Drysuit storing/maintenance advice?

[Thrillhouse]

I bought a drysuit about 2 years ago and after a year overseas am back home diving again. I'm ashamed to say I've forgotten a lot of the maintenance and storing particulars and was hoping you guys could help. The suit I have is a BARE NEXT-GEN shell suit.

A few questions:

1) How do I roll the thing up? Feet rolled first, arms folded in, leaving the zipper straight?

2) How often do I need to grease the rubber seals? I'm going diving next Saturday and would like everything to be in pristine shape.

3) I was told to wax the zipper by a guy in my dive club. Do I really need to buy over-priced scuba wax, or would a candle do the trick? In my limited scuba experience a lot of the fancy products (ie: goggle defogger, attachment cords for gear) are often interchangeable with materials found around the house.


Answers to these and any other info would be greatly appreciated!

 

[divingdds]

Good question! I'd like to hear some input.

 

[dave4868]

Based partly on DUI's recommendations:

• Latex seal care- wash with soap and water, dry, dust with oil-free talc (note my conflict of interest)
• Zipper waxing- regular candle wax will work, but use oil-free paraffin (no scent), apply only to outer teeth
• Storage- with the zipper unzipped, roll the suit loosely starting with the feet so the zipper ends up on the outside of the roll, fold the arms around the roll, then bag it up to reduce ozone exposure

HTH.

Dave C

 

[DA Aquamaster]

Dusting the seals with talc protects them but also makes them easier to slide on.

Unscented talc is preferrable and I love the stuff that comes in the little cloth baggy as it is very easy to apply. I have to say though that when I lived in SD it was hard to find unscented talc and I used walmart house brand baby powder for years. The oil that is supposed to be in it, never speeded the degradation of the seals as they lasted on average about 5 years.

There are several brands of zipper wax available, some softer and some harder. Given how long they last and their cost relative to a new zipper's cost, it is a cheap investment. If you want to "save" money, use a candle, but again you want one with no scented oils. In any case, lube the zipper every other dive. I used the same stick of orange zipper wax for years before finally having to replace it last year.

Dry suit zippers in general are not designed to bend much so be sure to store them unzipped.

DO NOT use a silicone spray. It penetrates the seals and suit material and is hard to remove. It does little if anything to extend the life of the seal or suit material and just makes changing seals or repairing the suit a lot harder than it needs to be when the time comes for a repair.

Ozone is a seal killer. Other than the obvious electrical sources, gas furnaces are potential sources of ozone so don't store the suit in the furnace room or close to it, or near the water heater, etc.

Most dry suit bags are not very air tight. On the positive side, that is not a bad thing if the suit is not completely dry. But for long term storage it can be bad for the seals. Once the suit is completely dry (ie: maybe after hanging for a week) if I am not going to be diving for awhile I will put the rolled up suit in a trash bag to serve as an air tight barrier and then slide it in the dry suit bag.

 

[Thrillhouse]

Thanks for the advice, guys. I'll get an airtight bag for my suit this weekend, sounds like a great idea.

Question though: what's talc?

 

[Jupiter31]

Thanks for the advice, guys. I'll get an airtight bag for my suit this weekend, sounds like a great idea.

Question though: what's talc?

Its a fine white powder; talcum is the full name -

If you go to a barber shop and after the hair cut, its the powder he/she wipes your neck to keep the hair that was cut from bothering you on your neck. Clubman is a famous brand - look for it in the tall green or red metal container next to the clippers! Baby powder is similar, sorta.

Thats not the stuff you want, as it has fragrance - the fine, unscented stuff is what they are posting about.

 

[hawksbill]

Good advice so far. Talc is a mineral that is mined and crushed to powder and it absorbs moisture nicely.

Skin and petroleum oils make seals gummy and the soap will help remove them. I think the talc helps keep the latex dry and prevents it from "rotting".

The sticky kind of wax holds dirt and the parafin is most reccomended by the most experienced divers and repair people I've talked to. I keep a piece of plain parafin from the grocery canning section in a small film container or ziploc to keep it clean. You might clean the zipper if it is loaded up with old sticky wax and dirt. Use a toothbrush and soap. The parafin will not build up on your zipper and seems to just fall away and is self cleaning.

You can put some pure talc in a cutoff sock and close it with a rubberband to make a talc bag that will be easy to use and wastes less. Pure talc may be available from your pharmacist or Dave4868 and goes a long way. Avoid breathing the stuff. Some use cornstarch but Im not sure about it yet.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

I use pharmaceutical grade beeswax. The white stuff. The yellow has bits of wings and such in it. McNett makes a product called seal saver. OS Systems recommends it for their suits. Luckily mine gets wet at least once amonth so storage is not that big of a deal. Clean the zipper with a toothbrush, wax, clean the seal with mild detergent and rinse then seal saver, roll and put in the bag.

 

[skdvr]

The only thing I am not sure of is with the NexGen being a backzip should it be rolled? Or is the NexGen across the back of the shoulders? At any rate, I have two drysuits, One has the zipper across the front shoulder to shoulder, and the other has a diagnoal front zip. I have both of then draped over a wood closet rod with the zippers open. If I had to put them away to store them, I would roll the suit with the shoulder to shoulder zip by placing it face down with the arms out, roll it from the feet all the way up until I hit the zipper and then fold the arms over the top and put it in one of those large ziplock bags. For the diag zip I would lay it face down and fold it in half, by bringing the feet up to the shoulders and then fold it in thirds from there to avoid putting to much stress on the zipper. Oh yeah and I would leave the zippers unzipped... I would also try to make sure that the were rolled/folded pretty loosely and not to set anything on top of them. I prefer to leave them out and hanging though.

I too would stick with drysuit zipper wax, or good parafin or bees wax. I would not use a candle unless I had to. With as much as a zipper costs to replace I would gladly pay a few extra bucks and get the good stuff that will last you a few years... I have not put any talc on my seals yet, but I do think that it is a good idea... Espically if you are not going to be using the suit for a while or when the air temp is high and you are sweaty and sticky it will make getting into them easier, which puts less stress on the seals...

Phil