What's the trick to installing zip seals? Not so easy...

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RJP

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Have to swap seals in/out on a new suit I just got and am having a hard time getting the seals installed.

Any tricks?
 
I go to the kitchen and grab the dish washing liquid... a little dab on my fingah, slide it around dah seal and they slide right on.

No way you can install them dry. Takes forever.

---
Ken
 
Seriously....:)

I am using a soapy water (baby shampoo). It works great. DUI guys are also using a soapy spray...
 
Yeah, I use a spray bottle with a dishwashing liquid solution in - spray that on both the seal and the suit to make sure they slide together easily. For the wrist seals, I find it easy to have my suit hanging up (that's just something I've found works), and then, pushing on one side of the seal to distort its circular shape, lift it into the sleeve so that the grooves on the seal and on the sleeve line up. By releasing the outside of the seal, it should pop back into its natural circular shape and hold by itself in the sleeve. I then put my fingers through the wrist opening and push the seal into the grooves on the sleeve. I then work around the edge, pushing the grooves together, and with the soapy water it slides into place fairly easily. Be sure to listen for the 'click' as the seal sits into the groove on the sleeve. Confused? You will be!

The neck seals are a bit more problematic in my view but work in a similar way. You have to get the seal between the 'lips' in the suit, and then trace it around in a similar fashion.

In both cases, work around the edge systematically. As long as you have positioned the grooves appropriately, they will find their own way.

Good luck!
 
If you're short on baby shampoo, dish soap, etc, you can lick the seal mating surface, moistening it slightly.

Kinda like mask defog...we'd like to use SeaDrops...but sometimes, it just isn't available.

Make sure you *completely* mesh the two pieces together, as well.
 
In my drysuit class my instructor taught us a trick: Get a kitchen sponge, wet it thoroughly, and put a bunch of dish soap on it. Work it deep into the sponge, and let the sponge dry. Now you have a dry soap container for your gear bag, keep it with your spare seals. When it comes time to change the seal, just moisten the sponge slightly to make it (or even one corner) mildly damp, and you can put some soapy moisture (just a bit!) on the seals just by rubbing the sponge on them. Really helps to get them installed, super cheap, and won't leak, and fairly indestructible. :)
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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