Aquaseal damages neoprene?

[TSandM]

My husband was on the phone to Bare about some issues with his dry suit. The woman at Bare told him they had to charge him extra for some repairs they did on the suit "because someone had used Aquaseal on it (me) and damaged the suit."

My understanding is that Aquaseal is DESIGNED for use on neoprene as an adhesive. Was I wrong?

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Aquaseal is terrible for wetsuits! So many people think aquaseal is good for patching or fixing wetsuits. It is NOT!

If aquaseal was the proper material to fix or construct wetsuits, then manufacturers would ues it, YES?

Q: What's wrong with aquaseal?
A: It is too stiff, it does not stretch like real wetsuit glue.

Aquaseal IS good for certain repairs, as long as the major flaw with aquaseal does not come into play.

If you have a gouge out of suit, a spot on the knee, a small hole or wear location in a boot or on the finger tip of a glove etc... these are all places which are not subject to alot of stretching and are relatively small. in these applications it is ok.

If you try to fix a big rip or tear or glue a knee pad on a leg, the stress and from stretching of the material is concentrated at the location where the aquaseal is applied. A new rip or tear will begin to develop at this interface..

 

[lowviz]

Aquaseal is not an adhesive, just seals small compromises and does so really well.

My experience is that Aquaseal is great for patching pinholes etc. in drysuits (from the inside) and stretching the life of coldwater gloves.

You won't be glueing to Aquaseal using neoprene cement, if not stretch maybe this was the issue...

 

[redacted]

The problem may be that many folks use aquaseal as a generic term. Where the repair needs to have some stretch and flexibility, neoprene cement (sometimes called seal cement) is the right choice. It is a rubber cement that stands up in a wet environment. It is also good for stopping small leaks. Aquaseal is good for repairing wear spots.

 

[Thalassamania]

The problem may be that many folks use aquaseal as a generic term. Where the repair needs to have some stretch and flexibility, neoprene cement (sometimes called seal cement) is the right choice. It is a rubber cement that stands up in a wet environment. It is also good for stopping small leaks. Aquaseal is good for repairing wear spots.

Actually Aquaseal is not good for repairing wear spots. As noted above, it lacks flexibility, so the area right around the Aquaseal application is forced to stretch more than the rest of the suit. This results in failure of the neoprene just at the edge of the Aquaseal application. Often the damage can only be seen by holding the suit up to a bright light, the nylon cover will be intact, but the neoprene under it will be gone, and thus water will more rather freely through. To repair an Aquasealed suit the "patch" has to be cut out and an exactly sized patch glued and sewed in.

 

[Wookie]

Can't add anything to what has been said, except to answer the OP's question. Yes, Lynne, you were wrong. But you were wrong in the rightest way possible. Your heart was in the right place....

 

[lowviz]

-but you still owe Peter a beer.

 

[TSandM]

So, I get that Aquaseal isn't good on something that needs to stretch. I had used it to replace wrist seals on a compressed neoprene dry suit. There's no stretch involved there, and Aquaseal is flexible enough to keep the seals on (or at least it has been on the laminate suits where I've used it). Is this damaging? Peter had also used it to seal some holes in his boots, and I understand that flexibility might have been a problem there.

 

[Token]

Well, damn... I have a couple of DiveRite stick-on pockets that are sold WITH a tube of Aqua-Seal, for the express purpose of gluing the pockets to a wetsuit.

I actually have applied one pocket to my Bare wetsuit, tho' I did a fairly poor job of it, and planned to try again. So now...maybe not. What _should_ we be using for such purposes?

 

[Thalassamania]

I use Aquaseal on latex seals, boots, non-neoprene suits, surf mats, etc. BTW: we saw the same sort of problem with sewn or glued on knee pads on wet suits, in time the suits failed around the edge of the knee pads.