High end drysuit comparability

[tbone1004]

Hello. Thanks for the reply. Are you associated with these brands in any way ?

Happy customer of both. I am friends with the owners of Deep6 but no formal association. The Deep6 suit is made by Ursuit for reference, super high quality.

 

[CptMat]

Hello.

I am in the market for a custom/MTM drysuit and would like to know peoples opinions on comparability between drysuit brands.
I live in Vancouver Canada so have Bare as a local company with a 8 week lead time for the MTM X-Mission. Its coming out at about similar price points to the SEAL, SF Tech, DUI. I have been told that the SF Tech is the best in terms of quality but have no actual basis for that. I have been told Bare is lower quality than the others so dont want to spend that money on a "lower quality" suit when I could get a better suit but want to make sure thats actually the case before ordering a suit from abroad with less support here. My intention is cold water diving around canada, cave diving around the world (including tight squeezes and potentially sumps) and warm water divin around the world. I would like a suit that can do everything so I can only buy one but if not possible dont mind purchasing two.

Does anyone know if any brand is actually much better at this range and price point and if so would they recommend one over the other if spending in the 5000 CAD range .

I own SeaWolf Drysuit - it’s a light trilaminate drysuit made by the same guy and factory that makes SEALrysuit for XDeep. I dove also in various Santi drysuits. They are ok. But I was not thrilled. So I started searching and discovered SFTech. Now I have TNT Pro trilaminate. It’s built like a tank. And still it’s quite light. The cut is perfect. For caves, wrecks, any other kind. I have 60+ dives in it and I think this is the last suit I will buy. It’s perfect. And still looks like new. I did not have any problems. I’m using also SFTech Delrin valve for heating and it works flawlessly. But that’s my case. If you want best Drysuit for your money I would go for SFTech.
Cheers!

Mat

 

[Mario007]

I own SeaWolf Drysuit - it’s a light trilaminate drysuit made by the same guy and factory that makes SEALrysuit for XDeep. I dove also in various Santi drysuits. They are ok. But I was not thrilled. So I started searching and discovered SFTech. Now I have TNT Pro trilaminate. It’s built like a tank. And still it’s quite light. The cut is perfect. For caves, wrecks, any other kind. I have 60+ dives in it and I think this is the last suit I will buy. It’s perfect. And still looks like new. I did not have any problems. I’m using also SFTech Delrin valve for heating and it works flawlessly. But that’s my case. If you want best Drysuit for your money I would go for SFTech.
Cheers!

Mat

What's your experience with Seawolf? I was looking into it, but I'm not sure

 

[CptMat]

What's your experience with Seawolf? I was looking into it, but I'm not sure

I have very light version, great for travel. It has very nice quirks - like rails on forearms for attaching stuff. After a year I had change the zipper. It has a little to spacious legs for my liking. But overall it’s nice suit. And the price was excellent. Obviously I like SFTech better but it’s not fair to compare them. The price to quality factor is excellent.

 

[Whitrzac]

I have very light version, great for travel. It has very nice quirks - like rails on forearms for attaching stuff. After a year I had change the zipper. It has a little to spacious legs for my liking. But overall it’s nice suit. And the price was excellent. Obviously I like SFTech better but it’s not fair to compare them. The price to quality factor is excellent.

A year old with 60 dives and the zipper was bad already?!?!
Thats terrible

 

[Nosmosis]

I like my Santi E.Lite. Pretty rugged and has been in some wrecks and caves. Have about 200 dives or so on it. Actually had my first leak the other day, but glad I have a Platinum warranty from DRIS cause the repair costs me nothing. Disclaimer: I used to work for DRIS but no longer so this is a legitimate endorsement of their drysuit expertise.

 

[CptMat]

A year old with 60 dives and the zipper was bad already?!?!
Thats terrible

I didn’t say it had 60 dives. That was about SFTech. Seawolf had around 200. But the zipper broke down after 120 and year and a half. It could have been my fault - transportation squeeze or something.

 

[SpeedyJ]

I just spent months waffling about a new suit before deciding on a Santi E-Lite as my "fat suit" for thick undergarments diving the Great Lakes. Santi allows 4 free measurement adjustments to stock sizes (16 to choose from) up to 5cm each, and you can adjust others for a slight upcharge. DRIS was $75 for a fifth measurement adjustment. This offers a great savings compared to fully custom / MTM.

I currently dive an Elite Plus and am overall happy with it. Is it better than another option? No clue. I asked around, got a few opinions that were essentially "they're all about the same."

I'm adding the second suit to ensure when I am on an expensive trip or have a weekend of diving during our short season that I'll never lose more than a dive or two, and I'll have more flexibility / ROM with bulky undergarments. I thought about going for an SF-Tech but never having seen the material and hearing that its quite heavy, I decided to stick with what I know.

 

[CptMat]

I just spent months waffling about a new suit before deciding on a Santi E-Lite as my "fat suit" for thick undergarments diving the Great Lakes. Santi allows 4 free measurement adjustments to stock sizes (16 to choose from) up to 5cm each, and you can adjust others for a slight upcharge. DRIS was $75 for a fifth measurement adjustment. This offers a great savings compared to fully custom / MTM.

I currently dive an Elite Plus and am overall happy with it. Is it better than another option? No clue. I asked around, got a few opinions that were essentially "they're all about the same."

I'm adding the second suit to ensure when I am on an expensive trip or have a weekend of diving during our short season that I'll never lose more than a dive or two, and I'll have more flexibility / ROM with bulky undergarments. I thought about going for an SF-Tech but never having seen the material and hearing that its quite heavy, I decided to stick with what I know.

Actually the Trilam version of SFTech is not extremely heavy. It weights around 4kg

 

[davehicks]

Brand is less important than features and fit. Fit above all. Do you want field replaceable seals, metal or plastic zipper, front zip, back zip, etc. There are plenty of good brands, at range of prices. Whatever you consider make sure it's a great fit.