Marking Gear - Dykem Brite Mark Paint Pens Review

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Messages
4
Reaction score
7
Location
Daytona Beach, FL
# of dives
100 - 199
I went on my first pleasure boat dive and while it was nice that you had someone to hand your fins up to before climbing the ladder (you never get that luxury on research dive boats :cool:).....they all end up in a pile and everyone loves black, bleh...(I actually don't, but black fins were the cheapest). So I went searching for a way to mark rubber (I've tried sharpie in the past but those marks have long since faded [only lasts for ~20 dives]).

Many posts and dive retailers recommend paint pens (Dykem brite-mark seems to be popular) but there are no up close pictures of how it looks. Is it somewhat 3D like puffy fabric paint? How dark are the colors? Ect. I took the plunge and bought a 14 color set from markingpendepot.com (no fun colors at LDSs). Initially nervous since there were no recent reviews about that site, but an actual person answered when I called them and my order arrived very fast. Billing through paypal gives me comfort.

14 colors: black, dark blue, green, red, brown, light blue, pink, yellow, light green, gold, purple, orange, silver, white. The light blue and light green that arrived technically wern't Dykem brand but I'm okay with that. I've kept each paint mark set in this post in this color order. Only smaller versions of photos could be attached to this post. The larger versions can be seen in my paint pens album on scubaboard.

First, prime the pens by pressing down on the pen tips (fill the felt with paint for the first time). First are marks on cardboard, plastic packing tape, and a black plastic bottle. White is all chalky. Silver is much better:
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There is no real height to these paint pens' marks (unlike puffy paint). If you run your finger over the marks, you can't feel anything there.
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Next, I have pictures here of how each color looks on different gear surfaces.

Aqualung Look 2 Mask (clear skirt and hard black plastic)
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Gold and brown are somewhat clear and harder to see.

Neoprene mask strap and can coozie
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I don't love how smeared the lines are on fabric. Silver shows up the best - and only took one pass to make these marks unlike all other colors. The silver pen itself is very wet - especially compared to the other colors.

Fins: Black scubapro jet fins (and metal buckle and strap) and yellow scubapro twin jet fins (and rubber spring strap cover and black hard plastic buckle). Gold is impossible to see on metal surfaces. All other colors are decently pigmented.
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Whistles (acme tornado and jetscream):
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(1. silver initials, 2. purple, yellow, and light green flower)

The paint dries fast, but does smell a bit when wet.

Time will tell how well the colors hold up with wear and in the water. I'll post updates later.

The brown and gold are hard to see on almost every material. For these, the angle you're looking from does affect how easy it is to see marks.


Am now looking for a fabric paint with neat, thin lines.

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For all other gear, I use stickers I bought on amazon (Personalized Waterproof 3M Sticker Labels for Dive Gear). I highly recommend these. I've had mine stuck on things like my snorkel, retractors, carabiners, gopro case, thermos, ect for over 80 dives and 2 years now (salt, chlorine, fresh, 33F water to tropical) - never had one peel. Some corners are chipping, but only ever so slightly.

These stickers absolutely do not stick to the rubbery part of fins and fabric (I had so many left over that I went a little crazy labeling stuff with my name).
 
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I like these pens. Only have red, yellow, and white though. Tried the puffy paint, but it tended to peel off very quickly, except on neoprene. These pens are much easier to use and have held up well. Starting to fade a little after 50-60 dives on the fins, but still good on other stuff.
One thing I've found is they bleed a lot if using on coarse fabrics and webbing. The red gets a little pink on some stuff, not as bright as I had hoped.
Like your test. With your method of marking, your gear will be REAL easy to identify.
 
I have an update already! The paint pen marks dried for about 36 hours before I took my gear on a two tank boat dive trip. Here are pictures after a 12 hour soak to get the salt water out of everything. Large versions of the pictures can be seen in my scubaboard album "Paint Pens update1".

Mask: The paint looks great on the hard plastic but is very smeared/peeling on the clear rubber. I'm sad because Dykem paint pens are so often marketed to mark rubber.

Scubapro Jet fins:
I decided to draw an alien abduction scene on the bottom of my jet fins. (in scientific diving, we could take on projects to collect specimens and I could never do those. Specimen collecting feels like alien abduction to me if I put myself in the place of the poor sea stars/nudibranchs/urchins/ect) Plus, the idea of aliens makes me smile.
"Competitive Advantage" brand paint pens' baby blue and light green have cracked pretty significantly. Dykem brand pink (head, limbs, and UFO #2's base) has cracked too - but not as badly as the "Competitive Advantage" colors. Silver (base of UFO #1 and one torso) looks really good. The yellow torso looks good too.

Here are jet fin updated pictures. The marks on the fin tip have basically disappeared. The ones on the fin straps have started to crack and wear. The marks on the metal part of the strap look okay except for the black dot on the corner of the metal rectangle (due to friction wear no doubt).

Brass double ender snap bolt and acme tornado whistle: The whistle looks fine. Purple and orange are the only unblemished dots on the double-ender snap. Unclear if this is due to the location of the dots or what. I would have felt the orange and purple were among the most exposed since they weren't on the center of the snap like all the other dots.

Gopro bolt and gear keeper brand plastic clips for their retractors. Black dots on gopro bolt look fine. Competitive Advantage brand light blue on the clips (before in the middle, after on the right) - obviously there is heavy wear. The way I use these clips, the blue stripe rubbed pretty hard on a hard plastic gopro selfie stick.

Gear keeper brand retractor: everything written in green looks fine.

Scubapro delta 5 boot: the 3 silver dots look great (dots are wonky because I wasn't careful putting them on)
 
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I've used nail polish with good success. Yes it does eventually start to come off but certainly not after one dive. In the case of my fins, it was many many dives before any deterioration started.
 
www.divinglabels.com make very high quality personalised and waterproof labels for diving gear. They are $19.59 for a set of 108 different shapes and sizes (to fit all your gear). They don't come off and last hundreds of dives. Ship anywhere in the world included in the price. Check out their reviews on Facebook
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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