Drysuits and Options: DUI, White's, Diving Concepts

[elvisisalive]

I'm going to buy a drysuit. I do not care it I spent $3000 on one, but I want it to be able to do everything I want it to that is offered in today's market: user replaceable wrist seals, dry glove mounting, and I want it to be very durable. My diving in heading really quickly into cave and wreck training, so I do not want to be limited by my suit, or have any apprehension about my suit holding up. I live in the North East so it's cold all year round at depth. Choices:

DUI - CF200X is a really great suit with a fantastic reputation. I can do zip seals, zip gloves, and to have both zip gloves WD. Not only is the suit expensive but the options are expensive both initially and every time I need a seal or a glove. I can order the suit with a standard latex seal and use just the zip seal for the gloves if I want gloves, or a seal and wear wet gloves. My shop is a dealer.

Diving Concepts = Pinnacle 200 was a Scuba Lab Tester Choice a few years ago so I gotta figure it's a pretty good suit. The DC glove system seems to be well liked on these boards and I can order the system built onto the suit so I'd only have the actual rings on the gloves. This will also allow me to have a standard latex wrist seal in place in case of a glove flood. Dealer is well known to me.

White's Legend - Have not heard anything about this suit but rave reviews for the other suits they make; Fusion. With this suit I can have the SiTech "Glove Lock" system built onto the suit like the DC system but with the added advantage of being able to change the wrist seal in case of a failure and dock the SI gloves in place. I'll be able to change gloves with regular inexpensive Atlas/Showa gloves any time I want also.

Seems like a clear choice for the White's Legend because it offers me the most options. What it doesn't offer me is a dealer that is less than 2 hours away and one that I do not know. I really want to be able to; don/doff without drygloves on, change a seal on site if one goes south, change gloves without spending a fortune on them, have both a wrist seal and drygloves at the same time, and all on a front entry suit. What I do not want is to buy a suit that has options that in the grand scheme of things arn't really that important. Nice to have but oh well if you don't. The lack of a close dealer bothers me on such a large and potentially complicated purchase. Need some advice from you to help me keep on track and not forget what is important.

 

[RJP]

user replaceable wrist seals, dry glove mounting, etc...My diving in heading really quickly into cave and wreck training, so I do not want to be limited by my suit,

Just be sure you understand that for cave and wreck diving "lots of options and features" is a limitation in and of itself.

As a NE wreck diver myself I can tell you that the LAST thing I would put on a drysuit for wreck diving is zip seals.

Dry gloves? Take 'em or leave 'em I guess but on the boat I crew on they seem to be more prone to problems than not.

 

[piikki]

Just be sure you understand that for cave and wreck diving "lots of options and features" is a limitation in and of itself.

As a NE wreck diver myself I can tell you that the LAST thing I would put on a drysuit for wreck diving is zip seals.

Dry gloves? Take 'em or leave 'em I guess but on the boat I crew on they seem to be more prone to problems than not.

I didn't get it... Why are features and options limitations? Why not zip seals? And don't wreck divers use drygloves??

To the OP, don't know about your other dilemmas but you can use cheap Showa/Atlas gloves also with the DC system. Only truly immediate user-replacable system that I know of is the zip-system but user can replace any normal seal/glove just takes time and learning how to do it.

 

[Darnold9999]

Why the Legend over the Fusion?

 

[elvisisalive]

Thank you for the replies. With the DUI and the DC suits I could have a regular latex seal installed on the suits to take care of sealing the suits. If the permanently installed seal were to split I would have to go with wet gloves on either of these suits. With the DUI I could use zipgloves but I wouldn't be able to take them off without taking half the suit off. With the White's I would be able to replace either quickly and inexpensively. I would think that would be a good thing.

I have zero experience in drysuits. I may not ever get to wreck and cave. Sometimes things work out that way but those are my goals now. In which case I don't want to sell myself short anywhere on such a big purchase. I really need to hear from those with more experience because things aren't always what they seem.

 

[elvisisalive]

Why the Legend over the Fusion? Just trying to compare apples to apples. The preferred suit in the NE wreck community seems to be a neoprene suit. Am I wrong in this? If so please tell me. With all the reading I've done, and most of it here, the compressed neoprene suits seem to be though of as the more durable and warmer suits than shell suits.

 

[Darnold9999]

Makes sense. Personally I like the flexability of the Fusion. The difference is amazing and so far no issues with durability at all. I can see that the neoprene suits are/could be warmer but at a significant cost in terms of lead needed and bulk. With a bag suit just add fleece. I have had my Fusion in 41 degrees with the Mark II and was at the limit on a one hour dive. With the Mark III I suspect I would have been toasty.

Tried a neoprene suit and was unhappy with both the bulk and the weight required. However your milage may vary.

 

[piikki]

Thank you for the replies. With the DUI and the DC suits I could have a regular latex seal installed on the suits to take care of sealing the suits. If the permanently installed seal were to split I would have to go with wet gloves on either of these suits. With the DUI I could use zipgloves but I wouldn't be able to take them off without taking half the suit off. With the White's I would be able to replace either quickly and inexpensively. I would think that would be a good thing.

I have zero experience in drysuits. I may not ever get to wreck and cave. Sometimes things work out that way but those are my goals now. In which case I don't want to sell myself short anywhere on such a big purchase. I really need to hear from those with more experience because things aren't always what they seem.

or you could do what some of us do - but it's only possible if you go with DUI. We have zip seals and use them with DC glove system. This way if the seal blows you can still swap it in minutes but have the benefit of non-suit-attached drygloves.

The extra bonus with this is that when diving with wet gloves you have a choice; you can either dive with rings on or just have plain seals and no clumsy rings. With most of the ring systems you will always have the rings once they are installed (or can maybe remove but seals have been set, so practically won't work anyway for what I can understand).

Hope this does not confuse you even further but if the glove part is one big deciding factor maybe you want to really look into this.

All I can say about the brands you mention is that leaving out Fusion, the few people that I know who have had White's suits have not been particularly impressed with their suits. On the other hand, DUI and DC both have a solid fan club in the cold water diver group that I frequent.

And I am no expert but I would say that neoprene is not the only choice. Trilams like DUI CLX are very popular with wreck divers. If you do not know where you are heading for sure, I would take a serious look at trilam suit as it would probably be more versatile if you change your course.

 

[elvisisalive]

What I have been reading is that when the DC gloves are used with the zipseals the rings are actually around your hand, not your wrist. I have read that people that plan to do this have the arm length shortened to accomodate the rings system. Is this not true? The other concern is valve drills. Do the rings get in the way at all? This is exactly why I asked because you all really know. I just know what I've read.

 

[dave4868]

The extra bonus with this is that when diving with wet gloves you have a choice; you can either dive with rings on or just have plain seals and no clumsy rings. With most of the ring systems you will always have the rings once they are installed (or can maybe remove but seals have been set, so practically won't work anyway for what I can understand).

Not sure I'm understanding what you've said, but my SI TECH rings don't cause my latex seals to take a "set", but perhaps that's because I remove them after the day of diving.

Because it's so easy, I usually install them the day before the dive and then remove them right after the last the dive of the day. Occasionally, they have been left on for about a week when a dive got cancelled, but they still never caused the latex to take a set.

Besides, if the seal did take a set where the ring attaches, it would have no effect on its ability to seal on the wrist, right?

Did I misunderstand? I've been known to do that....

Dave C