What is the life expectancy of a neoprene wetsuit?

[SemiAquatic]

I just purchased two wetsuits, one for my wife and one for myself (3mm Aqualung suits). Kept clean and in a cool dry place away from petroleum fumes are a given.

How long will it last and what can we do to extend the life to prevent dry rot?

I hope that this thread did not exist, I searched and came up with nothing.

Thanks for your comments.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Hang the suit on a well padded hanger. A suit will be pretty worn out after maybe 300 scuba dives...I would guess. For warm water, you can wear a crushed, torn up wetsuit.. cold water, you are not going to be happy in a crushed and leaky suit.

Another BIG thing you can do is buy wetsuit glue. A little dab here and there to stop sewn seams from running and also fixing little damages before they get bad. Maintenance on the suit will extend the life a lot. It also depends on what kind of diving you do,,, crawling over rocks, barnacles etc, will tear up a suit very fast.

 

[SemiAquatic]

Thank you for the info.

 

[mala]

my full suit has 1000+ dives and is still good apart from being a bit faded.

 

[Hank49]

. A suit will be pretty worn out after maybe 300 scuba dives...I would guess.

This is my experience too. It depends on the quality of the suit a bit too but 250-300 hours in the water starts to wear them out. Free or scuba diving.

 

[c_star]

I have a 7mm Aqualung suit with around 150 dives on it. Primarily shore dives, and we don't always get to rinse immediately so sometimes it sits all salty in a bucket in the sun for a while which is not a very nice way to treat it - but usually food is more important to me than getting my suit rinsed. It still looks great and has not suffered any tears or holes, but I'm starting to get cold in it as it's getting crushed.

Take good care of your suits and you should be good to go for a long time. Some decent airflow where you store them wouldn't hurt either.

 

[Rogersea]

Lightly used Suits can last for many years and often only need to be replaced because of expanding mid-sections

To extend the life of any suit you should periodically exercise and lubricate the zippers with just about anything that is not going to cause problems with neoprene. I often use dish soap.

I also believe that catching a small nick or tear in the suuit early and applying some type of adhesive will help extend its life...

Cheers,
Roger