Problems with BARE SB suits?

[haslamhoff]

I was wondering if there were any owners of BARE SB suits who'd be willing to comment on how water tight they have found their suit.

My wife purchased an SB suit a couple of years ago and has had leaking problems from day one. She is currently on her second SB suit from BARE now - the first was replaced as with a new suit made with "improved" material, but she is still getting apparent leaks in either the seams or the material itself. The latest suit has less than 30 dives on it and again it has to go back to BARE.

I haven't noticed many posts about the SB suit on Scubaboard since BARE suspended production on new suits until it improved the material... is this because no one else has bought one? I have to admit, I have always been sceptical of the longevity of a "waterproof, stretchy, breathable" drysuit... seemed too good to be true.

 

[KevinNM]

I had two people in my drysuit class diving SBs. They liked them, but they had very few dives on them. I think they had early models that they had bought and not ever used for a few years for some reason so they were hoping not to have the delamination issue.

 

[reefvagabond]

I own a Bare SB drysuit. The first one totally delaminiated and was no longer a drysuit. After sending it back and waiting almost a year I was sent a rebuilt SB. This one hasn't had a catastrophic leak on me yet, knock on wood. However it no longer stretches despite the name.

 

[Ken T]

I sent my suit back last winter for the delamination issue.

Bare placed heat tape over the areas delaminating and sent it back.

Diving this spring, the suit started to delaminate in the legs.

I requested a loaner suit, since I had some scuba classes to take over the summer.

Bare sent out a loaner and I sent my suit back to Bare.

No problems with the loaner SB system suit so far.

Bare offered to send a new suit out to me, I requested that they send me the crushed neoprene model.

Once bitten twice shy - I did not want to have the new suit delaminate on me, so I'm going with neoprene.

Great customer service so far.

Thanks in no small part to my LDS, who has gone to bat for me with Bare.

I'm told the new suit is on the way...not in hand yet though.

 

[haslamhoff]

Thanks for the feedback. We dove again today and my wife's suit is definitely leaking. I think if we're given the option to get a replacement suit I'm going to recommend she switch to the crushed neoprene...she's generally cold when she dives so this might help a bit too.

 

[KevinNM]

IIRC, a neoprene Bare is a lot less expensive than a SB. Like a thousand dollars less, so that isn't exactly an even swap if they just swap.

 

[Ken T]

IIRC, a neoprene Bare is a lot less expensive than a SB. Like a thousand dollars less, so that isn't exactly an even swap if they just swap.

About a $600 retail difference in Canada for the Tech xcs2.

The Bare rep. for my LDS indicated that the factory cost is closer for both of them.

And I got a good deal to begin with on my SB drysuit.

Bare has let me add on factory installed extras to make up some of difference.