My new suit got cut up!

[themagni]

I just got a brand-new custom-fit Sea-Tux. I took two days off work to get it, and I've been waiting for it for almost a year. (I was waiting for a certification to come through first, and this was my "hooray for me" present.) When I put on the SI-Tech dry gloves, they cut up the seals and the wrist seals are ruined. So much for the dive I'd planned on tomorrow. It hasn't even been wet and the suit is undivable.

I was having problems with my old suit with leaking wrists. It looks like all those leaks I had on the wrist seals weren't the wrist seals -- it was the rings cutting up the seals and putting in little pinholes. I've got tendony wrists so I really have to go dry gloves.

What should I do to fix this? What I want to do is go back to the store that sold the rings and get them to replace the seals, get me new dry rings that aren't defective, and get it all fixed for free.

Now I can't get to sleep because I'm really keyed up.

 

[Bubbletrubble]

I have the Viking Bayonet dryglove system with heavy duty thickness bottle-type latex wrist seals on a Bare drysuit. The suit-side dryglove rings attach by friction-mount that sandwiches the latex seal between an inner plastic ring (several different sizes that work with various thickness seals) and the outer suit-side rings. I think this friction-mounting is similar to how the Si-Tech system works. My heavy duty wrist seals have held up great over 70+ dives now. I just leave them on there, and they require very little maintenance. I'm quite happy with them.

Is it possible that the suit-side Si-Tech rings have some sharp edges which are cutting into the seals? With a good light, inspect the surfaces that interface with the latex seal. Perhaps there are some rough spots that just need to be sanded down a little.

It sounds like you were using the Si-Tech dryglove system with your old drysuit. If the Si-Tech rings cut up the wrist seals on your new drysuit...why didn't they cut up the ones on your old suit? I ask this because the "pinholes" on your old suit seem different from the "cut up" seals on your new drysuit.

How many total dives have you put on the Si-Tech dryglove system?
I would think you could discuss your issues with the dive shop that sold you the gloves or perhaps directly with Si-Tech customer service. The company has been very helpful to me in the past. I had an issue with one of their drysuit exhaust valves 2 years after purchasing my drysuit. They sent me a replacement valve under warranty very quickly...all the way from Sweden.

OK. I have to ask. Why did you have to take 2 days off of work to get a drysuit? Why was there a one year turnaround time for a custom drysuit? That sounds like a ridiculously long time to wait.

 

[themagni]

I took the time off work because I went up to the manufacturer to get fitted there. It's a two-hour drive. It was $1700 to get the suit in town or $1300 to get it up-island. (Plus $200 for the pocket vs. $80 for the pocket.) The second day was to pick it up and I blended the day with taking care of the kids because the shift from summer care to after-school care left them with a blank day. We went to Jumping Jimminy's, Pirate Chips, and made a day out of it.

I waited a year between the time I decided to get the suit and the time I acted on it. The actual turnaround time on the suit is about 2 weeks. My wife said that I could get it once I got my Professional Engineer designation, and that took longer than we expected.

The old suit has thinner wrist seals. I painted the seals with a thinned out aquaseal because I thought the seals were going. The tougher outer coating must have prevented the rings from slicing and dicing.

I've put... 4 dives on the dry gloves. They haven't been dry at all.

 

[Bubbletrubble]

OK. Thanks for the info.

Do the suit-side rings of the Si-Tech dryglove system come with different sized inner rings to work with various thickness wrist seals?
If so, is it possible that you tried to use an inner ring that was too tight and that's what "cut up" the wrist seals?
With my suit-side dryglove rings, I started with the inner ring that gave the "loosest" fit with my seals and then tried to install progressively tighter rings. In this way, you can arrive at the appropriate fit without pinching the wrist seal too much.

I would think that the LDS that sold you the Si-Tech drygloves could work with you on this issue. It's a "customer service" thing, right?

 

[themagni]

It does come with different ring sizes and I used the biggest ones. (i.e. the ones that suit the biggest rings.)

I'll see what the shop does.

 

[Bubbletrubble]

It does come with different ring sizes and I used the biggest ones. (i.e. the ones that suit the biggest rings.)

The appropriate size of the suit-side inner ring is determined by the thickness of the wrist seal.
Using the biggest size of inner rings implies that your wrist seals are on the thin side. Perhaps the damage to the wrist seals was a combination of using the rings that were slightly too large and the seals being rather thin.
If you get new wrist seals installed on your new drysuit, I would recommend the "heavy duty" thickness seals.

I'll see what the shop does.

Yeah. That sounds like a reasonable first step.

 

[themagni]

Sorry, I meant to say that I used the ones for the thickest seals. I'm not sure why I wrote it so wrong.

 

[a22shady]

Sucks about your trouble. I have the New model (60520) of the Si-Tech RIngs on my suit installed them myself and have around 20 or so dives with them. No issues at all and very warm and dry hands. As others above said I woud inspect the rings anything is possible from any where maybe you did get defective rings. I would look into it.

 

[themagni]

Update:

I took the suit back to the shop where I bought the rings. They repaired the cuffs, installed the rings, and did it no charge. I'll have to wait a bit to see how the suit works, but hey, it should be dry now!

 

[Bubbletrubble]

Update:

I took the suit back to the shop where I bought the rings. They repaired the cuffs, installed the rings, and did it no charge. I'll have to wait a bit to see how the suit works, but hey, it should be dry now!

That sounds like good customer service to me.