Wetsuit Durability/Longevity?

[diveprof]

They really should put "Dryclean Only" labels in these wetsuits. Mine also seemed to shrink after exposure to water during the Christmas holidays .

Earlier in my diving career I tried to get 300-400 plus on my suits - hey, they still looked OK (not too much aquaseal ). However, after trying a new suit of comparable quality to a suit with 300 dives on it and I believe that you will find a noticeable, substantial difference, particularly cold water diving. I upgrade my 7mms at that point because warmth has worth to me.

 

[300bar]

The neoprene "experts"say you will lose 1mm for every 50 dives,
so after 300 dives your 7mm suit would have lost 6mm.
This they say is not possible your 7mm suit can not lose more then 50%.there are not enough air cell in the stuff to lose more of the volume
That still means that your 7 mm will be reduced to some 3.5/4mm.
My wife recently took a new suit of the rack and I compared it to the old one to the new.
After aprox.800 dives it was indeed no more then a 3 or 4mm suit.
The suit by itself looked pretty good,beside the discouloration,it went from red/blue to grey/pink.But she said she was getting cold

 

[drbill]

i find that mine shrinks during winter :shakehead

You're lucky... mine seems to shrink every few days!