opinions on brass vs plastic dry suit zipper

[fmerkel]

Over bend a brass zipper and you break the teeth. I have splinted a zipper having 4 breaks with tongue depressions duct taped on, big arrows showing the breaks, AND clear instruction to zip carefully. Worked great for 2 years until a "helpful" buddy grabbed and yanked it off the track.

Been using the coil type plastic zipper for about 15 years. Love/hate relationship with them. Get a good one and they are Ok. A poor one is a pain. Lube is necessary.

 

[Marie13]

My USIA suit came with a brass zipper. No other choice. I would have gone with brass anyway. It's a front zip suit, too.

 

[Rred]

Just ran across an article on the BBC about zippers, which mentions that NASA used brass zippers on some early space suits. Brass teeth set in rubber, each side being also covered by a plastic layer to make the airtight seal.

Anyway...NASA also found that the copper in the brass chemically attacked the rubber and made the zippers destroy themselves.

While "rubber" can be many things, I would suspect that same problem might make dry-suit zippers self-destruct, so a quality plastic zipper might be the way to go.

Who'd a thought?

 

[fmerkel]

DUI did a test awhile back; plastic vs brass. It was kind of simple, zipper on a test strip. machine zipped it closed and open....a lot. Brass won by a little. That's kind of interesting but nothing like the actual life a dive zipper goes through. You get careful buddies, and careless jerks. People with great care and excellent cleaning+lubing, and some performing miserable care. Suits get rolled up nicely with minimal sharp bends or may be stuffed in a bag or box heedless of the zipper being folded in a nasty manner.

DUI - Diving Unlimited International



It creates a very difficult environment to evaluate reliability. It's almost like healthcare.

 

[Aqua-Andy]

When I first saw this video I thought it was ridiculous. Why would you create a device that would test a product in polar opposite conditions that it will actually be used in? Maybe after every few zips it was removed, rolled up, thrown in a bag and then something heavy thrown on top of that. Oh ya dust some very fine beach sand on it before some of the zips.

 

[chorse]

i was going to post this in the Bare forum but it looks like there is very little activity there.
i recently had to replace the rear entry zip on my dry suit. i was told ALL bare suits now use the plastic type and that is what would be installed. the suit came back in pristine condition and the new zip seems to work just fine. easier to close and open. lighter. far more flexible. all seems ok.
however i recently found out that Bare actually still does offer the brass zippers. they are a bit more expensive but are avail. so i was not pleased to hear that i was given incorrect info.
more importantly though was that i was told recently that the new plastic type zips only last a short time. as little as 50 dives. i find this a bit hard to believe but thought i would ask anyone here if they have thoughts on this. good or bad.
thx

I'm finding that DS manufactures talk out of both sides of their mouths. If they use a brass zip then that's the best option. If they us a plastic zip then brass is old technology and plastic zip is the only way to go. But in some cases the companies use both brass and plastic and the tap dance begins. The local dive shops are just as wishy washy. I sort of believe that there must be a composite zip somewhere out there that is bullet proof with proper care without causing the Dry Suit owner to develop and ulcer over the choice. Gotta take my milk of magnesia now. Happy Diving!

 

[macado]

I've posted this before but I went back to brass after I experienced a TiZip failure. The material started delaminating and cracking at the teeth.

I received my FLX Extreme in October 2014. It was supposedly one of the first or second batches to have a TiZip installed. It started leaking around 5-6 months/70 dives. Around May 2015 DUI replaced it under warranty with a brass YKK zipper.

Images here: Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet



I also have an older backup drysuit (USIA Techniflex) that I had DRIS install a TiZip in 2013 but that suit rarely gets used. That TiZip doesnt have any issues at all on that suit.

It's possible DUI got a bad batch of TiZips and perhaps they're fixed now. There is another local person I know that ordered his suit a month before mine with a TiZip that failed in the same exact way. Supposedly YKK's version of the plastic zipper is better but I have not tested one myself.

That being said, I love my FLX Extreme. Fantastic suit and I dont blame DUI for zipper issue.

I've just decided to stick with brass YKK until reports of plastic zippers are better.

 

[AJ]

After having troubles with the Tizip I had it replaced with YKK plastic zipper. No problems with the YKK.

 

[fmerkel]

I've heard of brass going 1000 dive, being replaced after 50-100. I've had plastic go 350, and be defective on a new suit. I've have no experience with any plastic zip going 'long distance'.

 

[Stoo]

Mrs Stoo and I both got new drysuits in the past couple of years... SANTI and Bare.

Between the two of us, we have gone through four plastic zippers in about 170 and 60 dives respectively. By contrast, all of my previous 6 drysuits (over say, 40 years of diving dry) had brass back zips and in perhaps 3000 dives, I NEVER replaced one of them. And NONE of them ever leaked.

I agree that the plastic is flexible and in front entry, much easier to close. But IMHO opinion, they're crap.

Mrs Stoo just got her suit back from Bare, and I expecting a new suit from SANTI any minute, so we'll see how these ones go...

If I was still in a back entry suit, I would definitely go brass.