Drysuit Zipper Care How I Do It

what's up guys this run again from leg kick or scuba marina and you know it's starting to get colder here in North Carolina and a lot of our divers are changing out of there three meals out of their five meals and they're either we're wearing their seven meals their eight meals and even their dry suits and what we're going to be talking about in this video is how do you take care of your zipper on your dry suit I know a lot of people's been asking us for this very specific video and so what I've got here is my two personal dry suits these are the ones that I wear a lot my orange suits you guys see in a lot this is by a company called OS systems and this is my public safety slash salvage dry suit this is what I use when I do a lot of what I do do a little bit of Technology this is the suit that I wear for that and this is just my leisure II leisurely fun diving dry suit here this is by a company called comfort zone scuba this is their baseline model here and I'm really liking neoprene dry suit just for the warmth and the comfort fact of it but I do have different purposes for each suit but what we're going to be focusing on are the zippers because primarily these have two different types of zippers my trial limited here has a number eight brass two zipper this one has a plastic zip and they're both from YKK they're very hot high-quality durable zippers but the zipper care for each is a little bit different as far as how I store the suit once I've got them cleaned so let me get the camera reset up and what we're gonna do is actually zoom in on each zipper and I'm gonna walk you through the process of how I clean the zippers and then we'll talk a little bit about storage as well whether or not you should be living your zipper open or closed when you store your dressing alright guys so I just want to give you a closer look here this is the number 8 brass to that zipper it's a YKK zipper this is on my OS system Strauss soon as you can see there's a lot of old dirt and stuff on here I use this primarily for public safety diamond for salvage work things like that when I do my limited tech govern that I do do this is the suit that I wear for that and then like I said this is a plastic zip this is also a YKK zipper as well this is on my comfort zone the scuba dry suit here and it's just a plastic zipper it is a waterproof plastic zipper here but the care for these or the cleaning for these is pretty much the same but the care is going to be slightly different especially when we talk about storage so what we're going to do is look at each one individually I'm gonna walk you briefly through the cleaning process that I do for these and then I'll talk about the storage process whether you should leave your suit hanging with the zipper open or closed or should you store your suit say in a bag or a box and should the zipper be open as closed as well all right guys so the first thing we're going to look at is how do I clean the zipper how do I keep it lubricated when I'm not using the suit you'll notice that the zipper is open now we're going to assume that I just took the suit off maybe it's dried out maybe I'm back at the shop and now it's time to actually clean this up and actually take good care of it so that it's gonna last a very long time typically speaking the first thing I'm going to do is go ahead and zip it back up and this was gonna allow me to get in here and actually clean these teeth very thoroughly and all I use for that is a toothbrush this is just an old toothbrush and I'm just gonna take it if it's dry I'm gonna brush away any of the harsh debris anything like that it doesn't take very much just a little gentle brush now if there is any say mud or dirt and debris that I can't really get out I want to use a very very mild detergent maybe bit baby shampoo and water maybe just a few drops of dome dish detergent which is not very mild with just a few droplets of it and water and I'm just gonna get in there and just kind of scrub it away like that and then I'll just kind of use a spray bottle or water hose or something just to rinse it off really well now once that is complete then of course I'm gonna take just and say a shiny cloth or something like that just to dry it off just to get that extra moisture out of there is something very simple like that and then I'm going to actually lubricate the zipper itself now to do that I use two different products this is a product from the manufacturer itself a lot of guys know what this is I'm call it T's ipsum cartagia it works very well it does tend to be a little on the side when you go to replace it but I'm going to show you a great alternative for it if you're familiar with a company called Trident they're just basically a distributor as well but they just make a basic silicone lube we use this a lot of times say on or in sand things like that for regulators and hoses and stuff I'm just going to take a little dab just a little dab there on my finger doesn't take very much at all and all I'm gonna do is just kind of brush it in a couple little different areas of the zipper itself okay run my finger across it just to make it nice and smooth it's gonna kind of have this shiny little film and that's exactly what I want to do I just want to put a shiny little film across it