Silicone Dry Suit Neck Seals

[Brand X]

Anyone want to share their experience with Silicone Dry Suit Neck seals? My struggle is I finally blew a wrist seal after 7 years, and need/want to replace my neck seal too. Latex seals are easy and low cost. Or do I go to the replaceable Silicone neck seal system? Down side seems expense both upfront and possibly failures? In reading reviews, people like them but it seems they are not very robust and you can expect failures. Thanks

[Claymore]

Silicon seals require a ring system of some sort, DUI Zip Seals ECT. Silicone seals can not be attached directly to a suit with adhesive. I have been using the DUI Silicone neck seal for a about a year and am not really happy with it. I have had a lot of trouble getting it to lay flat, it wants to roll, so it won't leak. I liked my Latex better for ease of donning. DUI's are defintly more expensive. Some of the dry glove ring systems if attached to the suit will let you replace just the wrist seal with either Latex or Silicone. I am thinking of the Viking Classic Ring system and an imitation by DUI and some others.

[Brand X]

Here are some additional specific questions and information. While I only get out 3 or so weekends with the dry suit per year. Does life or potential failure of Silicone or Latex have to due with age or use? More direct what is the a life expectancy of Silicone VS Latex? If Latex well cared for and low use would be expected to go 7 years, I think that would be the direction I will go. But if it is a crap shoot with failure on either than it seems I would want to go with the expense of the replaceable seal.

On a little different subject anyone have a opinion on cone vs bottle latex wrist seals?

I have always used cones, but changed my suit to bottle but have not used it yet. I want to switch my sons out as they are 7 years old too and buy a back up set. Should I go all in with bottle?

[Claymore]

Theoretically silicone will last longer because it is not degraded by most things unlike latex which is degraded by oil/grease, ozone, sunlight, body oil, suntan lotion, age and other things. I have heard reports that silicone is easier to poke a finger through or rip than Latex even though it seems to be stretchier than latex.
Six or seven years on latex would probably be a long life for latex.
Ripping is always a possibility especially with neck seals.
I have found that a water based lubricant is very helpful in donning and doffing the wrist seals. Smear some on the inside of the seal then slide your hand in and smear some on the back and sides of your hand and pull your hand out. I have heard of using it for neck seal donning and doffing but have never tried it my self.

[DetectorGuy]

I haven't used the silicone seals yet or the bottle shaped seals. I think the cone shape are more forgiving as far as cutting it to fit, but I imagine the bottle shape would be harder to fit to large or small wrists (kind of a one size fits most type of thing). I did have a latex neck seal go bad from being exposed to bug spray. My dive buddy uses talcum powder in the wrist / neck seals and has had good luck. I have used it a few times and I probably should more often as it is easier on the seals. I have the DUI zip seals on both and keep extras with me just in case. DUI has slightly changed the zip seals on the new DUI suits so if you have old gloves or wrist seals, they may be kinda hard to mate them up. I will probably have the same problem with my 8 year old dry suit when I try to zip in the next generation of zip seals.

[Brand X]

Thanks for the feedback and information. I have decided to try the Silicone replaceable neck seals, and fingers crossed on the bottle style wrist seals too. I will report back when I get to dive them. One thing I will mention when I went to replace the wrist seals where I ripped one a couple weeks back, I just stretched the other side and it ripped. I then tested the neck seal and another suits (same age ~7yrs) wrist and neck seals none ripped but I re-cut them because you could see some notch opening starting on an edge of both wrist seals. I wonder if it isn't a good idea to do a test stretching each seal once a year looking for some "notch" starting on the edge. Then if you see something cut a fresh edge? I realize I maybe overthinking this, but I guess that is what can make a hobby fun too!!!