BC Seam Damage

[CalCPAjess]

Hello,

I went to my dive equipment yesterday in preparation for our trip and it appears that someone has made a meal of my BC edge.

Any recommendations?? Can this be repaired? Can a seamstress fix it? Or is it beyond repair??

Thank you!

 

[tbone1004]

is the bcd design a one piece bladder, or does it have an inner bladder? Basically you want to VERY carefully take a small flame *the butane cigar lighters are ideal for this*, and burn the edges of that to seal the edges to prevent fraying. After that, as long as it's still air tight, you're fine.

 

[TMHeimer]

I used AquaSeal on a tiny tear which has lasted for years, but it wasn't a seam. Don't know if it's advisable.

 

[Michael Guerrero]

Doesn't look like it's anywhere near the bladder. Just hit it with the lighter to prevent further fraying and you should be good.

 

[g1138]

Looks like you got at least a centimeter or 2 before the seam weld. Take some sewing scissors and trim some fluff very conservatively. Then take a lighter to singe the left over. It'll melt and "disappear".
If you go straight with the lighter and not trim, you'll have a hard mushroom of material that'll prevent the next step I'll mention.

Next I would find some nylon or kevlar material, and neoprene cement it over the gap as a patch to help reinforce the amount of material lost. You could also use scrap jean material too.

 

[KeithG]

This looks okay to me. You can easily confirm by orally inflating the BCD and checking back in a few hours. Still has air? You are good to go.

The frayed part is just some trim along the edge of the BCD that hides the unfinished edges of the bladder. The trim is mostly cosmetic. The trim is held in place by 2 lines of stitching. The stitching is beyond the bladder. You can see the bladder weld seam just below the stitching - it looks like a little trench running parallel to the edge of the trim.

I would NOT take this to a seamstress as they may puncture the perfectly good bladder.

You could do any of the following
- ignore it, it is just cosmetic, it may get uglier over the next 10 years but will not affect the performance of the BCD
- trim and scorch, but only if you are real confident in not melting the bladder
- trim and glue, something like shoe goo or aquaseal would do

 

[tbone1004]

Looks like you got at least a centimeter or 2 before the seam weld. Take some sewing scissors and trim some fluff very conservatively. Then take a lighter to singe the left over. It'll melt and "disappear".
If you go straight with the lighter and not trim, you'll have a hard mushroom of material that'll prevent the next step I'll mention.

Next I would find some nylon or kevlar material, and neoprene cement it over the gap as a patch to help reinforce the amount of material lost. You could also use scrap jean material too.

use nylon. Kevlar has no business in a marine environment, but there is really no benefit to patching that.

 

[Resqdivemedic]

- trim and glue, something like shoe goo or aquaseal would do

I agree with the Aquaseal. I had a tear/wear area on the material at the top of one of the shoulder straps on my BC. I just covered it in Aquaseal and its been fine for at least 10+ dives now.