TiZIP

[buddhasummer]

Never had any concerns like this with brass.

No concerns with brass zips? Or just different concerns?

 

[Ouvea]

I've had my Santi E. Motion for two years now. With over 100 dives with the suit, I have never had a problem with the TiZip that did not originate from operator error. Honestly, I'm the biggest blockhead in the world. I've gone in to set floats with the protective YKK zipper closed and my TiZip fully opened. The other four-five times, I failed to fully closed the zipper. Would I go with Ti-Zip on my next drysuit? Absolutely!!! It's virtually maintenance free and easier to operate than a Brass Zipper.

I noticed a few DUI drysuit having the docking port of the zipper at the shoulder, meaning that zipper closes in an upward movement. Might work on a Brass Zipper but I would never allow it on a Ti-Zip. Its ease of operation might be a weakness on certain designs and positions.

O

 

[Superlyte27]

No concerns with brass zips? Or just different concerns?

I got 8 years out of my brass zipper. I couldn't get 8 weeks out of a tizip

---------- Post added December 13th, 2015 at 06:12 PM ----------

100 dives is hardly a benchmark in durability. I'm not picking on you, but 100 dives isn't 4 months for some people.

 

[buddhasummer]

I got 8 years out of my brass zipper. I couldn't get 8 weeks out of a tizip

---------- Post added December 13th, 2015 at 06:12 PM ----------

100 dives is hardly a benchmark in durability. I'm not picking on you, but 100 dives isn't 4 months for some people.

I asked as the tizip suit is the first Drysuit I've owned. Agree, I'd be rather unhappy with only a 100 dives out of an almost $3000 suit. I hoping for the best. cheers.

---------- Post added December 13th, 2015 at 08:30 PM ----------

Durability on the tizips appears to be concerningly inconsistent, assuming diver error is not the cause in most of these reported cases.

 

[Aqua-Andy]

I have seen many metal zippers fail in under 100 dives, so they are not all that some make them out to be. I think just like any other mass produced product you will find some runs that will last forever and some that are not so good. I think most of the issues with TiZips seem to be with very active divers whose suits never totally dry out. TiZip has added this to there instructions for the Masterseal 10

High humidity and temperatures over room temperature must be avoided!

I have had one on my Bare Nex-Gen for five or so years now and it still looks new.

 

[macado]

This is probably true. While I take good care of my suit. I use it constantly 2-3 times a week. My TiZip started cracking at teeth after about 6 months. Did not get 100 dives out of mine.

My backup suit has a TiZip but has yet to experience same issue but I do not dive it nearly as much. It is also an older TiZip so I am not sure if some of the recent problems have been because of a bad batch?

With that being said, I probably won't go back to TiZip for a while For me when a brass YKK zipper fails at least it is predictable, not so on a plastic zipper.

Isn't most diving stuff high humidity and over room temperature a pretty common thing in dive gear?


Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

 

[Dive Right In Scuba]

This is probably true. While I take good care of my suit. I use it constantly 2-3 times a week. My TiZip started cracking at teeth after about 6 months. Did not get 100 dives out of mine.

My backup suit has a TiZip but has yet to experience same issue but I do not dive it nearly as much. It is also an older TiZip so I am not sure if some of the recent problems have been because of a bad batch?

With that being said, I probably won't go back to TiZip for a while For me when a brass YKK zipper fails at least it is predictable, not so on a plastic zipper.

Isn't most diving stuff high humidity and over room temperature a pretty common thing in dive gear?


Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

If you have a delaminating zipper, like the cracks you talk about, TiZip will usually cover that under warranty with a new zipper. That doesn't mean they will install it, but they will typically send a replacement depending on what is going on, and where it was purchased. This is the case for us, on ones we installed for people or have dealt with. I can't guarantee that on every TiZip zipper in the market though, but this is our experience.

Yes, they have said that on their Urethane, if not fully dried out or left in a humid environment they have seen zippers delaminate because of that. They say a fungus or organism can grow that causes the urethane break down. We don't see it often, but we have seen it enough.

We also carry YKK Plastic zippers for this reason, and so far with the couple hundred we have installed and sold, have had ZERO issues with the YKK plastic zips. We also sent them a Tizip that had failed before we brought in the Ykk Plastics to see what they thought of the issues. They did a complete investigation on it, which was pretty cool, and say there zips will not fail in that manner ever. So far, they have been correct....

