Dry suit zipper failures?

[TSandM]

I finally had a zipper fail on me. I can't complain; the suit has over 400 dives on it, and I understand that to be about the lifespan of a zipper.

But the failure mode puzzles me. The zipper closes perfectly, and looks absolutely normal. Until you flex the zipper at the weak point, and then it behaves like the plastic coil zippers, and unzips!

The zipper failures I've seen or heard about in the past have been broken teeth or teeth that fail to mate, or failure of the placket.

If you've had a zipper fail, how did that failure manifest itself?

 

[TSandM]

64 views, and not a single person has had a dry suit zipper failure? Amazing!

 

[tstormdiver]

Fortunately the only zipper failure I've had was operator error (forgot to zip it up all the way). However, my instructor just had his DUI TLS350 zipper replaced,... but that was after about 1200 dives on the suit. Not a catastrophic failure, but rather a slow leak. 400 dives seems to be an early demise of the zipper. My newest suit probably has 250 dives on it & so far, so good,.. as long as I remember to zip it up.

 

[francousteau]

After about 400 +/- dives, I started getting wet (well, soaked) at my mid section of my front entry Northern Diver. After many attempts to find a leak at the mid section, I started trying to locate the leak moving up the zipper toward the shoulder. At the shoulder area, but before going to the top of the shoulder, I found the leak. It came from an area immediately next to the zipper teeth. In a horizontal dive position, the water must have entered at the shoulder area and traveled down the length of the zipper and settled around my mid section and saturated me there. No worries though, I sent it off to Steve Gamble and had a new zipper installed within 2 weeks time and have been dry now over the past 8 months.

Franco

 

[TSandM]

Thanks for the answers!

1200 dives on a zipper? That's wildly out of the norm of what I have heard. Peter's Bare zipper began to leak about 400 dives, but it was from a worn spot in the placket. I had never heard of a failure like mine until I posted this on a couple of boards -- have now heard of one other.

 

[Bubbletrubble]

If you've had a zipper fail, how did that failure manifest itself?

My girlfriend's Bare drysuit zipper failed when the material between the teeth became damaged (probably from having something heavy placed on top of her drysuit which had been "checked" on a ferry to Catalina). We hand-carry out drysuits now to Catalina. We were aware of the issue shortly after it happened. As the damage slowly got worse, she would have more issues with zipping/unzipping it. Catastrophic failure of the zipper (zipper came apart) occurred shortly before a dive and was caught during a buddy check.

A buddy with the same make/model drysuit (Bare Nex-Gen) had the same issue. For a number of dives prior to catastrophic failure, we had to use needle-nose pliers to push a zipper tooth in place to unzip him.

Another buddy has a DUI TLS350. After approx. 400 dives, he started getting wet along the zipper even though the zipper looked like it was OK. After replacing the zipper (DUI factory), he was once again diving "dry."

Something similar happened with another buddy who owns a Pinnacle Evolution 2. He was getting wet along the zipper after only approx. 50 dives. Pinnacle replaced the zipper under warranty, but it took them about 2 months to do the repair.

Drysuit zippers are expensive to replace ($300?) if you don't want to do the DIY repair (cost of zipper: $130?). Unfortunately, they do wear out over time.

1200 dives for one zipper is fantastic, tstormdiver! Lucky you.

 

[w ripley]

I have had a couple fail. Look, I'm no authority on this, but it's not always the teeth, if I understand it correctly. The teeth simply pull the rubber - that they are attached to - together to create the water tight seal. Once that rubber goes the "zipper" is gone. That's why you try not to wax the rubber, only the teeth.

Obviously, once the teeth wear they can't hold the rubber together as tight to make the seal water tight, like they could when they had no "slop" between them. So, zippers can be the issue, too.

Like I said, I'm no authority, only repeating what the drysuit people have told me over the years.

 

[Hallmac]

If you've had a zipper fail, how did that failure manifest itself?

Both times I have destroyed a zipper it was due to undergarment getting caught as I closed the zipper, Once snagged, In my typically superman fashion, I ripped it open with flexing muscles of steel then squeeled all the way home like the little pig.

 

[ppo2_diver]

I had the original zipper fail on my first DUI TLS350 after 600 dives. Mine as difficult to determine as my left arm was the only thing getting wet.