lncdoc
Guest
Hi guys,
I read a recent discussion on this forum about the bottleneck seals on the Bare Nex-Gen Pro drysuit. I got the Medium-Large version, which comes with the medium bottleneck seals. Those were much too small for me, and acted as a tourniquet. I called bare and asked them about my options:
1) I was told to stretch them out using bottles (see below)
2) Install replacement bottleneck (large) or conical seals (75 USD + shipping)
3) Install the quick exchange ring system they also install on some trilam suits (135 + shipping)
First things first, as was mentioned in another thread, Latex has a ridiculously long memory. I tried it anyway and failed. With a lot of force, I managed to get the seals over 2l coke bottles and left it for 2 days. It did absolutely nothing.
It says in the manual not to trim the bottleneck seals, and various others have reported that it did nothing for them. Since my next option was to get new seals (I would've probably just glued some seals onto the existing rubber myself, since I didn't really feel like spending 85/145 bucks with shipping), I decided to experiment. I started cutting away more and more latex from the bottleneck. My wrists are about 7 1/4 inches and the seal is meant for wrists up to 6 1/2 inches.
Well, I cut away about an inch to start with. It felt better but still cut off my circulation. I kept cutting and putting my arm back in and it actually started to feel noticably better, even before reaching the "main" taper point. In the end, I am now left with about a 10mm (less than half an inch) "almost straight" section that acts as a seal.
I took the suit for its first dive this morning in lovely 29F water and had fairly warm hands (5mm gloves) throughout the whole dive - no circulation restrictions. All seals stayed dry, so I'd call that a success, so I'd figure I'd share this with other people with similar wrist seal issues.
Procedure: I bought nice(ish) scissors from Walmart for 6 bucks and trimmed off the initial 20mm or so with a cut through both layers. Subsequently, I just carefully cut around the entire seal, eyeballing to keep a straight line. The results were very good, but your mileage may vary and I realize a lot of people are probably not terribly happy about cutting by eye.
Other than that... The suit is fine. It's dry, it feels relatively tough, the build quality is okay and it seems like a decent entry-level suit. I have mixed feelings about the zipper. It seems lower maintenance than conventional zippers, but I am unsure how durable it is going to be with the plastic teeth rather than the usual brass. Time will tell, I guess.
for what it's worth, I dove it with the Viking Comfort Plus undergarment in Large and 2/3 layers of ski underwear and I was comfortable and not at all cold throughout the 30-minute dive at 29F. Hood was a 7mm Bare. I needed a s*t-ton of weight (40lbs) even though I'm normally on the low-weight end of things with wetsuits (I'm 170lbs, 6ft, and lean).
Anyway, I talked to our Dive Safety Officer here and he told me that he's successfully trimmed bottleneck seals in the past as a commercial diver.. Just figured I'd share this in case anyone else has the same problem with this suit again.
lncdoc
I read a recent discussion on this forum about the bottleneck seals on the Bare Nex-Gen Pro drysuit. I got the Medium-Large version, which comes with the medium bottleneck seals. Those were much too small for me, and acted as a tourniquet. I called bare and asked them about my options:
1) I was told to stretch them out using bottles (see below)
2) Install replacement bottleneck (large) or conical seals (75 USD + shipping)
3) Install the quick exchange ring system they also install on some trilam suits (135 + shipping)
First things first, as was mentioned in another thread, Latex has a ridiculously long memory. I tried it anyway and failed. With a lot of force, I managed to get the seals over 2l coke bottles and left it for 2 days. It did absolutely nothing.
It says in the manual not to trim the bottleneck seals, and various others have reported that it did nothing for them. Since my next option was to get new seals (I would've probably just glued some seals onto the existing rubber myself, since I didn't really feel like spending 85/145 bucks with shipping), I decided to experiment. I started cutting away more and more latex from the bottleneck. My wrists are about 7 1/4 inches and the seal is meant for wrists up to 6 1/2 inches.
Well, I cut away about an inch to start with. It felt better but still cut off my circulation. I kept cutting and putting my arm back in and it actually started to feel noticably better, even before reaching the "main" taper point. In the end, I am now left with about a 10mm (less than half an inch) "almost straight" section that acts as a seal.
I took the suit for its first dive this morning in lovely 29F water and had fairly warm hands (5mm gloves) throughout the whole dive - no circulation restrictions. All seals stayed dry, so I'd call that a success, so I'd figure I'd share this with other people with similar wrist seal issues.
Procedure: I bought nice(ish) scissors from Walmart for 6 bucks and trimmed off the initial 20mm or so with a cut through both layers. Subsequently, I just carefully cut around the entire seal, eyeballing to keep a straight line. The results were very good, but your mileage may vary and I realize a lot of people are probably not terribly happy about cutting by eye.
Other than that... The suit is fine. It's dry, it feels relatively tough, the build quality is okay and it seems like a decent entry-level suit. I have mixed feelings about the zipper. It seems lower maintenance than conventional zippers, but I am unsure how durable it is going to be with the plastic teeth rather than the usual brass. Time will tell, I guess.
for what it's worth, I dove it with the Viking Comfort Plus undergarment in Large and 2/3 layers of ski underwear and I was comfortable and not at all cold throughout the 30-minute dive at 29F. Hood was a 7mm Bare. I needed a s*t-ton of weight (40lbs) even though I'm normally on the low-weight end of things with wetsuits (I'm 170lbs, 6ft, and lean).
Anyway, I talked to our Dive Safety Officer here and he told me that he's successfully trimmed bottleneck seals in the past as a commercial diver.. Just figured I'd share this in case anyone else has the same problem with this suit again.
lncdoc
