The Gear Shed - Drysuit Zipper Care

Our friend Kristin from the River Store is sharing some advice on drysuit maintenance in this piece. Specifically we'll be focusing on maintaining your zippers and how to clean with both metal and plastic zippers. Cleaning your zippers is essential to prolonging the life of your suit as well as making sure you can easily get in and out of your suit when you need to. If you need any of the products shown in this video you can always contact the River Store directly and they can get some shipped out to you.

Drysuit Zipper Maintenance Steps

Being a piece of technical outerwear and an important part of protective equipment on the river, drysuits require some very specific points of care to make sure they are in top shape. Here we are spicifically focusing on zippers, but in other articles we will look at the various elements of care required to keep your drysuit going.

Drysuit Zipper Inspection

You will want to inspect your drysuit ippers for damage and debris by opening them up and looking at the inside of the teeth and running your fingers down the zipper to feel for any mis aligned teeth or teeth that are sticking up. In metal zipper suits there is a small cord that sometimes keeps the teeth in place. if that cord becomes damaged or your plastic teeth have sustained damage you will want to pull the suit out of service and contact the menufacturer immediately.

Drysuit Zipper Cleaning

If you just have a bit of dirt and debris in your zipper you will want to use some zipper cleaner and lubricant which comes in a small bottle with a brush. This product will help you clean out any of the debris that might be left in your zippers. Although there are no warnings on the product for garment discoloration, you will want to try to avoid getting any product on the zipper just incase it ends up discoloring the face fabric. Then, with a clean towel wipe off the excess cleaning solution.

Drysuit Zipper Lubrication

Next you will want to lubricate the zipper with the correct product. If you have plastic zippers you will want to use the TiZip product which will be more of a paste. If you have a metal zipper you will want to use the zipper lubricant that is more like a tube of lip balm. Kristin recommends putting some lubricant at each end of the zipper and a little in the center so it spreads out evenly. Next, you will want to open and close the zipper several times making sure you run the zipper all the way to either end.

Drysuit Zipper Storage

When you go to store your Drysuit, you will want to make sure it is clean and dry first. Metal zippers should be stored slightly open while plastic zippers should be stored completely closed.

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