Drysuit neck seal tear - how to fix?

[calvin007]

Hi. I was recently trimming the neck seal for my drysuit and long story short, it tore about 1/2 inch. D'oh!!! The rest of the neck seal diameter is where it should be. I'm trying to figure out if there are ways to salvage the neck seal. I've heard of two potential options:

1) Cut a very shallow oval around the tear and hope that the seal is still secure enough to prevent water from coming in. If this option is a good idea, can someone suggest where I should start the oval from either edge of the tear, i.e., how far away -- 1 inch, 2 inch, etc. ?

2) Try to find some old latex seal (used for drysuits) and see if there is some epoxy/adhesive that will (solvent) bond the two materials together.

I'm not sure which method to try first or if these are even reasonable ways to salvage the neck seal. I would appreciate any feedback especially since this is still relatively new to me. Thanks!

 

[meierdierck]

I have always replaced, but I have heard about using old bike tire tube to glue a patch on both sides, prob same principle as using old seals to repair

 

[calvin007]

Thanks for the reply Meierdierck. I decided that I will just have it replaced.

 

[Dive Right In Scuba]

Just put a new seal on it These are easy to do, and your done within a couple minutes.

https://www.diverightinscuba.com/catalog/whitesdryadhesivelatexneckseal-p-2212.html

 

[DA Aquamaster]

Well... a couple minutes is pretty optimistic unless you have zip seals. If not you will be done in about 30-60 minutes.

 

[Rick Inman]

Replacing it is best, of course. But once I put a big hole in my neck seal while on a vacation boat dive in Monterey, CA. The Captain did some duct tape insta-repair on it and I managed to make a wet second dive. Then, at someone's advice here on SB, I used a bike tube repair kit, patching both sides of the tear, and the thing lasted another year.

 

[Dive Right In Scuba]

Well... a couple minutes is pretty optimistic unless you have zip seals. If not you will be done in about 30-60 minutes.

Have you used the dry adhesive seals Your still probably right though on a neck....wrist seals take less than 5minutes, we have the forms for necks so it goes a bit quicker, but these dry adhesive seals are simple to install.

 

[BabyDuck]

duct tape!