Jez Kent(Offline)

Hi All,

'Just joined the forum and immediately after some help! Any thoughts or comments on the following would be much appreciated...

I dive in a tall small DUI TLS with standard latex wrist seals and recently treated myself to some RoLock dry gloves. While I love both, it seems that where the ring is attached to the drysuit has "stressed" the seals such that I've already worn small holes in the latex after just 12 dives. (I know the holes are there - I had a wet arm and could see the bubbles!)

It looks like a combination of the ring stretching the latex (the ring is 10 cm in diameter while my suit is only 9 cm) and that area catching as I put my arms in and out of the harness. Hydrotech suggest all TLS suits are the same size at the wrist (i.e. where the membrance ends and the latex begins) so I don't think this "stretch" is unusual. Indeed, I've noted other people on this forum noticing some wear and tear with this system and wondered if anyone had any comments or ideas?

Now that I need new seals I'm pondering the heavy duty variety to see if this might help. Oh, and yes, I have consider the ZipSeals but (and without wanting to repeat this topic!) prefer the idea of a ring system that can be removed when not needed.

Thanks in advance,



Jez

GLOC (Online)

Having holed a set of seals in Stoney on Tech 1 while scrabbling around blind trying to find the line, I can relate to your predicament.

You have 2 options:

1. Get yourself some 'manchette' seals which are thicker than the normal latex seals you get. These will last much longer than the normal thickness seals and what Garf and I have on our Protecs with Ro-Locks.

2. If you want the standard thin seals, get yourself some inner tube and cut some rings. Stretch it over the point where the latex seal goes into the ring to protect the seal where it is stressed.

The latter option is available as a commerical option from a dive shop in Germany but the same effect can be achieved using inner tube.

HTH

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TobyFish(Offline)

Hi

How old are your seals? I've seen them looking visible perished after a year or two (regular talcing seems to really extend the time). If they are at all perished then stretching them over rings will open holes in them.

I have heard of people having two sets of latex seals on their sleeves and fitting the rolocks to the outer set. Then if those seals are holed, then only your hand gets wet.

I am looking to buy the Si-Tech gloves (sotckist anyone) fitting Rolocks pulled my seals off. The sitechs don't have the "inside out" step in the fitting so less stress at theat step and also the seal is stretched to the inner (not outer) diameter of the port ring.

Toby

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GLOC (Online)

I thought the Si-Tech rings had the drysuit seal on the outside of the ring and to be honest, the rings are particularly thick so I doubt it makes that much difference. However, the rings I have seen might not have been Si-Tech, I just took the owners word for it

Regarding a stockist, PM Digger as I am sure he has Si-Techs.

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Gareth

Images of Life Photography
DIR
Team Foxturd
Travels Underwater and Further Afar

If you don't have the time to do something right, where are you going to find the time to fix it? - Stephen King

Joe Hesketh(Offline)

Hi Jez

Did you have to use a false name to buy the suit? I thought you were on DUI’s “banned” list.

Can’t comment specifically on the RoLocks, but I do have the thicker DUI seals on my suit and they have lasted much better. For some reason the thinner seals from the factory seem to often develop a crazed effect wearing where they fold over after a very short time (I’ve seen a number of their suits do this)

Welcome to DIRx BTW.

Joe

TobyFish(Offline)

http://www.si-techuk.com/pdf/compact..._catalogue.pdf

haven't held them in my hands, but looks like the seal goes outside a small ring, but only stretched to the i.d. of the big spanner ring

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"Gangsta Rollin' in me nine-six-oh"

aleksi(Offline)

My suit is not Dui but a Finnish Ursuit trilam, but the seals are all pretty similar. Usually all the suit cuffs are same diameter just because of the seals come in that size. I use 2mm thick latex bottleneck seals. The previous pair lasted me 4 years of heavy use with the rolocks. I suggest glueing on thicker seals.

-Aleksi

Jez Kent(Offline)

Looks like thicker wrist seals should sort me out then. I used to have manchettes on my old neoprene suit and got on very well with them so happy to go with this option.

As a secondary question - I'm thinking of having my arms reduced in length slightly - on the suit that is, not me! Does anyone have a definitive guide for where the wrist should be on a TLS? Oh, and has anyone else had such a reduction made... and did it work okay?!

Thanks for all the helpful replies,


Jez

Clare Gledhill (Online)

Welcome to the board Jez.

If you are considering getting your sleeves shortened then I'd really recommend zip seals - regardless of whether you decide to go for zip drygloves or not.

The zip seals *sound* fragile but they are as tough as seals which are glued on - just easier to switch out should you need to. A precut pair in your divebag means a split seal before a dive can be changed in less than 5 minutes - and is immediately diveable (as I had to do before diving Little River)

I was going to keep one suit without them for more challenging dives but whilst I won't use zip drygloves for these (in case a glove gets punctured) I'm now very confident in the zip seals and my new suit will have them too.

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david_1(Offline)

Err how to put this nicely :-)

You pulled your seals Off. but they might of been failing anyway. Ive put almost evey type of dry glove ring system on my suit never had a problem with pulling seals off. Infact when changeing seals to get old ones off can sometimes be a right pain even with a heat gun.

David