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Leak testing dry suits with silicone seals
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I've got a leaky dry suit. And a problem: I can't get seem to get it fixed. Here's why.
I bought the suit from OS Systems up in Scappoose, Oregon and had Frank Copren modify it by installing silicone neck and wrist seals. Silicone seals require installing a hard plastic ring for each seal since you can't glue silicone seals directly to a suit. The ring lets you swedge the seal in place, and makes it easy to replace the seals if they fail. This last year the suit developed a chest leak that I couldn't locate with my own inflate/soapy water testing. I sent it to Cricket at Otter Bay who was able finally, after a lot of effort, to find a slight zipper leak, but wasn't able to replace the zipper because the dry suit required materials she didn't have. So: I contacted OS Systems to replace the zipper, but they won't because they say they have to test the suit after replacement. They can't test because they turn the suit inside out to inflate it and test it in water, and seal rings make it impossible to turn the suit inside out. And they refuse to replace the zipper if they can't test it the way they want. Silicone seals are common these days, so I imagine there are solutions to this problem. Does anyone on this knowledgeable list have ideas? Saving dry wit for an occasion when I'm actually diving dry, Mike Boom |
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Hi Mike,
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I send my suit to Karim Hamza Malibu Scuba repair in Pasadena. His phone is 323-770-1192. He is a tech diver who is awesome, does it right and quickly. Regina Roberts On Jan 22, 2025, at 8:00?AM, Michael Boom via groups.io <boom@...> wrote: |
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That's the technique that Otter Bay and I both used to test my suit, although I just popped on dry gloves for the wrist seals -- easy to do. Turning the suit inside out and then inflating and testing in water sounds like a more thorough test and, given how hard it was to see a leak using the much easier system that I used, sounds like a much more accurate way to test. In any case, OS Systems refuses to do any work they can't test using the inside-out method.
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They said that the only way to do that inverted test with silicone seals is to remove the rings (not easy to do), turn the suit inside out, somehow seal the holes (again, something that must be hard to do), test, then reinstall the rings. The whole thing sounds difficult and expensive. And it's not something they will do. Mike Boom On 1/22/2025 8:10 AM, Chris Simmons wrote:
Why cannot OS Systems just use a 2-Litre soda bottle for the neck and two soda cans for the wrists (plus rubber bands if needed), pump the suit full of air (2-3 psi is enough), soapy water in a spray bottle, and look for bubbles (just like checking for a natural gas leak or a bicycle inner tube). |
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For what it's worth, after talking to Frank Copren today, there evidently is a way to turn a dry suit inside out with silicone seal rings. It's a bit complicated, but doesn't require removing the rings. OS Systems just doesn't know how (and doesn't appear to want to learn how) to do it since they don't offer silicone seals as their own option.
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Frank also mentioned that zipper leaks are hard to find because they're most evident when the suit is in motion while diving, and most likely not to appear when the suit is static as it was lying on my living floor like a bloated corpse. The suit is off to him to replace the zipper and then test. Proof will be in the pudding, which I hope will be tasty and (in this case) dry. Mike Boom On 1/22/2025 8:10 AM, Chris Simmons wrote:
Why cannot OS Systems just use a 2-Litre soda bottle for the neck and two soda cans for the wrists (plus rubber bands if needed), pump the suit full of air (2-3 psi is enough), soapy water in a spray bottle, and look for bubbles (just like checking for a natural gas leak or a bicycle inner tube). |
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