Whitewater Forum: Reconditioning a Drysuit

Reconditioning a Drysuit

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Category: General
Forum Name: Whitewater Forum
Forum Discription: Open Discussion Forum. Whitewater related subjects only
URL: http://www.professorpaddle.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9930
Printed Date: 05 May 2025 at 9:14am

Topic: Reconditioning a Drysuit

Posted By: JayB
Subject: Reconditioning a Drysuit
Date Posted: 02 Aug 2010 at 10:11am

The day has arrived when my drysuit is a "dry" suit in name only. I've gotten fair use out of it, and I suspect that the only surefire way to restore its performance is to replace it. There could be a pinhole leak here or there, but it looks like the main culprit is seepage in the high-wear zones.

I'm hoping to get one....more....season out of it and I was wondering if anyone has had any luck with some combination of off the shelf products when attempting to get a bit more life out of their old suits. Revivex? Others?

Thanks for sharing.

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-Jay

Replies:

Posted By: fiddleyak
Date Posted: 02 Aug 2010 at 10:47am

If it's a Kokatat...send it in for repair. If you don't pay for them to do the gaskets it doesn't cost that much. I've sent in suits that I was sure were totaled but got lots more days out of them.

Posted By: James
Date Posted: 02 Aug 2010 at 11:52am

Another suggestion although I would do what ben posted first, is http://www.rainypass.com/ - rainy pass (see website) They are do great work and know the kokatat product but obviously no one is going to do as good of a job as the MFG for the price.

The other thing I would note is that the turn around time on Kokatat can be up to a week or two so send it in during the summer so you don't miss it. Also make a specific request to count the patches and feet of replacement seam tape. It is kind of fun to know how beat your suit was. My last repair was 1 year ago on a 3 year old suit, I had 205 patches and 30 feet of seam repair done. They said that was probably a suit with less than half it's life left but still plenty of wear remaining.

Posted By: arnobarno
Date Posted: 02 Aug 2010 at 12:18pm

Kokatat charges about $15 dollars to do a pressure test and all of the patching/seam repair. It is an awesome deal, assuming you have a Kokatat drysuit. Our general strategy is to send our suits in every other year to replace gaskets and have the pressure test/seam repair done.

Kokatat will not do anything with respect to rejuvenating the DWR on your suit. They recommended the spray on Revive-X and an iron. This method worked terribly for us - maybe if you were more patient and precise it would work.

Recently, we met someone on the river that said they used the wash-in DWR and dried their drysuit in the dryer at low heat. Amazingly, this method worked quite well for us. We first washed the suit with Tech Wash and then used the NikWax DWR treatment in a second wash cycle (both of these things need to be done in a front loader). We made the mistake of treating each drysuit as "one garment" so I don't think we used quite enough of the DWR treatment but it still worked really well.

Two things to watch out for. First, you need to be really careful with the heat on the dryer. I set it to our dryer's lowest setting. Apparently, the heat helps set the DWR so you need some heat. Too much heat and you could ruin the gaskets. So, if you are sending your suit into Kokatat, do this whole thing first. Second thing to watch for is that Gore isn't wild about the wash in DWR as it can limit the breath-ability of the Gore-Tex. I don't know how big of a problem this is in practice vs. theory - caveat emptor. I can tell you that it is much nicer to be in a suit that doesn't have that "wetted out" feeling.

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arn9schaeffer@gmail.com (remove 9 for my real email address)

Posted By: James
Date Posted: 02 Aug 2010 at 12:27pm

Arno, have you ever thought of making your own version of wikipedia. It could be called Arnopedia or something.. I only say that because I swear your response and general understanding of most issues is borderline expert. We need a corner of PP called Ask Arno where people can just post a question and only you are allowed to respond.

Posted By: Wiggins
Date Posted: 02 Aug 2010 at 1:59pm

Another happy Nikwax customer here.

Last year I paid $140 for my drysuit to be reconditioned by Kokatat (including gasket replacement). They did great job with fast turn around time.

If you are more budget minded you can always go the route of filling your suit with water and using aquaseal to rewater proof the spots were water is getting through the material, and use seam seal on the seams.

Kyle

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I smell bacon

Posted By: JayB
Date Posted: 02 Aug 2010 at 3:27pm

Hey - thanks for all of the helpful feedback.

The suit is a Stohlquist something or other that I picked up on clearance back in late 2007, and it's made of whatever their Goretex knock-off fabric is. Next drysuit will be a GMER for sure, but I think I'm at least a season away from a ~$1K drysuit being in the cards.

I'll give this one the full meal deal - self-service pinhole coverage with plus the DWR treatment and let everyone know how it goes.

Maybe we should make a stick or sub-forum with the useful gear repair threads so that they're front and center and easy to find?

I know that I found the epic-kit thread super-useful, and most of us will have the opportunity to ponder the black-arts of boat-welding, paddle repair, etc at some point.

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-Jay

Posted By: JayB
Date Posted: 02 Aug 2010 at 3:29pm

Also - as long as we're on the topic - how many days on the river have you been getting out of your drysuits?

I'd make a rough guess that I've had my out maybe ~100 -120 times since '07, and while it's not completely shot, it's at least 2/3rds of the way there.

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-Jay

Posted By: dblanchard
Date Posted: 02 Aug 2010 at 9:55pm

I was also thinking a PP wiki would be great. I keep a TiddlyWiki on my thumbdrive and have added a lot of notes to it from PP, but I feel bad that only I have quick access to the best morsels. I can't share my wiki because I keep some work stuff in it as well, but I'd be willing to throw $10 to James for hosting a wiki as an adjunct site. I think a lot of us would.

Posted By: franzhorner
Date Posted: 04 Aug 2010 at 9:46am

I'm on my second Kokatat suit. My first one lasted 7 seasons of 80 plus days. I sent it back about once a year. The last time I sent it in I didn't hear back from them for a while. I called them and they said "you need a new suit!". They said I had over 300 patches already and that I had another 100-150 more spots that needed pressed. She said it wouldn't be worth it since I would have to pay more than the regular 15 bucks. I asked how much and she said a whopping 30 bucks! I said "Patch that thing!!". I got one more winter season out of it before I replaced it...

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MORE RAIN PLEASE

Posted By: refried
Date Posted: 05 Aug 2010 at 12:30am

last week I ripped a wrist gasket and stopped in Anacortes Dive and Supply for a set of replacement gaskets, they had two thicknesses (standard and heavy duty) and several sizes of each. If I had my drysuit with me I would have let them do the gaskets since they only get $20.00 each. I asked about neck gaskets and they only want $30.00 to do those, well worth it.

While I was there I picked up a friends drysuit that was there being repaired, it was $70.00 for pressure testing and fixing a bunch of holes and repairing some seams. Anacortes isn't the easiest place to get to if your down south but if your in the bellingham area it's not far. I'd check some of the dive shops in your area, maybe they offer repair services as well.

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