Removing dui turbo soles at home?

[giddyup9]

I just got a DUI suit with turbo soles and I can’t stand them. I’ve got very sensitive feet and after 12 dives I just can’t get them to work for me. I only get good contact with the ball of my foot and this makes finning super uncomfortable; I’ve tried fin keepers, but this causes severe pain in my foot. Not to mention the heel strap on my fins keeps sliding down making it a generally awkward experience.

I need something with real support in the foot and ankle and would like to switch to a neoprene sock + boot/shoe. It’s my understanding that the sole is just glued onto the bottom of a neoprene sock and I can just heat it and pull it off. Has anyone tried this?

Alternatively, (and I’ll just call on Tuesday but might as well ask), does anyone know the current lead times for repairs with DUI or if sending it out to another company like DRIS would void my warranty?

 

[Curious_George]

Hey welcome to Scubaboard. Hope you can hang around and share your experiences and perspective.

I also hate the DUI turbo boots or any other pull on permanent boot for that matter. Have cut off and replaced 4 or 5 pairs on various DUI suits for myself and others. Poorly fitting permanent boots may not be that safe either.

You can try using heat to separate the soles. It wouldn’t work when I tried it with a heat gun. Soles are not attached with heat sensitive glue and are very difficult to separate. Also, left over neoprene is still hard and impregnated with resin. New suits may be different, all my group can afford are the old/cheap used DUI. I’ve been diving a CF200 for something like 60-80 dives after I cut off just the hard soles and sewed on plain neoprene. Not ideal, but a lazy way to get booties. Replacing socks on a drysuit is one of the easiest repairs in my opinion aside from wrist seals. Get the thick ones from Northern diver and give it a go. Happy to help you with it if you want.

I imagine only DUI can tell you what voids their warranty. My guessing probably isn’t productive.

 

[Scared Silly]

The glue used can be dissolved with methyl ethyl ketone but it is quite the job.

 

[lastfrontier]

 

[Tor_DUI]

I just got a DUI suit with turbo soles and I can’t stand them. I’ve got very sensitive feet and after 12 dives I just can’t get them to work for me. I only get good contact with the ball of my foot and this makes finning super uncomfortable; I’ve tried fin keepers, but this causes severe pain in my foot. Not to mention the heel strap on my fins keeps sliding down making it a generally awkward experience.

I need something with real support in the foot and ankle and would like to switch to a neoprene sock + boot/shoe. It’s my understanding that the sole is just glued onto the bottom of a neoprene sock and I can just heat it and pull it off. Has anyone tried this?

Alternatively, (and I’ll just call on Tuesday but might as well ask), does anyone know the current lead times for repairs with DUI or if sending it out to another company like DRIS would void my warranty?

Not sure if your question was answered, current lead time on a boot replacement is 7 weeks at DUI. We can easily remove your TurboBoots and replace them with Neoprene socks. Doing any work yourself will void the warranty on that part of the suit.