Ah, at last - new DUI TLS350 arrived today. With...

[divestoclimb]

I got measured for mine June 19 I believe. The tag says its production date was June 10. I picked it up from my store July 20.

Edit: Oops, production was July 10.

 

[abitton]

That sounds OK to me, considering the thing has to be shipped, then your LDS has to remember to call you to let you know that its in...

 

[TrojanCatMan]

Well first of all if you HAVE to talk to their customer service be very nice. I have a friend who went #(*$&$* on them and that was the end for her and DUI. Be nice and they will help. Now for what happened to my suit

I went to DOG days (demo event) and medium fit my like a glove! So I went to my LDS and bought the suit. 4 Weeks later I try it on at my LDS. It didnt fit! So after some talk with the LDS and DUI we decide to measure me and DUI would say if I could even fit a medium. Of course it shows up I couldnt... The REASON they gave me for why the DOG days suit fit was that Crushed neoprene doesnt crush consisntently and I MAY have tried on one of the few special production suits. Thats all "BS" to me... I did everything I could to get a suit that fits.

So using the measurements previously mentioned I gave it one last go... and ordered the custom suit. (AND THEY CHARGED ME FOR THE RETURN OF THE OLD SUIT!) I was told a expected date of shipping and everything. One week after that date I call DUI and they had no record of my suit. So I call my LDS who is freaked out to here DUI said they had no record. Well apparently it went through some not traditional system. Anyways... So my LDS called and started to verified my finished but not shipped suit. AND IT HAD THE WRONG NECK SEAL!!! They made the decision to use a different neck seal based on my measurements without my permission. When I have used that particular neck seal before with no trouble! UGH! So now they have to go back and remake that part of the suit another 4 weeks! So its SUPOSE TO ship very soon.

If anyone from DUI or my LDS is reading this post and would like to contradict any part of the story feel free to.. I have a hunch that the truth as I know it is full of miscommunication. I just want a drysuit that fits... is that really asking too much?

Oh and btw... I wont be buying DUI ever again!

 

[abitton]

Ouch...

 

[TrojanCatMan]

Its just too bad... they make great suits.

 

[cummings66]

Its just too bad... they make great suits.

They do huh?

Rant mode on. You can safely ignore, it's only my opinion based on experience.

Around these parts they don't have a good rep, and I personally have dove 2 of them, the TLS350 and the TLSSE. It's the only time in the last year I've dove a wetsuit.

Of course I noticed that about 50% of the divers during the rally got soaked as well and I heard explanations that explained away the problem as being the divers fault or his sweat. Give me a break, you can't sweat gallons of water during one dive. At the end of the day they had more suits drying out on the ground than they did on the racks.

From my point of view and personal experience the DUI suits are not worth the fabric they're made of, unless you like wetsuits that are cold. You can't tell me the explanation they offered me is right, "they're demo suits and they leak from abuse." True they get abused, but on the first dive you would think a company wanting to sell me a drysuit would at least have one that would be guaranteed not to leak on the first dive of the day. Why would I buy a drysuit that's wet?

The guy who fitted me when I let him know the suit leaked tried to tell me it was sweat and normal, I then rang out my undergarment and said I don't sweat that much and it's a leak. It was soaked completely through from head to toe, the second dive it was soaked from chest to toe. My buddy made the same point to him as he got soaked as well. The third dive my buddy and I dove our own suits (not DUI) and had a nice dry dive.

That experience is not unique to me, several of my buddies diving them have leaks and live with it. I know one guy who says his never leaks, one.

I will say this much positive, the stock suits fit me nicely. They're comfortable, have flexibility and I love the rock boots. IMO those boots are tops and I wish my suit had them. The suits are like wearing nothing compared to my drysuit, I liked that fact. If they could solve the leaks they'd have a winner. IMO they need to change how they sew the suit together and it would work fine.

Rant mode off.

I realize during the rally they have many non drysuit divers try them out, I saw lots of abuse that would over time kill the suits seals and zippers, and I noticed the fitters did not seem to know why they did things as they did. It's just the way they were taught. I.e. I saw them try to answer a question as to why they had to don the suit a certain way when it came to the neck seal, and he actually told the truth and said he didn't know why it had to be done that way, it just did. One thing is certain, I would never ever treat my suit they way many of those divers did. There should have been a basic this is how you treat your drysuit course before they fit the divers with them.

