Product Review: BARE XCS2 "Tech Dry" Drysuit

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Not on this suit.

According to Darrell, the "Diamond Tuff" fabric is the more heavily textured stuff that adorns the shoulders (in my case, blue) and the back of the arms (in my case, black).

The rest of the suit is not made of "Diamond Tuff" fabric and is much smoother to the touch.

Both are stretchy "hyper-compressed neoprene" - it's just that the outer layer of the "Diamond Tuff" is a coarser texture than the other fabric.

"Diamond Tuff" is also about 1 mm thicker because the fabric has more texture to it.

Darrell warned me to expect some pilling in the "Diamond Tuff" stuff but assured me that it's by design and not to worry.

No pilling yet.
 
Not on this suit.

According to Darrell, the "Diamond Tuff" fabric is the more heavily textured stuff that adorns the shoulders (in my case, blue) and the back of the arms (in my case, black).

The rest of the suit is not made of "Diamond Tuff" fabric and is much smoother to the touch.

Both are stretchy "hyper-compressed neoprene" - it's just that the outer layer of the "Diamond Tuff" is a coarser texture than the other fabric.

"Diamond Tuff" is also about 1 mm thicker because the fabric has more texture to it.

Darrell warned me to expect some pilling in the "Diamond Tuff" stuff but assured me that it's by design and not to worry.

No pilling yet.


Interesting. My entire XCD2 is covered in Diamond tuff. Its clear to see. Maybe thats how the XCS2 is "stretchier" than the XCD2....

It does have piling on rub points, but not to bad and only at certain spots (rub points).

And - I just looked at the old specs of the XCD2- it was fully laminated in Diamond tuff. I wonder, now, if that is one of the major unadvertised changes between XCD2 and XCS2.
 
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Interesting. My entire XCD2 is covered in Diamond tuff. Its clear to see. Maybe thats how the XCS2 is "stretchier" than the XCD2....

It does have piling on rub points, but not to bad and only at certain spots (rub points).

And - I just looked at the old specs of the XCD2- it was fully laminated in Diamond tuff. I wonder, now, if that is one of the major unadvertised changes between XCD2 and XCS2.

Hunh! Yeah, Darrell did mention that there was a fabric difference between the XCD2 and the XCS2, although I thought that he said the difference was the INSIDE of the suit.

If you have a suit made completely out of "Diamond Tuff," then it's definitely not what I have here. On this suit, "Diamond Tuff" only covers the shoulders and backsides of the arms. Everything else is smooth "hyper-compressed" neoprene.

Sounds like you may be onto something...

XCD2 = "Extra Compressed (neoprene) Diamond (Tuff) (Generation)2?

XCS2 = "Extra Compressed (neoprene) Standard or Smooth (Generation)2?

Do you know for sure that the Diamond Tuff is less stretchy than the regular "hyper-compressed" neoprene? It doesn't appear to be any more or less stretchy on this suit... Just thicker and more textured. Maybe because it's thicker it feels less stretchy?

Interesting moniker, BTW... I used to live in Voorhees, NJ, and grew up in Indian Mills (now Shamong). Graduated from Valley Forge Military Academy. Summers were generally LBI or some other place at The Shore.

Sounds like we share some old stomping grounds. :)
 
Absolutely sensational.

The fabric has taken a beating since last fall when I started diving this particular suit - an average of around three dives a day, five days a week. That's what... 360 dives or so? All in an environment packed full of construction and demolition zones scattered across our resident oysters and barnacles. Not a mark on the suit. She's literally tougher than nails.

Well, okay... I think I might have two marks. Apparently I sat on an exposed nail or something and got a snag on the seat. Only I know it's there. The suit is still watertight though. I thought about putting some Aquaseal or Black Witch on it, but why make the mark uglier? In retrospect, getting a butt pad on this suit was kinda pointless - I wouldn't do it again. I think butt pads are silly looking, and especially this one. A waste of money given that the suit is practically bulletproof on it's own.

I have a couple of stains on the front of the suit. One square on my belly and another along the "warm neck collar." I have no idea what they could be... Varnish? Diesel fuel? I don't know. Again, only I know they're there, and they don't affect the integrity of the suit, so whatever.

Seams are rock solid.

Keep in mind that I was super active when Hurricane Matthew hit, doing all kinds of boat salvages and refloats. Here's a picture post-hurricane of me lifting a 48-footer. The star of the 12-hour, 50-degree days is the BARE XCS2. This picture eventually made its way to the BARE Facebook page:

salvage.jpg


Here's a video of that salvage:


I still love the nonextending torso. It's super clean and looks more like a back zip drysuit, but with a front-zip, self-donning ability. The inherent stretch in the suit more than makes up for the lack of an extending torso when donning, and I get a better-looking suit that traps less gas - especially when inverted - and hangs better on the hanger.

