at DUI and they will cut it up.

What would you do? :D Thank you for the opinions :D


Andrew,

I certainly wouldn't pass anything on to the new groom that's questionable.

If we won each time we rolled the dice, there would be no gambling industry.

I would either have the suit fully repaired, or instruct DUI to scrap it and save the return postage.

I have two DUI CF 200 Signature suits, one is close to new, one is 20+ years old, that I recently had refurbished, by DUI.

I trust the experts, especially when the experts are the original manufacturer.

Rose.
 
Excellent advice all!!

@wetb4igetinthewater , my free time is limited to diving only at this time...hint hint :wink:

@Rose Robinson interesting enough, DUI did not build this suit...the rep on the phone said that this model line was contracted out and she said it was not as good of quality.

I am leaning towards just scrapping the suit. Then, putting a few hundo bucks towards a new SeaSkin drysuit for the new groom :)

If it was my personal suit, I would fix it up myself as best I could...if it kills me, then it is on me. I do not want to risk an accident with someone else's life.

Oh, BTW, anyone interested in a DUI Norseman drysuit? :p
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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