I am shaking my head at Aqualung for what I perceive to be their poor decision making.
I bought a Fusion Bullet back in in May/June of 2018. I loved diving in it and recommended to many looking for a drysuit to check out the Fusion line of suits.
I still think the suit is great in concept, especially for folks new to drysuits who are unsure about what they want in the way the suit should fit. The suit design also offers a great deal latitude with regard to any body morphology changes one might experience after purchase.
The problem is that Aqualung has recognized a problem with seam construction of the suits made in their Mexico factory. The problem was such that they stopped production there and moved all production of the Fusion line of suits up to Canada.
Aqualung is warranty replacing suits that have a problem.
Here is the rub and why I am shaking my head as I read drysuit threads on SB:
While I applaud Aqualung for recognizing the problem and taking steps to improve production like moving production to their facility in Canada, and while I applaud them for replacing suits under warranty, they still have not publicly acknowledged, as far as I can tell, that their Fusion Aircore suits made in Mexico are prone to problems.
There is no way to know, from a diver's perspective, IF ones suit has a problem...for instance, I dived all last winter in my Fusion dry as can be. It was not until this past autumn, after diving a wetsuit all summer and early autumn that I was getting soggy feet. Testing the suit by inflating the suit and submersing the feet in water confirmed the seems on the heels of both feet were leaking.
Aqualung has not sent emails, or other correspondence to folks who registered their suits, and they have not advised shops to inform purchasers of the suits. Even worse, they have not called for shop's with stock produced in Mexico to stop selling those suits or offered to exchange the shops' stock for suits made in Canada.
This leaves purchasers in a potential lurch that is not welcome from my perspective. I cannot realistically recommend to divers that are looking for a drysuit that they shell out good money for a Fusion as they are basically taking a gamble unless they are informed and proactive enough to double check the label in the suit. And then there is still confusion because there are 2 lables inside the core and one refers to the skin....in mine one said made in Canada and the other made in Mexico.
I have not heard that Aqualung is turning away suits that are past the warranty expiration, but they do prefer that suit owners engage replacement through a dealership. This is where one might run into problems as the information about the problematic suit production is not widely known among dealers and a dealer may scoff at the notion of someone with an expired warranty asking for their suit to be replaced and instead push the affected towards purchasing something new.
While there is no reason for a recall from a safety standpoint...the leaks may lead to discomfort but are not catastrophic, it just doesn't sit right that Aqualung hasn't been more proactive communicating with their customers about this issue, be that the dealers or the end users...and to me that is somewhat egregious.
So every time I think about this and see a reference to the Fusion line, I just shake my head with a degree of dismay.
-Z
I bought a Fusion Bullet back in in May/June of 2018. I loved diving in it and recommended to many looking for a drysuit to check out the Fusion line of suits.
I still think the suit is great in concept, especially for folks new to drysuits who are unsure about what they want in the way the suit should fit. The suit design also offers a great deal latitude with regard to any body morphology changes one might experience after purchase.
The problem is that Aqualung has recognized a problem with seam construction of the suits made in their Mexico factory. The problem was such that they stopped production there and moved all production of the Fusion line of suits up to Canada.
Aqualung is warranty replacing suits that have a problem.
Here is the rub and why I am shaking my head as I read drysuit threads on SB:
While I applaud Aqualung for recognizing the problem and taking steps to improve production like moving production to their facility in Canada, and while I applaud them for replacing suits under warranty, they still have not publicly acknowledged, as far as I can tell, that their Fusion Aircore suits made in Mexico are prone to problems.
There is no way to know, from a diver's perspective, IF ones suit has a problem...for instance, I dived all last winter in my Fusion dry as can be. It was not until this past autumn, after diving a wetsuit all summer and early autumn that I was getting soggy feet. Testing the suit by inflating the suit and submersing the feet in water confirmed the seems on the heels of both feet were leaking.
Aqualung has not sent emails, or other correspondence to folks who registered their suits, and they have not advised shops to inform purchasers of the suits. Even worse, they have not called for shop's with stock produced in Mexico to stop selling those suits or offered to exchange the shops' stock for suits made in Canada.
This leaves purchasers in a potential lurch that is not welcome from my perspective. I cannot realistically recommend to divers that are looking for a drysuit that they shell out good money for a Fusion as they are basically taking a gamble unless they are informed and proactive enough to double check the label in the suit. And then there is still confusion because there are 2 lables inside the core and one refers to the skin....in mine one said made in Canada and the other made in Mexico.
I have not heard that Aqualung is turning away suits that are past the warranty expiration, but they do prefer that suit owners engage replacement through a dealership. This is where one might run into problems as the information about the problematic suit production is not widely known among dealers and a dealer may scoff at the notion of someone with an expired warranty asking for their suit to be replaced and instead push the affected towards purchasing something new.
While there is no reason for a recall from a safety standpoint...the leaks may lead to discomfort but are not catastrophic, it just doesn't sit right that Aqualung hasn't been more proactive communicating with their customers about this issue, be that the dealers or the end users...and to me that is somewhat egregious.
So every time I think about this and see a reference to the Fusion line, I just shake my head with a degree of dismay.
-Z
