Tizip?

[vjanelle]

@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.

They usually break right at the shoulder blades, the teeth can pop out. Something about how it's stored too compared to their previous rear-entry suits. I really don't like how your BCD can rub against the sealing material either.

 

[Bubbletrubble]

They usually break right at the shoulder blades, the teeth can pop out. Something about how it's stored too compared to their previous rear-entry suits. I really don't like how your BCD can rub against the sealing material either.

I have used a SS BP as part of a BP/W setup (Halcyon Eclipse 30) for a number of years with my drysuit...with no neoprene flap to protect the zipper during dives. Somehow my drysuit zipper has survived 300+ dives. (Now watch it fail on the next dive. )

One of my other dive buddies has put 400+ dives on his Bare Nex-Gen with the original zipper. The zipper recently failed.
Personally, I think 400 dives is pretty good for the lifespan of a drysuit zipper.

The paltry lifespan of 40-50 dives that Aqua-Andy got out of his zippers really isn't reasonable. There's something amiss there. Perhaps he should discuss this with the Bare factory, which presumably replaced the zipper the first time it failed. I would think that the zipper would come with a 1-2 yr. warranty.

 

[jqjcn]

We guarantee minimum 300 times dive.

You can buy one of our zipper to have a test,if zipper leak within the warranty period,you can tell everybody JQJ zipper is bad and pls do not buy it.it will be a big hurt for our reputation. Of course,you are also should tell everybody if our zipper is good, can you have a try?

There already have repair shop(from scubabaord) use our zippers for more than one years.

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

 

[vjanelle]

The paltry lifespan of 40-50 dives that Aqua-Andy got out of his zippers really isn't reasonable. There's something amiss there. Perhaps he should discuss this with the Bare factory, which presumably replaced the zipper the first time it failed. I would think that the zipper would come with a 1-2 yr. warranty.

The original zipper only comes with a 3 month warranty from BDM. DUI eats this in case there's an issue. The other suits bare makes have covers over the zipper, except the nex-gen for whatever reason.

I have seen these suits with really low dive counts having teeth issues - you can baby these suits and have them last forever but if you roll them up and put them in the bag bare gave you, they're going to die fast - unless you replace it with a tizip, those seem to be lasting forever.

 

[stilldivin]

I would like to buy a 32 inch Tzip zipper for my front entry semi-drysuit. I can't find a seller in the US. Any ideas?

 

[Aqua-Andy]

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.

I know it's been awhile since you posted this but I find this hard to believe as Bare is the only manufacturer I have been able to find that id using this zipper on drysuits and they have only been using the it for at the most a couple of years now.

I would like to buy a 32 inch Tzip zipper for my front entry semi-drysuit. I can't find a seller in the US. Any ideas?

I know on there website they have a North American contact with an e-mail address, maybe try that. I probably have about a dozen dives on my Nex-Gen with the new Ti-Zip and I really like this zipper. The Ti-Zip is a lot more flexable than the brass zippers and due to the way it is made it can't brake in the same manner as my old zippers did. The Ti-zip makes the Nex-Gen seam like a whole new suit due to the flexibility of it, I can reach my valves much better than I could before and it just makes Handling the suit when rinsing and drying it much easier. If I had to replace my zipper on my Fusion right now (not that I want to for a looooong time) this would be the zipper I would use.

 

[Reef_act]

I am new to the forum and registered mainly so I could add my two cents to this thread.

I use a Bare Trilam HD Tech Dry front entry suit. Please see the Aug 2013 edition of for a Great Big Thank you letter I wrote to them regarding the awesome service I recently received from Bare. Bare gave me a new suit recently under warranty with a TIZIP Master Seal installed.

I requested the TIZIP as for some reason all the normal drysuit zips I have had on front entry suits have always failed after about 150 dives. And considering here in Australia it costs about $700 to replace the zip this was getting a little expensive. I prefer front entry as I do the majority of my dives solo. I like the freedom. I think the sharp bend over the shoulder causes stretching in the material in a normal drysuit sip and this eventually leads to the fabric inside the zip piling and the zip failing.

My thoughts on the zip after 5 dives.

1) It does not leak at all. nothing ,zilch, nics nada! I do not know what it would take to make it leak but the sharp bend over the shoulder does not seem to be of any issue. Nor does any distortion caused by the BC when it is done up.
2) The zip slides easily and does not need to be pulled hard like a normal metal zip. Firm but gentle is the order of the day.
3) I would not recommend doing what Santi do in their U-Tube video of the test they did on the zip. Impressive video.
4) At one end the zip has reinforcement that prevents the zip from being damaged when it is open. Care must be taken not to snag this and pull the zip hard on an effort to free it. Again, if the zip is not moving easily, STOP, and work out why.
5) At the other end of the zip there is a horse shoe shaped piece of dense rubber that the zip slides into to seal. There is no reinforcement at this end to prevent this end from being stretched open too far and damaging the horse shoe. Although the horse shoe is flexible I can see that stretching it over time may cause stress fractures to occur. I am very careful when donning and doffing the suit not to allow this to get stretched. This is also the only part of the zip that needs and should be lubricated with silicon grease provided

 

[TSandM]

If I had to replace my zipper on my Fusion right now (not that I want to for a looooong time) this would be the zipper I would use.

I looked into this when I had to replace the zipper on my Fusion. Apparently, because of the double curve that Fusion zippers have to make, the TiZips won't work.

 

[nwbrewer]

I looked into this when I had to replace the zipper on my Fusion. Apparently, because of the double curve that Fusion zippers have to make, the TiZips won't work.

I wonder if that's still true? Tizip has come out with some new zippers. The MasterSeal that Bare uses might not work in the double bend, but there is a Masterseal with a circular opening, and the SuperSeal that I think would take the bend better. Might be worth looking into. I love my SuperSeal.