Reviving an old drysuit

[boat sju]

There are some good youtube videos showing how to find leaks by pouring soapy water on the inflated suit.

 

[TrimixToo]

Zip seals are ridiculously expensive. And if you want dry gloves, a pair of gloves with Zip seals are over $150. I always hear about people babying their gloves and spending a ton of time patching holes. Plus, with Zip seal dry gloves you can’t get geared up and then put gloves on. Zip seal dry gloves are on the suit.

IMO, one of the SiTech neck and wrist systems would be a better choice. You can add whatever dry glove system that fits your wrist system (round or oval). A dry glove system would run around $175, but the gloves are $5-$6 a pair.

I'd forgotten about those. Both have their proponents, and I have never tried the SiTech system.

I'll point out, though, that you can glue new seals to the wrist rings; just heat them (I have a heat gun but a blow drying will work just as well) and peel off the old ones first. You can also add other dry glove systems (Kubi, OS Systems, etc.) with just wrist zip seals, and replacing gloves on those is *cheap*. (I have the Kubi system, and a pair of new gloves that work with them is about $8-12/pair.) The neck zip seal, though, I'm told, is best replaced with a new one. Admittedly not cheap to get started, but you need never call off a dive because of a torn seal and dive shop labor for seal replacement costs nothing.