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

[piikki]

About preseving the inner seal; this is of utmost concern to me. I know the Viking, Sitek, and DC systems all have that option. The shop that sells the DC gear says it's not as easy as you think to install it that way. I'd like to be able to remove the system in between dive outings so that I do not prematurely wear the seal. The Sitech system, as posted earlier, doesn't seem to be an option with the zipseals.

Do you think that having both the zipseals AND a regular latex seal is worthwhile? Do you think that it's way overkill and I'm making this harder than it has to be? I have never seen a zipglove so I do not know if the seals in the zipglove WD is really going to last. If I can reglue gloves onto the zip portion of the system cool. But I still need a seal, hence the question about having both.

I don't know why you would remove the rings if you dove the DC system - other than get rid of the rings for for comfort with wetgloves. It certainly is more abuse to he seals to keep removing them after use. The only way to do this effectively would be to use them with zips IMHO. Then you remove the whole system and put a different zip seal on. I do this, it works. I have dedicated dryglove zip seals and separate ones for warm water diving that never see the rings.

I am not sure I understand about the separate seal with with zips. Have you seen it been done? Wouldn't the seal need to be glued awfully high inside the sleeve because of the zip ring?? Then it would rub on the ring? I think it sounds a little clumsy solution.

I had WD gloves for two years and I had absolutely no problems with the seal in the glove. I swapped to DC gloves but since the WD seal is still going strong those gloves are my back up now. They probably have about 150 dives on them. I plan to do the same and glue new seals on my zip stumps as they blow.

If you are anyway planning to get a new custom cut suit, and if you are really into the zips, I would ask DUI:s rep what they recommend re: length if you wanted to go with DC gloves. (Not the shop rep but actually Faith or Dave etc at DUI.) They already know people Frankenstein these solutions. I am sure they would advise as to what is the way to go if you had found the glove that pleased you. You might want to go and try the gloves first though. Some people hate the feel of some of them - and be warned - zip gloves have the largest hater group.

And don't be afraid of trilam, it's the most common suit material around. People survive flood in trilam all the time, it's undies you need to be thinking about in cold water.

 

[fdog]

I've been diving drysuits since the mid 70's, with 4 brands of drysuits (O'Neil, Posiedon, DUI, and Whites) as well as lots of wetsuits.

The best suit I've dove has been the Whites Fusion.

The worst was the DUI.



All the best, James

 

[dave4868]

I've been diving drysuits since the mid 70's, with 4 brands of drysuits (O'Neil, Posiedon, DUI, and Whites) as well as lots of wetsuits.

The best suit I've dove has been the Whites Fusion.

The worst was the DUI.

Loved your review of the Fusion!

Can you provide more detail about the other suits including your criteria, opinion and how long ago your experience was? Was it with more than one model of each brand, by chance?

DUI being "worst", when compared to only three others, isn't necessarily a bad suit at all, but it just sounds bad....

Dave C

 

[Thalassamania]

Really? What does water weigh in water? Sounds like maybe there was another weighting issue...

Come on Rick ... you know that this depends on the undergarment. If you completely flood a trilam (or for that matter a vulcanized suit) with some types of underwear you lose almost all buoyancy that was provided by the suit/underwear combination.

 

[elvisisalive]

Went to a shop today that had a TLS 350 and CLX 450 side by side. When I brought up the CF200 and it's durability, "stop planning on running into stuff underwater and using the suit to get you out of it. Learn how to control yourself to the point that you aren't concerned with what the suit is made of, or if you need a tougher suit." What I was told was they prefer to order the TLS 350 signature cut, with CLX 450 panels down the front of the legs and across the chest/down the arms. There are not knee pads just the overlays. The zip seals on the neck/wrists are a definate add on for the suit. The zip gloves are used hands down without problem. The wrist dam was kinda "whatever", you wanna keep diving? Put the backup gloves on and don't worry about it. Long deco obligation? You're gonna thumb the dive and ride out a cold hand. If you pick the undergarments right you won't even know it. Suit flood, like a whole suit flood through a glove? Stop reading the internet and spend the time learning how to dive with the gear you've chosen. If you're worried about it get em but most divers aren't worried about it. No rock boots just the turbosoles; "If you need rock boots to get to the site you want to dive, you probably shouldn't be diving that site without a boat." "You also will not have a lace come undone in the water and have to re-tie it."

Really like the shop all things considered. I was told that with all the gear changes I've made in the last several months I shouldn't even consider a dry suit right now.

 

[fdog]

Loved your review of the Fusion!

Can you provide more detail about the other suits including your criteria, opinion and how long ago your experience was? Was it with more than one model of each brand, by chance?

