Latex Seal Durability

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!


Interesting, thanks for that. Although overall chemical resistance of Silicon is a very desirable property, comfort and field replaceability are the biggest justifications for me. Silicon has more stretch so cutting the fit is less critical and exerts less compression on body parts to seal reliably. Any type of seal can fail, and usually at the worst possible time.

You can’t glue Silicon seals to a suit so semi-rigid plastic rings that can be glued are required. Although bulkier, these rings allow changing seals in minutes, even on a rocking boat.

Ozone is just one chemical factor. Hydrocarbons are just as bad. Although vastly improved, you can still go around any harbor and see a sheen caused floating gasoline, diesel oil, and lubricants. The same is seen near most outboards that have been running recently. That is enough to degrade Latex.
 
I'm not in a position financially to send my suit in for new seals very frequently.

Amen, It is an easy and relatively quick process to change your own seals. I like the field changeability and that you can use any brand seal with the SiTech system.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

Back
Top Bottom