Dry suit zipper care

[Rick Inman]

Has it occured to any one that a suit manufacturer (or zipper manufacturer) may not want you to care for an expencive componant of your drysuit properly.

I think that dry suit manufactures can't survive on repairs. They want to sell more new suits, and know that customers who get a good long life from their products will buy more and recommend them to others.

I disagree that by promoting suit repair they increase profits, and I think they know it.

 

[jonnythan]

I agree with Rick.

There is no possible way these guys are giving bad zipper advice just to sell more zippers. If they were they would seriously be the dumbest people on the planet.

 

[ScubaDadMiami]

Has it occured to any one that a suit manufacturer (or zipper manufacturer) may not want you to care for an expencive componant of your drysuit properly. Replacing your zipper means money to these people, so why tell you how to get any extra life out of it?

While I agree that it is possible that representatives of a manufacturer would purposely misguide people about care for their product in order to boost sales, I am sure that the manufacturer has also thought of the other side of the coin: If people keep getting so few dives out of their zippers, the word will get out that the company manufactures substandard equipment, thus lowering demand for their product due to a poor reputation for quality. If they make a great product and instruct people how to care for it properly, their reputation benefits, allowing them to sell more units at a (likely) higher price.

I can certainly see that what you are talking about could (and probably does) happen on a small scaled, short sighted operation, but I was at DEMA, a trade show that is open only to professionals of the diving community, when I met with and was instructed on how to apply wax by the wholesale manufacturer's representative from YKK. He said to just apply the wax to the outside teeth relatively sparingly compared to what most people do. I have been following that ever since.

I certainly have more than 200 dives on my zipper since then, and it is still like new.