I love the plastic, and would not go back to metal ever. I have a couple suits with Ti Zip, and one with Ykk...none have had any issues yet and they get abused as rentals and demo suits all the time as well as my use. If I were having a zipper installed today, it would be a Ykk Plastic hands down

 

[Aqua-Andy]

If you have a delaminating zipper, like the cracks you talk about, TiZip will usually cover that under warranty with a new zipper. That doesn't mean they will install it, but they will typically send a replacement depending on what is going on, and where it was purchased. This is the case for us, on ones we installed for people or have dealt with. I can't guarantee that on every TiZip zipper in the market though, but this is our experience.

Yes, they have said that on their Urethane, if not fully dried out or left in a humid environment they have seen zippers delaminate because of that. They say a fungus or organism can grow that causes the urethane break down. We don't see it often, but we have seen it enough.

We also carry YKK Plastic zippers for this reason, and so far with the couple hundred we have installed and sold, have had ZERO issues with the YKK plastic zips. We also sent them a Tizip that had failed before we brought in the Ykk Plastics to see what they thought of the issues. They did a complete investigation on it, which was pretty cool, and say there zips will not fail in that manner ever. So far, they have been correct....

I love the plastic, and would not go back to metal ever. I have a couple suits with Ti Zip, and one with Ykk...none have had any issues yet and they get abused as rentals and demo suits all the time as well as my use. If I were having a zipper installed today, it would be a Ykk Plastic hands down

Mike, I have not seen the YKK zipper up close but it seems to be identical to the TiZip. I was just wondering if it was a licensed copy of the TiZip or YKK's own design?

 

[macado]

If you have a delaminating zipper, like the cracks you talk about, TiZip will usually cover that under warranty with a new zipper. That doesn't mean they will install it, but they will typically send a replacement depending on what is going on, and where it was purchased. This is the case for us, on ones we installed for people or have dealt with. I can't guarantee that on every TiZip zipper in the market though, but this is our experience.

Yes, they have said that on their Urethane, if not fully dried out or left in a humid environment they have seen zippers delaminate because of that. They say a fungus or organism can grow that causes the urethane break down. We don't see it often, but we have seen it enough.

We also carry YKK Plastic zippers for this reason, and so far with the couple hundred we have installed and sold, have had ZERO issues with the YKK plastic zips. We also sent them a Tizip that had failed before we brought in the Ykk Plastics to see what they thought of the issues. They did a complete investigation on it, which was pretty cool, and say there zips will not fail in that manner ever. So far, they have been correct....

I love the plastic, and would not go back to metal ever. I have a couple suits with Ti Zip, and one with Ykk...none have had any issues yet and they get abused as rentals and demo suits all the time as well as my use. If I were having a zipper installed today, it would be a Ykk Plastic hands down

Interesting about YKK plastic zipper vs. TiZip plastic one. I would definitely be interested in trying the YKK Plastic Zipper next time I need to replace a drysuit zipper, so far my only experience has been with the TiZip plastic zipper.

I thought this was same thread where I posted the problem before but I must have confused the two threads here. I posted here about my experience.
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/exposure-suits/499552-tizip-problems-docking-end-2.html

I currently have two drysuits, my backup suit which is a USIA Techniflex that was retrofixed with a TiZip in 6/2013 by DRIS and a newer DUI FLX Extreme which had originally came with a TiZip from factory.

I only got about 6-8 months (have to look up exact date) out of the TiZip in my DUI FLX Extreme before it started cracking and failing at the teeth. I had the zipper replaced under warranty by DUI with a traditional YKK brass zipper and it's been fine ever since. I sent it to DUI on 6/2015 and got it back the beginning of July repaired.

The TiZip on my USIA suit is bone dry, no leaks and no delaminating as of yet but this suit doesn't see nearly as much usage as my DUI FLX Extreme. I'm wondering if it's just a different batch of zippers or more likely do to the fact that my DUI drysuit saw a lot more usage than my backup drysuit.

Pictures here of my suit

 

[Dive Right In Scuba]

It's not a copy, they use a different urethane and teeth. It's 100% their own design....if some parts were copied, I have no idea.

Macado, on yours my guess is it was one of the first DUI installed, or before they were told to be more careful when prepping the zipper. That one looks like they got a little too high on the fumes when they were cleaning it, and got the MEK or Acetone near the teeth. This, if it gets to that area, can also cause it to delaminate and should be kept away from the teeth

DUI started installing these 1-2 years after the rest of us....My guess is they hadn't gone thru that learning curve yet. We had the same issue, and I know others as well. By now, I think it's more transparent as it's been identified. They are very competent with installs, but you wouldn't know unless you were told, and my guess is they weren't told. When it's the fungus, it's not as dramatic..it's alot harder to see, and smaller.