Which Drysuit

[petedeeming]

Anyone have advice on which drysuit. I am torn between Northern Diver Cortex or the Oceanic Black.

[Alan Ewart]

Anyone have advice on which drysuit. I am torn between Northern Diver Cortex or the Oceanic Black.


Well if the quality control & customer service on the oceanic is anything like it is with their regs I wouldnt touch it with a brage pole

[David Walker]

Ahhh, see I actually really like the Oceanic drysuits - not sure about the "Oceanic Black" (do you mean the Flexia... which is mostly black?) though. If it is the Flexia then I do really like them - look good, seem to work well (ie keep people dry), and the two friends I know who have them haven't had any problems that I know of - one was bought a year or two ago, the other has been around quite a bit longer.

No experience of the ND Cortex - should be good tough material (cordura) so no worries from that point of view, but not sure about the rest of the build quality... although friends with other ND neoprene suits haven't had any problems.

I'm sure you'd be perfectly happy with either - just pick whichever is cheaper or looks nicer or has more pockets or added extras or whatever.

David

[markbsac]

seaskin look good for the price..well im going to have one made anyway.....check them out

www.seaskin.co.uk

mark

[ChristianG]

Well if the quality control & customer service on the oceanic is anything like it is with their regs I wouldnt touch it with a brage pole

Hmmm, I've been using Oceanic regs for a good sixteen years with nary a problem other than those engendered by myself. I love my Omegas to little bits.

I have no idea about the quality of their drysuits but I have heard good things about them and, to my knowledge, IIRC, nothing bad at all.

That looks to me like a pretty broad brush you're painting with there Alan.;)

If I wanted a REALLY good dry suit, in particular because of cold/toughness considerations, I'd probably be inclined to look at some of the Scandinavian stuff.

Today, unlike the bad old days, I feel that you largely gets what you pays for.:)

Cheers,

Christian

[Chris Cherrington]

Hmmm, I've been using Oceanic regs for a good sixteen years with nary a problem other than those engendered by myself. I love my Omegas to little bits.


I think many of us can say that. The "problems" (at least what I have read) seem to be in the last 3 or 4 years.

As to suits I am dubious as to why you would choose cordura. However, I dive neo so I'm not the person to ask on trilaminate. Otter and O3 have good reputations and the Seaskin looks good too... I have used a Northern Diver neo for many years and rated it highly (compressed neo).

Chris (Otter Ultimate)

[markbsac]

ive been happy with my otter for the past 7 years its an otter skin...but i have had samples sent to me by seaskin...there material is exactly the same..and the suits are a lot cheaper and made to measure..and when your a poisened dwarf like me i cant get anything off the peg !!!!

[Alan Ewart]

Hmmm, I've been using Oceanic regs for a good sixteen years with nary a problem other than those engendered by myself. I love my Omegas to little bits.


That looks to me like a pretty broad brush you're painting with there Alan.;)


Today, unlike the bad old days, I feel that you largely gets what you pays for.:)

Cheers,

Christian

Ah Christian, I see you are in Oz so perhaps the problems with Oceanic regs don't occur over there.

Over here and in cold water conditions there is a (design?) fault on many of the new regs that lead to the casings cracking where the metal meets the plastic. Seemingly it is caused by the expansion & contracting of metal in contact with plastic in coldwater conditions. It is alleged that Oceanic know of this problem and chose not to issue a recall. My buddy uses Oceanic regs and this problem has occurred on all four sets of his regs (3 different designs). None of the dive stores around here will now service these regs!

My buddy has e-mailed Ocenic on 14 occassions over the past couple of months and has rung them numerous times without the courtesy of a single reply.

Don't know about you, but that seems like pretty poor customer service to me.

As you say however, it is a pretty broad brush, and maybe not an issue in many parts of the world.

It doesnt matter what you pay for something, it doesnt guarentee customer service. People do that :rolleyes:

[David Walker]

Over here and in cold water conditions there is a (design?) fault on many of the new regs that lead to the casings cracking where the metal meets the plastic. Seemingly it is caused by the expansion & contracting of metal in contact with plastic in coldwater conditions. It is alleged that Oceanic know of this problem and chose not to issue a recall. My buddy uses Oceanic regs and this problem has occurred on all four sets of his regs (3 different designs). None of the dive stores around here will now service these regs!

Never heard anything about it - no one I know with Oceanic regs has ever had a problem. In fact, they've always been really good when i've been in contact with them - any problem and they've replaced it free-of-charge under the lifetime warranty (doesn't apply to drysuits though). Even when my compass in my console died, then sent a replacement straight out which was actually quite a surprise - I didn't think they'd cover things like that.

Remember that every company has its off-days and cases where they haven't managed things very well - i'm sure I could find people who don't like Otter/ND/DUI/whoever - its just unfortunate that your friend is one of those who has had problems with Oceanic. There are hundreds if not thousands of very satisfied customers out there too though, so I wouldn't worry about buying from them again.

David

[Alan Ewart]

Never heard anything about it - no one I know with Oceanic regs has ever had a problem. In fact, they've always been really good when i've been in contact with them - any problem and they've replaced it free-of-charge under the lifetime warranty (doesn't apply to drysuits though). Even when my compass in my console died, then sent a replacement straight out which was actually quite a surprise - I didn't think they'd cover things like that.

Remember that every company has its off-days and cases where they haven't managed things very well - i'm sure I could find people who don't like Otter/ND/DUI/whoever - its just unfortunate that your friend is one of those who has had problems with Oceanic. There are hundreds if not thousands of very satisfied customers out there too though, so I wouldn't worry about buying from them again.

David

David,

Thanks for the info. Maybe Malcolm isnt talking to the right people. I'll let him knowwhat you said and encourage him to try again.

Thanks again. PS, apologies to OP for thread hijack

[ChristianG]

[QUOTE=Alan Ewart]Over here and in cold water conditions there is a (design?) fault on many of the new regs that lead to the casings cracking where the metal meets the plastic. Seemingly it is caused by the expansion & contracting of metal in contact with plastic in coldwater conditions. It is alleged that Oceanic know of this problem and chose not to issue a recall. My buddy uses Oceanic regs and this problem has occurred on all four sets of his regs (3 different designs). None of the dive stores around here will now service these regs!

In the case of my Oceanics (which have seen 4C - 39F) and, for that matter, in the case of ANY other reg, Oceanic or not, I just cannot believe that the cold water shrinking (in this case) of the metal would be sufficient to make the plastic crack. Quite apart from anything else, that would really just make the plastic shell easier to unscrew, wouldn't it?

The plastic may crack because it got that cold but the vast majority of today's plastics are much tougher than that - think refrigerators/freezers.

I think that your buddy should look elsewhere for his problems, I don't even believe that this could occur in extremely cold conditions were he to then immediately rinse his regs under a hot water tap. My immediate suggestion in your buddy's case is that he perhaps screws them on too tight? They only need to be finger tight, no more.

My LSD used to really tighten up the shells of my regs after service until I found out about it having tried unsuccessfully to unscrew one u/w (freeflow problem). Carlo never did it again, to my regs anyway.

Cheers,

Christian

[Alan Ewart]

Christian,

AS I mentioned further up the thread there is a design fault. According two two local dive stores Oceanic have replaced the casings on many regs over the past couple of years free.

The only problem my buddy has is they won't reply to him...hence my rqant about poor customer service!

Anyway enough already...