Anyone Duct Taped a Latex Wrist or Neck Seal to Save a Cold Water Dive?

[String]

Have done it on a latex wrist seal, managed 2 dives and stayed totally dry.
Unfortunately couldn't remove the suit between dives to go to the toilet though.

Depending on the tear it can work effectively.

My first drysuit i did duct tape all the internal seams at one point to try to prevent a leak.

 

[rakkis]

I've wanted to make a dry suit from duct tape for a while... but I can't justify buying a zipper and seals just for that. I'd be a LEGEND though

 

[garyfotodiver]

I saw my instructor use duct tape to fix a tear in his drysuit's neck seal. He said it worked.

 

[TSandM]

I've used two different kinds of tire patches on seals -- One on a wrist seal that was cracking and leaking, and one on a ripping neck seal. The patch on the wrist seal has held up for months, but the part of the seal I patched is near the suit fabric and doesn't have to stretch. When we tried to patch the neck seal, the stress put on the patch by stretching over my head was more than the patch could contain.

Prior to having to patch it, we had duct taped the seal to my neck, because it had gotten so flabby it wasn't holding any more. That actually worked quite well, but getting the duct tape off the neck seal so I could get out of it was what started the rip that we had to patch.

By the end of that day, the neck seal was toast, but I got two oil rig dives and a wreck dive out of it before it died.

The wrist seal I didn't patch with tire patch is duct taped, and that's also held for months, but again, it's not an area with much stretch.

Duct tape is better than nothing; tire patches are great for small problems, but best is to have seals in good condition and be careful with them!

 

[jim T.]

Hi L.
Thanks. I'm doing a boat dive on Sunday and even though my seals are still fine, I feel a lot more comfy knowing that the tape thang works at least for a dive or two.
Didn't Boris Karloff have a completely duct taped suit...in Egypt?...

 

[Walter]

I ripped a wrist seal in Chicago a few years ago. Reefraff wrapped my wrist with duct tape several times around, securing the seal to my wrist. I lost quite a bit of hair after the dive, but there was no leak.