Dry suits made of Chinesium

[XXX-er]

Ever even heard of the 260$ drysuits from Alibaba ?

In spite of being around boats, paddling and fixing a whole lot of drysuits me neither

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7I6oMjLous

So I watched the vid, I never really heard of buddy but he seems to know what he is talking about in that he he does a pretty good review of the product and gives it a thumbs up

[sb]

Interdasting

[XXX-er]

yeah a buddy texted me asking about them, he is probably going to order one (for supn) and have me look at it so I will be able to get a first hand look and give my impression

https://m.alibaba.com/product/160030...YqMestekDvi7U4

[sb]

Hydrus is the breathable material the budget suits use from several sellers online.

Registered just to see the ad and what. Shows reviews on the site, 4.8 out of 5 stars over all.

Pretty tempting at $248

[chicken feathers]

They look like a clone of the Kokatat Meridian suits.
At least one of their women's models has the same image as on the Kokatat site.
Interested to hear how your buddies turns out.

[XXX-er]

Well i mentioned I would like to have a look if he buys one and buddy sez that would be great so then if it really sucks he can send it back, i might even take it to the shop and run a pressure test just for yucks

IME Kokatat has made the best suits for > 20 yrs, they used the best materials/ best design/ ease of service ect so if they are copying a Kokotat Meridian that is a very good thing at least design wise, many a time the front office people have heard me ranting in the back shop about some of the shit that i have to work on

The thing is you can't tell how a suit is gona be until you put some years on it like Buddy from the River kings said and in fact his vid seemed pretty spot on which is why i told my buddy the suit seemed legit

[sb]

Looked at it again, even put one in the cart and $132 shipping.

I will stick to the dry top with dry pants combo that has served me well.

[skivan]

XXX - any update on these suits? Ever see one in person?

[XXX-er]

I know my local buddy ( 1st time drysuit user) here in town bought one and has used it on the SUP and he seems pretty happy but he really doesnt know any better when it comes to dry suits also he hasnt got back to me

so when a long time paddle buddy of 30+ years asked what to buy I shot him the link and he ordered one for only 276 CAN $, it should be here in a month and I will know more then

[edogmad]

Seems like the equivalent of buying an Alibaba carbon bike frame. It could immediately fill you with a sense of superiority for the price you paid or deflate your ego faster than you can burp it away. At least in this case you’ll be getting we instead of going OTB. I’d never trust one when my life depended on it though

[freerideworldchungus]

IME Kokatat has made the best suits for > 20 yrs, they used the best materials/ best design/ ease of service ect

This is so true until they take a military contract and then customer service goes out the window for 6 months. Whatcha gonna do though?

[XXX-er]

This is so true until they take a military contract and then customer service goes out the window for 6 months. Whatcha gonna do though?

actualy i heard that Kokotat had some issues of late, but I've been a Fanboi for years,

working on drysuits I see 10 yr old Kokatat suits that are still working fine, I just replace broken seals/ lube zip / pressure test and they are good to go but we havent seen much new Kokotat product cuz they are expensive and not very available so i am told so we stock and use NRS

" I’d never trust one when my life depended on it though "

Ya in spite of your obvious questionable credentials I will speak to it , so what we are really questioning is does the product hold up and for how long cuz they don't just fail catastrophically, if you got your ass in a sling and tried to breath water that new Kokotat isnt gona help you

In the process of fondling maybe 500 suits in the last 5 year of different brands/ vintages/ all pretty much used/ abused/ put away wet : Kokotat-the best materials/ the best design, Mustang- shit design / shit materials , NRS- earlier suits had shitty taping / design ok and I think the newer suits are better, Stholquist- shit design/ shit materials SO IME stay away from Stholquist & Mustang

[sb]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nXVs3WBQIW0

1 year review posted

[XXX-er]

So river king did a good vid, a long vid a lot of info lots to unpack and think about !

i supose i expected there to be less leaking so soon so that is a bit dissapointing, obviously Alibaba didnt use the very best gortex money can buy, it probably isnt any worse than the shit Mustang makes their suits out of and charges 5 times as much.

The taping apears to be OK i don't remember any tape delam which is positive, cuz while patching a suit from the inside with AQS is pretty simple but dealing with delamed seam tape sucks big time

Seams around the zippers is easy to patch but from the zipper teeth not so much ( maybe some petroleum jelly ), those are a newer style of the plastic zip ( not sure of the brand Alibaba is using ?) which always seem to work but i still always wonder why, and then of course the metal YKK drysuit zippers were always bomber

A seal is a seal and these seemed OK

I noticed the gortex socks were leaking from the seams and that is pretty common with gortex sox from all brands cuz they get walked on which facks the waterproofness, except Kokotat who use a special stretchy seam tape ( just in the sock ) and only have 1 seam in the inside of the foot where people don't walk on them so kokotat gortex socks usually don't leak. We speced latex sox on suits in the dry suit fleet cuz latex doesnt leak and if they get a hole just cut off & replace.

Patching gortex feet sucks, i normaly aqs patch gortex from the inside but with socks I patch from out side cuz on the outside there will only be one seam but from the inside you gotta patch 2 side of each taped seam

the redneck suit inflator with the leaf blower was interesting, a little more refined we use a 4 " pvc plumbing caps for the neck and 2 " for the arms, hold them on with hose clamps, the neck cap has a raft air valve we inflate with a raft pump so 1 person can blow these up like the michelin man and leave them inflated to see how fast they leak down

once again a great vid and i think the river king hit all the good points/ makes a pretty good argument for the suit

i will probably add some more thots later

[skivan]

Thanks for following up XXX. I was tempted but ended up doing a Kokatat semi dry on a super sale with a stacked coupon. Learned a bunch though so much appreciated.