Here's a video of doing a post-hurricane dock salvage in the BARE XCS2:


I had a lot of problems with the wrist seals sealing properly, especially given that my wrist tendons are giant cables that are constantly under tension from the work that I do. I upgraded the latex bottle seals that came with the suit (I factory-opted for SiTech QCS ovals) to a set of trimmable silicone wrist seals from Dive Right In Scuba. Given the stretchiness of silicone wrist seals, I didn't feel the need to trim the seals... They sealed better, but I still got a lot of leaks at the wrists. So... I upgraded my wrists to a set of drygloves with Waterproof's new Ultima dryglove rings. Been dry as a bone ever since. I can't express enough how much I love these rings - and this suit with the rings. I have so much faith in the drygloves and rings - and so little faith in even the best silicone wrist seals - that I ditched the wrist seals altogether and rely 100% on the gloves to make the seal. It's wonderful. Maybe 50 dives on the suit this way, and (knock on wood) not a drop has entered the suit yet. Donning and doffing without wrist seals is a dream. Suit dries faster, too.
 
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I also went through a bout of issues with exhaust valves leaking. Despite disassembling the exhaust valves nightly and cleaning them (I have several and would swap them out), the suspended particulate matter in the contaminated waters that I was working in would quickly make exhaust check valves leak... Even during dive #1 of the day after disassembly and cleaning. I had a lot of luck with using a lady's nylon stocking under the top cover of the valve to keep the debris out to begin with, and sent the information to SiTech in hopes that they would make a better, more protected valve:


Eventually I stopped using a nylon stocking and began using a cut-to-fit piece of a 3M "scratchy" pad, which is very similar to the filter used in the suit-side filter of the SiTech exhaust valve to keep undergarment lint out of the valve. It worked well, too.

For a while I believed that I could improve on the exhaust valve design with a different type of umbrella valve that was better preloaded. Here's a video of me explaining that to a valve manufacturer, in hopes that he would create for me a valve that would snap into a SiTech valve housing:


...And me explaining to him how to get the valve apart so that he could examine it and create a new umbrella valve. This information has been heavily sought-after by anyone who's ever had a leaky SiTech exhaust valve, which is pretty much anyone with just about any brand drysuit with more than 25 dives on it:


In the long run, I found a better solution to leaking exhaust valves that is simpler, more reliable, and more easily obtained... Without having to spend $2500 in tooling costs to create a new umbrella valve. Use the top half of SiTech's new Trigon pee valve mated to the bottom half of a standard exhaust valve. Conveniently, the Trigon uses the same-sized hole as the exhaust valve and is threaded the same, so they go together like peanut butter and jelly. :)

The advantage to using the top half of a Trigon with the bottom half of of a standard exhaust valve is that the Trigon is much better designed, and as such doesn't leak:

1. The Trigon valve body (the top half) has a double check valve as compared to the single check valve of the standard exhaust valve. By default, the valve is twice as dry.

2. The Trigon valve seat - where the check valve makes the seal - is heartier with a better, more complete sealing surface than the standard exhaust valve. Times two.

3. The Trigon valve body is made of delrin rather than ABS plastic, which is much more rugged.

4. The Trigon has no adjustable valve system - it's simply open, which is how the majority of drysuit divers adjust their exhaust valves anyway. To many drysuit divers - me included - this is an advantage, as the adjustment is always exactly where you want it - fully open.

5. At about 3/8" tall, the Trigon valve is a fraction of the height of a standard SiTech exhaust valve, meaning it's much more streamlined and unobtrusive. Only a SiTech cuff dump is lower profile (by 1mm), and it has only a single, unprotected check valve. This super low profile valve makes donning and doffing a backplate and wing or BCD a much simpler and cleaner affair.

6. With many small holes facing directly toward a protective lip, the Trigon is much less likely to become contaminated with particulate as compared to the large, open, top-facing slots of the SiTech exhaust valve. It thus stays cleaner and is better protected from contamination, which keeps the valve functioning better and without leaks.

7. Disassembly of the Trigon valve is a simpler, easier affair than it is with the standard exhaust valve, and getting to the umbrella valves and their seats is a quicker process. Unlike the standard exhaust valve, it can even be done without tools. As such, it tends to get more attention from our divers, meaning that the valve is more often clean and therefore functions better than the standard exhaust valve.

Here'a video of me explaining this to BARE. I also cover the awesome Waterproof Ultima dryglove rings and Showa's fantastic Atlas 660 gloves, which come in three different colors, thicknesses, and liner options. There's even a kevlar version.


Yes, it's true... Dry diving. For real. Like, really dry. No lie. Not a leak, even in this:


I'm confident that someone, somewhere will criticize the use of a Trigon as an exhaust valve due to it having a lower flow rate than a standard SiTech exhaust valve. I suspect that the flow rates may be different due to the smaller holes in the Trigon, but we'd have to test the flow rates to be sure... Any difference is not immediately obvious to our divers. But what IS obvious is the lack of cold, wet arms and leaking suits. :)
 
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Just got mine today. On land it is much more flexible than the tri lams I was renting due to the stretch in the neoprene. Won't be able to dive it for a bit due to work commitments. I'll report back after a few dives.
 
How 'bout a topside review? What color and options did you choose? Pictures/video?

I'm excited for you. :)
 
My company will be Fscebook Live this afternoon between 2 and 3pm EST... Possibly earlier. We've been contracted by a landowner in North Florida to explore a never-dived-before spring to see if there is a penetrable cave opening in the spring. Local flowes support his theory that there is, in fact, an unexplored, unnamed cave in the spring not viewable from the surface. It's pretty exciting to know that we may discover something new.

To watch the live event, go to www.facebook.com/deepsouthdivers. "Like" the page to be notified when we go Live.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

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