I'm gonna take the zipper truck itself or the mechanism for the zipper and I'm gonna go all the way open with it and then once again all the way closed with it now when I say all the way what I mean is I'm not stopping I'm not creating kinks or anything the zipper I just want it to be very smooth just one quick pull like that and then one quick pull to zip it up now typically speaking when you don't your dry suit whoever zipping it up in this particular that suit this is a rear entry suit somebody has to zip it up for me typically I'll tell them make sure you zip it in one smooth motion I don't want a lot of different stuffs in there because that can create kinks in the material or if you got phrase they can get caught up in the zipper so I'll make sure everything is good and flat for them and I'll tell them when you go to zip it just kind of grab onto the material give it a smooth pull if it's not a smooth Pole then typically your zipper in itself is not gonna be lubricated enough but that's it guys I just use a little bit of silicone lube there you know which one do I prefer to be honest it just depends on which one's in my hand at the time but these are the two that I carry this is just the ties empty zip whatever it is you want to call it and then the silicone loop here from Trident it's probably my go-to for most of the loot applications that I use for scuba diving so I'm gonna set this one myself we're gonna get up my trial limited suit now and I'm gonna show you how I take good care of the as well in this particular suit is going to kind of be the same fashion as far as cleaning goes all I'm gonna do is simply take the suit and zip it up okay now I can really get in there and clean these zipper teeth out I'm just gonna kind of brush them out you know dry first you need a heavy debris anything like that of course I can spray it down with water and wash things like that if I do need to clean the zipper a lot of times on these brass zippers they can corrode a little bit if you leave them say dry or if you leave them if you put them up wet and leave them wet they can corrode a little bit now to get that green corrosion off you can make you a mixture of say vinegar and baking soda and kind of let it get it fist up just dip your toothbrush in it a little bit it doesn't have to be completely saturated but just kind of brush it on there and it'll really clean up a lot of that corrosion if you start noticing corrosion on your suit but once again I'm just gonna kind of clean it up a little bit once that's done now I need to lubricate it now there's a lot of different waxes out there that you can use obviously paraffin wax is what you're gonna want to use with it beeswax can work good I've actually used chapstick before if it's say Burt's Bees waxes chapstick but probably my go-to is bow string wax and if you're an archer you can understand just how vitally important bow string wax is for your bow or for the string on your boat well it happens to be a very good lubricant for your dry suit zipper as well especially if it's the brass to zipper like this one here I think it's very inexpensive and it lasts a very long time I've probably actually had this particular tube going on now five or six years and I still probably have half the tube left so all I'm gonna do is just kind of gently rub it on the teeth I'm not putting very much on there I'm just gently rubbing it on there the last thing that you want to do is actually clunk it up on the zipper so just put you a very light film all the way across put the lid back on now to smooth that out I'm just going to use heat to do it so I'm gonna take my fingers I'm gonna rub them together I'm gonna get them nice and warm and then I'm gonna rub it across the zipper as well and all I'm doing is just kind melton net wax and creating a slick film all the way through now I know it's a slick film because when I go to do my test with the zipper what I'm going to do is use this zipper truck here and just one smooth motion open it up one smooth motion close it up and I'm going to do that just a couple of times just to make sure that wax is on there to make sure that there's no clumps in it I can usually feel if there's a clump in it and there's a clump then I can just go through reheat up my fingers rub that blacks in or I can just you know take the wax off just kind of brush it off but all I want is a nice smooth motion just like that now guys I've actually had this particular suit since 2012 so it's going on seven years I've probably got maybe a thousand or 1500 dots on this suit and as you can see this is the original zipper I've never replaced a zipper in this suit and as you can see it is nice it is smooth it is slick as glass so I really take good care of my separate it doesn't take a lot of work a simple toothbrush a little bit of mild detergent and then you're gonna dry it off just like we did the other one and then you're gonna use some type of lubricant I just like bow-string wax but obviously paraffin wax is what manufacturers say to use and it's as simple as that now let's get reset up and I'll show you how I hang the suits up and whether I leave the zippers open or closed for storage alright guys let's talk really quick about storage I'm going to show you how I store both of my dry suits and what I do with