DIR- GUE Replaceable Drysuit Neck and Wrist Seals - Latex or Silicone?

[TuckerIdaho]

Silicon neck seal (sitech neck, no issues with straps) and latex wrist seals (santi smart seals). I had a persistent leak only with my right wrist no matter what I did with my silicon seals. Swapped to latex that are snugger, problem solved.

 

[jadairiii]

I also got a recommendation to choose a silicone neck seal instead of a latex neck seal. What materials are preferred for neck seals? I guess this is mostly about comfort?

Did not read all 4 pages so this may have been already stated. Benefit of Silicon is that Silicon will "last" longer and not be as prone to slowly breaking down like latex does.

The down side is that as Silicon ages is becomes prone to "catastrophic" failures. You can see your latex seals aging and you kind of know they are getting weak. Silicon will just massively fail. Saw that a lot with silicon swim caps my daughter used when she was a competitive swimmer. The silicon caps lasted 3 times as long as the latex but when putting on the Silicon cap, it would completely split in half! (compared to the latex that would just start ripping a bit)

 

[galodoido]

I'm 1,80m (5' 9"?) and don't have especially wide shoulders, pretty normal IMO.
I have never felt that the ring gets in the way of mobility for me, I know a lot of people have issues with it though but I suppose it comes down to how you're built and what size you are.
Don't ever see myself going back to a latex neck seal on my primary suit.

@Degenerate How wide are you from shoulder to shoulder? I am roughly 16" across.

 

[Degenerate]

@Degenerate How wide are you from shoulder to shoulder? I am roughly 16' across.

17-18" roughly.

 

[Rich1280]

My wife has a silicone ring in her current drysuit, and notably has trouble with valve manipulation compared to her old suit without it. She's pretty standard female size at 5'4, and possibly even wider in the shoulders than most ladies due to her sports. Her next suit is a Santi MTM we have on order, but when she was measured the sales staff were clear they recommended against her getting a ring in her new suit due to her shoulder size.
Rich

 

[Marie13]

My wife has a silicone ring in her current drysuit, and notably has trouble with valve manipulation compared to her old suit without it. She's pretty standard female size at 5'4, and possibly even wider in the shoulders than most ladies due to her sports. Her next suit is a Santi MTM we have on order, but when she was measured the sales staff were clear they recommended against her getting a ring in her new suit due to her shoulder size.
Rich

By silicone ring, I assume you mean the plastic ring for a replaceable seal?

 

[Rich1280]

Yes, plastic ring and silicone neck. Apologies, had 2 weeks leave and been diving!

 

[elan]

For our cold water I love neoprene. Keeps your neck really warm

 

[AJ]

My wife has a silicone ring in her current drysuit, and notably has trouble with valve manipulation compared to her old suit without it.

Same here, new suit without the ring system. Never, ever will have the ring again.

 

[Ulfhedinn]

I had the Sitech neck ring setup and hated it.

Replaceable wrist seals though have been great

my shoulders as I stand today 22" but when I owned the suit I was 25".