DUI being "worst", when compared to only three others, isn't necessarily a bad suit at all, but it just sounds bad....

Dave C

Thanks Dave.

O'Neil - this was in the 70's, the Supersuit. At the time it was the only thing for recreational diving. Great because it was warm, but bouyancy control was a kludge.

Poseidon - Early /mid 80's, the Unisuit. Warm and dry, but a flail to get into. After this it was the Jetsuit, easy to get into, although you'd cook until you got into the water. Both were fairly restrictive especially when bending over.

DUI - late 90's on with the CF200. Compared to what came before, it was quite a bit easier to don and move in, but the crushed neoprene soaked up water and became heavy on shore, and took forever to dry out. And leaks, sometimes mysteriously from nowhere, more than once the suit came back from DUI (pressure tested for $80) that still leaked. Not to mention that seals were short-lived and $$$ to replace and the replacement was forever from the factory. I was looking for warm - which it was, with the right undies - but dealing with overall quality issues had me looking elsewhere. Someone refered to DUI as "Dry Until Immersed" and that would pretty much sum up my experience.

Whites - I started looking at Whites and was really impressed with the build quality. And they didn't leak. This alone had me ready to jump ship from DUI right there, and I was measured up for a custom Catylist 360, when the rep came by with a Fusion prototype. I laughed at it until I tried it on...you've read the review...so far it's been way more durable than any other suit, the seals look like almost new (the DUI was needing new ones at this many dives), and never leaked. And the mobility! Being a switch from a crushed neoprene to a shell, insulation was a first for me and I had to re-learn which layers to wear. Still, I wouldn't go back.

I agree, calling DUI the "worst" is a relative statement; I know some folks that have had good luck with them, just my experience was...well...the worst of the suits I've used.


A sneeky extra advantage to the Whites is patching the suit (see my cat ate my dry suit). All it takes is a heat gun. I literally had the suit patched in 10 minutes, and I didn't have to send it anywhere to do it. You can do the same with wrist and neck seals - replace them with a heatgun. This alone is reason enough to consider Whites.

Hope this helps -


All the best, James

 

[Thalassamania]

Thanks Dave.

O'Neil - this was in the 70's, the Supersuit. At the time it was the only thing for recreational diving. Great because it was warm, but bouyancy control was a kludge.

Most people don't know it, but both Unisuits and Vikings were both available in the late 1960s.

 

[elvisisalive]

Thank you all for helping. Thallasomania - once again the best advice ever; go find a person, ask the questions, and don't stop asking until I am satisfies.

Never even thought to consider a trilaminate suit. Based on durability alone I thought it would be a second rate suit. The zip gloves, especially the zip gloves WD, were different than I thought they would be. Hated the neoprene by the way!!

On the suit flood issue: "It doesn't matter what suit you have and what's it made out of, if you go to the Walmart and buy something that is not designed for a suit flood, it can make things really bad in a hurry. That is why they make special undergarments, because they are designed to handle these things."

About not being able to remove the gloves without having to remove the top half of the suit, "why would you not take the top half off? Do you really think you would ever want to wear this on land for more than a couple of minutes? If you are gonna take your gloves off for any reason other than to fix your gloves, you are gonna want to take the top half off just for relief from the neck seal." I never thought of that.

 

[Rick Inman]

Come on Rick ... you know that this depends on the undergarment. If you completely flood a trilam (or for that matter a vulcanized suit) with some types of underwear you lose almost all buoyancy that was provided by the suit/underwear combination.

Yes, you lose bouyancy. Just saying, you still should not need two divers to haul a person up.

 

[TSandM]

I agree with them about the undergarments. I've had two nasty suit floods, and on one, I'm pretty sure my Thinsulate undergarment kept me out of hospital.

I disagree about scoffing at the possibility of a significant suit flood from a glove leak. I had a leaking o-ring in my dry gloves, and I'd been careless and not arranged my inner seal properly (it was there, it was just wrinkled). The way I realized that the wrist seal was leaking was when I kicked and felt water slosh IN MY BOOT. When I got back on the boat, water POURED out of my arm when I took the glove off. I do not take my inner seals lightly any more, ever.

I frequently dive sites where the hike to the water is over rocks of various sizes and consistencies. I have a bunch of friends who use turbosoles, but a lot of them have had to patch them. I use boots (but not DUI rock boots) and I have had ONE dive where my laces came undone -- total, out of several hundred dives.

My Fusion has survived crawling on my belly on limestone in Florida caves, and even more, it's survived crawling on my knees getting in and out of the water in some Florida caves