the zippers when I hang them up and then we'll get into what do I do when I put them say in a bag or a box or something like that now I'm actually gonna start with my neoprene suit first this is just mine once again the comfort zone the APRI no suit here you'll notice that the zipper is closed temporarily that's because we just cleaned it and I'll show you how I did that I'm actually gonna open the zipper up okay and the reason I do that is simply because most of the time this suit gets hung up upside down since this suit actually has built-in boots and one of the things that I utilize to store this suit is a boot hanger you can pick these up relatively cheap there's all different types of weight or hangers things like that I just use the ones from excess scuba it's just little travel hangar and its design for dry suit boots specifically now I'm just gonna slide them into the slides or the hanger and it's as simple as that now the reason I want to leave that zipper open and primarily it's because typically want to store this to begin with the suit is still wet so I want to leave it open and won't allow that air to kind of flush through the suit to help if there is any moisture maybe I sweated in the suit or maybe I did have some type of failure in the suit and it lead this way it'll allow that gravity and the air to get in there and it'll pull all the moisture out now once the moisture is out once the suits dry it usually takes a couple hours once that's dried then of course I want to zip the zipper up in this particular fashion it's not really going to damage the sood there's nothing that can really kink up the zipper so to start with I'll leave this if I open then of course I'll close it to in the drying process if you will or how I store it as far as hanging on a hanger now I do want to show you a different method I'm not a huge fan of this but let's say that you do have a dry suit that does not have built in boots this is probably gonna be one of the only options that you're going to have as far as hanging it up you want some type of wide hangar system for the purpose of this video all I'm going to be using is just a standard wet suit hanger here it tends to work fairly well for dry suits so all I'm gonna do is just take the hanger here I'm gonna stick it up through the next seal okay then I'm going to zip it up real quick okay just like that I'm just going to take this the hanger simply hang it up now I'm not a huge huge fan of this on this particular suit just because it does put quite a bit of stress here on the material and I don't really want that in my dry suit but if this is the only option that you've got it's definitely a decent option for you to use now you will notice that I went ahead and zipped it up here's why I zip it up if I'm gonna hang the suit that way if I open the suit up the first thing that you're gonna notice is yeah it's gonna get quite a bit of airflow but it's gonna put a lot of undue stress on the next seal and on the shoulder part of the dry suit now don't want that so if I'm going to be hanging this suit up in this fashion I want to leave that zipper closed as well you know what we're gonna do is actually move over to the trial eminent suit and I'm going to show you how I hang it up as well now with my trial eminent suit the first thing that you'll notice is it too has built-in boots I'd actually prefer this on my dry suits for a couple reasons what I'm gonna go ahead Tate I'm lazy I don't want to have to put my dry suit halfway on and bend down and put some type of rock boots on I actually prefer the building boots especially in this particular suit because this is my public safety suit and a lot of times I I mean they say a quick deployment situation where I've just got to put it on jump in the water and go with it and I really don't have the time to put on extra boots so I really like the built-in boots for that quick deployment purpose also it makes it very simple to utilize the same boot hanger and I simply hang it up like that now one thing that you'll notice the zipper actually stays open on this particular dry suit this is going to allow any moisture maybe I'll sweat it in the suit maybe I did have some type of failure in Italy this is gonna allow that moisture to come out it's gonna allow airflow to go through the suit help dry it out Plus that gravity is going to pull it out now typically speaking I'm not gonna zip this up even once it's dried I'm just gonna leave it open and allow that airflow to go in and out the suit now if I do find myself in a situation where maybe I don't have a boot hanger with me or something like that then I can still use that standard wet suit anger or some type of widemouth anger if you will and all I'm gonna do is just stick it inside the suit just like I did with the neoprene suit and then I'm going to zip it up real quick like so and then I'm gonna hang it up once again I'm not a huge huge fan of using these style hangers for this although it does work but as you can already see it's put a lot of undue stress there on the neck ring and on the or the neck ring itself and on the neck seal itself so I'm not a huge fan of this right here but I promise you it will work for a pinch I would prefer to hang the suit up via the boot hanger itself but if you don't have built-in boots