 

[JungleJoe]

I prefer to dive dry, due to location, it's kind of a necessary thing. I had an older DUI, and I hated it, I went to a used Bare suit, and altho it was a tad too big for me, I never got wet, and I learned about drygloves... Love em !!! , now I have since upgraded the bare to a newer version (yes I bought RJP's barely used old one). NO LEAKS, love the suit ! and NO RJ, you can't have it back heheheheh..... Glad you got yours all setup.. Hope it's all you dreamed it is. Thanks for the Suit you sold me, I love it.

I think Bare and DUI both make good product, you'll find bad experiences with either company I'd bet, as you would with any company. There is no such thing as a perfect 100% always works products. Thats why they have warranties !

 

[TrojanCatMan]

They do huh?

I realize during the rally they have many non drysuit divers try them out, I saw lots of abuse that would over time kill the suits seals and zippers, and I noticed the fitters did not seem to know why they did things as they did. It's just the way they were taught. I.e. I saw them try to answer a question as to why they had to don the suit a certain way when it came to the neck seal, and he actually told the truth and said he didn't know why it had to be done that way, it just did. One thing is certain, I would never ever treat my suit they way many of those divers did. There should have been a basic this is how you treat your drysuit course before they fit the divers with them.

The suit I tried at the rally didnt leak... I wouldnt have bought one if it did. The suits I have rented from my LDS didnt leak. Although that just my experience... I have heard people complain about this about a myriad of different makes. Their Demo days certainly is flawed. And to save myself the blood pressure I wont even start to talk customer service (see my post above!).

All I can say is if I get my suit... and it leaks. DUI will find themselves REFUNDING me the money and having to try to sell a used custom suit only dove once.

 

[cummings66]

Thinking back about it, sure I've heard things about all drysuits and their leaking. I've heard lots of bad things about the brand I dive and love. I know and realize it's not unique to one brand over another, but I do believe firmly there are better methods of stitching a suit together. For example the DUI and others as well are sewed together which puts a hole completely through the suit, then they tape it to seal the seam. That's fine and works well as long as the taped seal holds.

Other manufacturers will bond the layers together via thermal fusion (can't remember how they describe the welding process except it's RF) and others will somehow vulcanize it. I think I've heard of a combination of the two as well. I'm thinking the Diverite 905 might be something like that, never saw one in person.

All I can say is the the DIR guys love them for some reason and to be frank, they think things through so there's got to be something good about them and my experiences at the rally may be atypical of the brand. It's just that so many of them failed that I believed there has got to be a problem with them in general as it was all suits, not just a style.

In any event I wish you well and I'm sure you'll be pleased with it when you get the suit. It won't leak in the beginning I'm sure. PS, I liked the Zip seals as well, made putting the gloves on easy as snot, and a repair job would take minutes compared to a long time on most others. They have some nice features.

 

[RJP]

To be clear - there was nothing "wrong" with the suit when I first got it. The boots were the wrong size, but that was a communication/clarity issue between LDS and DUI. Not a "problem" per se, more of a "screw up" that I could understand given the back and forth we did on sizing of the Turbo Soles.

When I first ordered it, the suit came in pretty quickly.

After it was returned to DUI, it was squared away and sent back to me pretty quickly.

It seemed like forever, but with July 4th holiday, weekends and stuff in between it wasn't really a problem.

Also, my LDS let me borrow a brand new "demo suit" from the day I originally ordered mine right through yesterday when my suit came in.

Very happy with the whole experience and outcome.

Also - while 50% of folks on scubaboard seem to have DUI suits that leak like seives, I've met more probably a hundred drysuit divers on the boats of NJ and have been asking every single one of them what their experience has been, and I have yet to find a DUI owner who has had a problem with leaks.

Having dived BARE, DUI, DC and WHITES, I'd have to say that in order to end a dive "soaked completely through from head to toe" you'd have to experience a catastrophic neck seal or zipper failure.

I recently waded into the local quarry with the zipper completely open, and while I was pretty wet, even THEN I wasn't "soaked completely through from head to toe."