New dry suit, got some questions...

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I ended up getting the LM tinkle valve based off of reviews, and parts availability, and cost. I couldn’t quite justify the halcyon at this point. It came with the quick disconnect and the disconnect seals when disconnected. This means that I’ll have to get the disconnect and a squeeze bottle to flush things out.

My suit shipped last week and should be arriving to my house in the next couple days....my 50deg pool is going to be my first dive in it on the weekend.
 
Pool dive went great. Amazingly comfortable. Practiced some somersaults and some other exercises. It was warmer then 50 though, a relaxing 56 today!

So I’ve run into an issue though, the plastic zip is a tizip and comes with its own lubricant which appears to be Silicon based. Seaskin specifically mentions to keep silicon away from use on the dry suit because it can cause propbles with repairs and adhesives not bonding properly. So is the provided zipper lubricant really the best thing to use? Should I buy some wax and use that on the zip instead of the silicon? I’m just very hesitant to use something clearly hazardous to the suit near the area that will need repair at some point in the suits life....
 
Wax is for metal zippers.
 
Pool dive went great. Amazingly comfortable. Practiced some somersaults and some other exercises. It was warmer then 50 though, a relaxing 56 today!

So I’ve run into an issue though, the plastic zip is a tizip and comes with its own lubricant which appears to be Silicon based. Seaskin specifically mentions to keep silicon away from use on the dry suit because it can cause propbles with repairs and adhesives not bonding properly. So is the provided zipper lubricant really the best thing to use? Should I buy some wax and use that on the zip instead of the silicon? I’m just very hesitant to use something clearly hazardous to the suit near the area that will need repair at some point in the suits life....

James...

I have a suit with a Master T-Zip...the lubricant which is included is for the docking link only...helps to provide a water tight seal at the end...and to prevent wear of the docking link...

Keep your zipper clean...inspect after each dive...other than lubricating the docking link with the provided lubricant...the zipper itself should need no lubricant...

Hope the helps...

Warren
 
Hi James Sizemore:

Do I understand correctly that you ordered a YKK zipper, but Seaskin provided a T-zip instead? If so (and casting no aspersions on T-zips), that would still be a bit concerning from the perspective of being able to rely on getting what a person actually orders....

Thanks
Maclir
 
You've brought up a good point Maclir, their website does list a YKK as the option and no listing for Tizip and all of the invoices say YKK. So I wonder why they have listed one manufacturer and install the other? Possibly just they they are a small company and have not updated their website.

Warren, thank you for the insight about the zipper. That makes me feel better about exposing the smallest amount of my suit to silicon.
 
You've brought up a good point Maclir, their website does list a YKK as the option and no listing for Tizip and all of the invoices say YKK. So I wonder why they have listed one manufacturer and install the other? Possibly just they they are a small company and have not updated their website.

Warren, thank you for the insight about the zipper. That makes me feel better about exposing the smallest amount of my suit to silicon.
Are you sure it’s not a plastic YKK?
 
The issue about plastic drysuit zippers originated with tizip. The mounting material around the teeth degrades in a couple years, leaving white woven material underneath, which leaks. I thought that they had redesigned this a couple of years ago, but we just received four freshly manufactured drysuits with the same zipper.

Tizip should have recalled all those zippers and paid for new ones.

When I ordered my personal waterproof ex2, some of the pictures had the drysuit with the tizip and others with the ykk plastic zip. I had them personally go out to the warehouse to verify that it had the ykk, not the tizip zipper.

Last year, we replaced almost all the tizips on our shop suits to ykk zips which have been performing fine.

We recommend that as soon as a built in seal tears, rather than putting in another, that the diver install a sitech necktite or quick cuff system. We don’t like the Antares or quick glove systems as the gloves come off too easily. Some people seem to like to use the waterproof ultima system with the sitech quick cuff system.

I used to use the Sitech Glove Lock system, but have since moved on the vastly superior rolock system on that ex2.

I currently own an ex2 and try to put a trigon p-valve utilizing the existing extra port on the hip. Do you think it is gonna work?
 
I have had the same thought. After all, there is already a hole it it, why not put it to good use.

I am not sure if the dimensions are compatible.

either way, I will be doing that this season.

I think I will also try the he-wee.
 

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