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20 DRY SUITS Aquatek X480 Aquion Pro Rear-Entry Beaver Iceberg Ultra Body Glove Pro-Lite Diamond Saxon 200 DMS Atlantis DUI FLX50/50 Gates PRO-VSN 1100 GUL Commercial Hydrotech Evolution IST Dive Team Proline Northern Diver Vortex Oceanic Flex O'Three RI 2/500 Otter Technical Superskin Poseidon Jetsuit TNG Roho Tech Seaway Arctic Pro Typhoon Nexus Viking Pro 1000 Return to GEAR Page |
EXTRA DRY John Bantin and his intrepid team of testers assess the key features of 20 leading drysuits from the efficiency of the seals to how easy the suits are to put on, nothing escapes the rigours of a Diver test. Drysuits used to come in two types. Neoprene suits were "fitted" and gave good insulation, but tended to restrict the movement of the diver and were always a little on the damp side. Membrane suits gave greater freedom of movement and were good at keeping the water out, but offered no insulation without the use of an undersuit and were about as stylish as dustbin-liners. Nowadays, the differences between the two kinds of drysuit have become blurred. Neoprene suits are more watertight, but usually need an undersuit. They are either made out of neoprene compressed in manufacture or crushed after the suit has been assembled. Seam technology has advanced to the point where manufacturers of membrane suits (most of which use a nylon/rubber/nylon 'tri-laminate') can use many more panels of mat-erial and achieve a tailored effect. The result is that nearly all drysuits are now effectively membrane suits: almost without exception they need to be used with some sort of undersuit or other underwear to keep you warm. This allows you to choose the degree of insulation required. Each diver chose a suitable undersuit and stuck with it throughout the test. Everyone who dives around UK shores will know at least a little about drysuits. Of the multitude of divers at Stoney Cove on the summer weekend of our test dives, few were using wet or semi-dry suits. With such a vast choice available on the British market, it was going to be a daunting task to produce an all-inclusive drysuit review. So we asked 24 manufacturers to send us a single suit of their choice for inclusion. Twenty came up with the goods in the six weeks available to them. Dream Marine surprised us by saying that it did not wish to send a suit in case it did not do well in comparison to the others. Respirex, which makes SeaLion suits, said that it was upgrading the material of its suits, and would not have new ones ready in time. Polar Bears said it was unable to make a suit for our review and its three demo-suits were already out. Swanborough Diving said it was inundated with back-orders and unable to make up a suit in time. We were very disappointed that Typhoon, a company that had protested loudly about the content of our last Diver Test of one of its suits, supplied a suit for this test that started to come apart after only ten minutes of use. Diamond sent us a suit without any valves, but we still dived it! Our test divers John Gibbons, Gerry Gooch, George Buxton and Diver's own John Bantin were all selected because of their long experience as divers and instructors, and because they are known to be reliable and impartial. Conveniently, our testers were all more or less the same size. This meant that there was a degree of interchangeability with off-the-peg stock sizes; but where a made-to-measure service was offered the exact sizes of the particular test diver were supplied to the suit manufacturer. The test divers must be thanked for giving up so much of their time to this project. Farzi, also an experienced diver, gave a lot of support on the dry side, including expertise from a career in garment manufacturing. The suits were tested in the form in which they were supplied, although generally each suit is available with various options on zips, seals and valves. Test dives were to 20m and included several underwater man-oeuvres such as raising the arms and flexing the wrist sinews to test for leaks. For consistency, the length of tight contact of the wrist seals was measured on the same wrist throughout. With both types of seal (latex and neoprene), the longer the contact area the more likely they are to keep the diver dry. However, it should be borne in mind that, centimetre for centimetre, latex versions tend to be more efficient. Conical seals allow the user to trim them to a comfortable diameter. They need to be long to give flexibility between the wrist and the suit itself. Parallel seals tend to be shorter and have a wide cuff to allow for wrist movement without disturbing the contact area with the skin. The same applies to neck seals. Conical neck seals can be made to fit the user perfectly. The alternative is a fixed-diameter seal with a bellows section between the contact area and the suit that allows for head movement without the ingress of water. Neoprene seals rarely prove to be totally watertight. However, they are often chosen because of the superior comfort they provide. Neoprene neck seals are turned in on themselves so that the smooth-skin surface is next to the user's throat. Increasing the internal pressure of the suit by adding air improves the tightness of the seal. Inflation valves were invariably positioned in the chest area. Dump valves were usually of the constant-volume automatic variety, positioned at the upper arm near the shoulder. One suit was supplied with a cuff dump this is simple to operate but requires the diver to raise that arm to dump air. All drysuits are normally worn in conjunction with a hood, because you lose a high percentage of body heat through the head. Usually a neoprene wet-hood is used. Because hoods are interchangeable, apart from one unique type (GUL) that deserved a mention, we excluded them from our results. We weighed every suit to find out how substantial each one was. In our experience, the most common places in which drysuits develop leaks is around zips, seals and seams, but naturally it was impractical to see how long each suit would last with normal use. Build quality is becoming so high that with most of today's suits you should still be waiting for the results of that test long into the next millennium! Our reactions to different suits ranged from dismay to total desire. As usual, we tell it as it is! |
 GUL's heavy-duty zip is well secured to the suit inside and out  DUI's diagonal front zip has a useful outer covering zip  DUI's Rock Boots, designed to be worn over sock ends while diving  Conical neck seal on the Viking Pro 1000  Bellows neck seal on the Aquatek X480  Conical latex wrist seal on the Beaver Iceberg Ultra  The fleece lining on Seaway's Arctic Pro  Aquatek's adjustable and detachable internal braces  The vulcanised rubber seams of the Viking Pro 1000. |