Tizip?

[Aqua-Andy]

Well My second zipper on my NexGen is officially dead, another one with the dreaded NexGen zipper broken between the teeth about 6 inches from the left shoulder. The suit will be in the mail to Bare tomorrow for a replacement with the Tizip. Does anyone have a lot of dives on the Tizip? I love My NexGen It fits great is a lot more durable than one might think, I have rubbed against sharp rusty metal in wrecks and fell and slid on rocks countless of times and the suit still looks brand new. I'm very discouraged with the zipper on this suit and I am just praying the Tizip will last me more than 40 to 50 dives. My shop keeps trying to talk me into a DUI suit (because that is what they sell) Although I will agree they make a great suit, for my size what is an off the rack size in bare would be a full custom in DUI and at minimum around $1000 more fore a comparable suit and they use the same BDM zipper that has failed on me twice. I believe the NexGen to be a quality suit at a price-point that allows a single income family man(AKA me) to get into a drysuit and still make the mortgage payments. I guess I will just say a prayer every night for my new Tizip and hope I can get the 400 to 500 dives out of it that most people are getting out of there zippers. Thank you for listening to my question/rant and any info you may have on the Tizip.

 

[vjanelle]

The problem with the nextgen zipper (at least the non-tizip one) was that it was very fragile at the two points you've experience. There's a commercial dive school near here that put a neoprene strip over it and they hadn't had any problems since.

My LDS also has nexgens with the tizip and they've seen their failure rate go way down.

Btw, I just tried the trilam tech dry today, *very* nice suit.

 

[CaboJim]

I have a Scuba Pro Nova Scotia, with about 150 dives on it. It has the dreaded TZip. This zipper needs a lot of maintenance. You must grease it before diving. On my last 2 dives it has started to break open, leaking alot of water into the suit.
So I'm looking for a new suit. I will not buy 1 with a Tzip...

 

[Aqua-Andy]

Does it have the master seal or one of the other zippers?
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/exposure-suits/385709-tizip.html

 

[jqjcn]

Tizip can not be use for drysuit.

 

[Aqua-Andy]

Tizip can not be use for drysuit.

Well don't tell Bare! Bare does use Tizip and from what they are saying they have had very good success with it (enough success that they are using it in there new flag ship suit). Are you afraid that people may find Tizip to be a superior product and they might prefer the competitors product? According to the Tizip website it can be used for drysuits, but I guess you know better than the manufacturer of the zipper does. I will tell you what why don't you send me one of your zippers and $500 in us currency and I will have the zipper installed in my suit, I will treat this zipper the same as my other two zippers and will see how long it lasts. The $500 will be used for the installation of your zipper which will cost $200 then the other $200 will go to the labor of installing the tizip if and when yours brakes (all zippers fail eventually)and the remaining will be used to pay for shipping to and from Bare. Most people seam to be getting 400 to 600 dives out of a zipper so if I get 500 out of it I will send back the full $500 plus the cost of the zipper. I find this to be fare and I will give you an unbiased review of the JQJ zipper. You have to understand I am only getting around 40 dives out of the zipper your most likely company copied from The new zipper company limited so I don't know why the JQJ zipper would be any better than the YKK/BDM that I have previously had on my NexGen. If you would like I can contact Bare who has my suit as we speak and get the zipper length for you, I know it has to be PU coated so they can weld it to the NexGen fabric. Oh ya I will need to know in a day or two because they will start work on it soon.

I will be looking forward to your reply,

Sincerely,

Andrew Morency

 

[Belce]

All dry suit zippers require care and maintenance which includes lubrication. A shop I frequent has TiZip's on their rental dry suits and they are working out well for them. Reports from commercial divers here are also good.

 

[Bubbletrubble]

@Aqua-Andy: Something is terribly wrong with your maintenance procedures or in-between dive storage of your drysuit if you're only getting 40-50 dives out of your drysuit zipper. All it takes is one incident of storing something heavy on top of the drysuit, which places stress on the zipper in the location you describe, and that instigates the inevitable demise of the zipper.
I've conducted 300+ dives on my Bare Nex-Gen with the original zipper. There is some noticeable wear at the edges of the zipper, but I estimate that I'll be able to get another 100 dives out of the zipper before replacing it.

I highly recommend transporting the suit in it's own Rubbermaid container to/from the dive site. This prevents other heavy scuba gear from rolling around in your car and damaging the zipper.
I also recommend storing the suit in such a way that stress on the "corners" of the zipper (6 inches from each end) is minimized. I store mine rolled up on its own shelf in a closet. Seems to work for me.

As for replacing the zipper, it might be more cost-effective to do the DIY repair. The shoulder-entry design should make it a very straightforward procedure. A conventional zipper replacement can be ordered online for about $120. I've used PB300 adhesive on my Nex-Gen for repairs. A small can of it would cost $20-$25.

It's certainly possible that the TiZip will be more resistant to the kind of stress that your drysuit zippers have been seeing.
vjanelle mentioned that a nearby commercial dive school installed a neoprene flap to protect the Nex-Gen zipper a little more. That mod sounds like it could work. It would be pretty easy to DIY a neoprene flap from an old, worn-out wetsuit. Something to think about.
Good luck with the repair.

 

[Aqua-Andy]

Bubbletrouble I have done all those things besides the rubbermaid bin and it still broke. I have been neurotic about making sure my suit was at the top of the pile when loading gear and very careful about storing the suit on it's own shelf so it can't get damaged. All my other buddies with other suits just through them around, wax the zipper once every 100 dives weather it needs it or not, throw them at the bottom of the pile, have tanks and gear roll into them and they are just fine. It seams that if I breath on this zipper wrong it will break. I'm hoping the Tizip will work out better. In the mean time I have ordered and test dove a Whites Fusion and fell in love with it. So when the suit comes back It will ether go up for sale or be relegated to backup.

 

[elan]

One guy at a local dive shop mentioned that he receives dry suits with tizips for replacement after quite low number of dives - in a range of two hundreds.