this may be the only option for you one thing that I will say is whatever manufacturer of dry suit you got check with the manufacturer to see what type of hanging system or drying system they have because I tell you they are well worth the money they're definitely worth the investment to go with if you want to take good care of your suit now in this situation I do zip it up because once again if I unzip the zipper here what that does is actually put even more undue stress up here in this area of the hanger and it's even putting more stress on the neck ring and on the the neck seal itself so I don't want to leave it open if it's gonna be hanging up by a hanger I just want to simply zip it up like so that's going to take a lot of that stress away so now let's see how I take care of these suits as far as when I store them in a bag and I'll show you exactly what I do with the zippers whether it's in a bag or say if a box or something like that alright guys so the last thing we're going to look at real quick is how do I store these dry suits in a bag and when I do store them I'm gonna go ahead and start with a neoprene suit now typically speaking I hardly ever stored my neoprene suit in a bag just because it does stay hung up here to shop this is kind of a go to leisurely suits what I like to dive just for fun if I do need a dry suit or whatnot but typically speaking what I would do say if I am traveling or something and I'm just going to lay the suit out nice and flat and you'll notice that the zipper is closed here and I typically want to leave this zipper closed and since this zipper is designed to kind of go around my shoulders I want to make sure I kind of keep it in that position so I'm actually going to flip it over so I want the suit facing upward as if I was wearing it and say lay it on my back now what I'm going to do is just simply roll up the suit and I just going to be gentle here I don't want to really create that many creases in the neoprene but I just want to gently roll it up into a nice little neat package now keeping that zipper in that correct form I'm just going to take the arms and fold them in and now that zipper is kind of in the same position as what if it say if it was going around my shoulders is in the exact same position as if I was wearing it and I'm just going to kind of leave it there for a second I personally like to use a drop back for this I believe this is either a 35 or 40 liter dry bag I've actually had this suit affair or this this drawback for a very long time and it actually works great for this particular dry suit as you can see it's gonna fit it just perfectly and all I'm gonna do is just simply slide it inside the bag okay and I'm not stuffing it I'm not really using this as a stuff sack as well I'm just simply putting it down in the bag I'm gonna kind of let it go however it it wants to fit itself up in there now I'm gonna keep the suit rolled up but once again I'm not putting much pressure at all I'm not really shoving it down in there and packing this down you'll notice that once I get it in here one of the things that I do is actually leave the air in the bag itself now typically with a dry bag I'm gonna squeeze or a compression bag I'll squeeze all the air out not with this one I actually want to leave a little bit of air in there to help draw a little bit extra moisture if there's any moisture to the suit it'll help dry that out I'm just gonna kind of shake it down in there like so now at this point typically with a dry bag I would squeeze it down with a compression bag I'd squeeze it down I'm not actually going to do that I'm just gonna roll it up a couple of rolls here and then we'll pull the clip system around like so snap it into place and it's as simple as that now when I do store this draw suit in a bag that's how I do it a great scenario here would be say if I'm going to from add outside I don't want my dresser just laying in the back of my truck or saying the back seat or something like that I'm just gonna simply putting this back there you go it's very simple or let's say I'm coming back from a dive site maybe I'm in someone's car or I'm gonna be putting this and saving a back seat of my pickup versus the back of the truck then of course I would actually put into bags because if it's still wet I don't want to get my truck seat and things like that way so I put it back till I got back and then of course I would hang it up so let's take a quick look at the trial a minute and I'll show you how I store the zipper or store the suit with the zipper it's gonna be pretty much the same process but due to the style of suit that this is and the features that's built in the way I roll it and photo it's going to be a little bit different but I do want you to notice that the zipper is open here now typically with a brass zipper if you zip them up and try to fold it up you're gonna keep the zipper and that can get those teeth kind of out of position or it can keep them up and break them if you will or break the seal so I don't want to do that I'm actually gonna leave the brass zipper open so I'm just going to kind of lay the suit out as well just like I did with the neoprene and you'll notice this particular suit as I mentioned earlier it does have the neck ring here and I don't want to really keep that material around the neck ring like it is right now so I kind of want to leave a little bit in there so I'm not now typically what I'll do here is I'm gonna actually grab at the waist area and kind of fold it over okay lay it down on the table and I'm gonna fold it over with that neck ring being on top just like that now I can pull the legs over and what that actually does is that's going to help protect that neck ring as well so I'm kind of folding it over pulled the the legs over as well now if I want to fold it one more time I can typically I don't have to do that because I do want to keep it as flat as possible and I'm just going to kind of create an X with the arms here now I do have rings here for my gloves I do have dry gloves on this particular suit and I'm just going to keep it in this nice little square flat profile I'm going to get the back for it as well and this particular baggy is a dual stage bag I've got two back to the suit and then of course I have a bag for my undergarments as well I'm going to pull those out temporarily and open the bag up just like that I'm going to take this little square of a dry suit if you will and I'm just going to lay it on top of the bag just like that right there now what I can do is actually come in here and start stuffing it down into the bottom of the bag and all I'm gonna do is allow the suit to kind of form around the bag on the inside if you will I'm not putting very much pressure at all I'm just kind of keeping it as flat as possible just like that just kind of fills up the bag now the reason I don't want to push it down and stuff it is because I can actually damage the suit I can put too many kinks in the material stuff like that take my dry gloves I'm gonna put them down here in the corner all right I've got two hoots for the suit depending on whether I'm wearing just a traditional mask or a full face mask I'll slide them in the back as well and a lot of you guys know that I like the Sham cloth primarily if the suits still wet and I put it up I can put the chamois cloth in there and it actually protects my undergarments from getting them wet when I go to store them in the bag as well so just kind of spread it out there and now I can take my undergarments flip them up on top kind of shake it back down I never want to put too much force or compression on it these turned hot really stuff sacks I can push down a little bit but I don't want to lose the I don't want to keep or press in or compress my undergarments as well and I definitely don't want to keep anything on the dresser but I'm just gonna kind of shake it down in the bag and then simply zip it up just like that so guys that's pretty much it for the zipper care of my dry suits I showed you how I cleaned them I showed you how I store them whether I hang it up or I'll put it in the bag I'll go ahead tee on my trowel a minute it pretty much stays in the bag once it's dried because I do use it for public safety it usually stays in my truck year-round if I get a call out or something like that I can immediately go to it an employee up my new preen primarily stays hung up unless I'm specifically going somewhere other than the lake here and then of course I'll just store it in this little dry bag when I get to my destination that comes out I'll put it back in temporarily to a get back to the shop and then I'll hang it up and I typically leave it hung up but guys that's it for the zipper care that's how I do it that's how I take care of my zippers you know I hope that you can utilize this video utilize these tips and techniques to make the best out of your tri suit I hope you get the best out of your investment if you've purchased a dry suit before if you take good care of your suits they would definitely take you a care of you just to remember the zipper is probably the most important part of the suit and it's definitely the most ffensive if it tears up to repair so definitely do what you can to take good care of your soon as well guys I hope you like these tips if you did do me two favors smash that like button for me definitely share it as well if you got any more questions on drysuit cares zipper care things like that put it down the comment section below and I'll try to answer your questions the best I can and as quickly as I can as well but guys as always make sure you follow us on Instagram and Twitter like us on Facebook pins on Pinterest subscribe to us here on YouTube and as always guys we appreciate your business guys we really appreciate you watching our videos if you liked it make sure to give us a big thumbs up if you're not a subscriber simply hit that subscribe button for us and make sure you hit the little bell to turn on all notifications if you want to see some other cool videos make sure to click these links here they could be scuba tips they could be diving videos search-and-recovery videos or gear reviews once again guys we really appreciate it

Channel: LakeHickoryScuba

Views: 1,859

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Drysuit Zipper Care How I Do It, How To Take Care Of Your Drysuit Zipper, Lake Hickory Scuba Center And Marina, Instructor Bryan Stafford, Scuba Diving Drysuit, Comfort Zone Scuba, OS Systems

Id: ymmZkbtXOOE

Length: 24min 37sec (1477 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 10 2019