This post is a continuation of Wetsuit Explosion (Part 1). There’s some great feedback on other peoples experiences with wetsuits, warranty, and customer service in the comments section.
I warrantied my Xcel X-zip wetsuit September 3rd, 2010. I’d had the suit about 9 months when i decided to try to warranty it. It started falling apart at month 6th. By month 8 it had exploded. The seams around the arm pits (front and back) were splitting as were seams in other areas. Water was pouring in. I’d never had a suit blow out on me that quick. Can’t imagine how quick the suit would’a blown out on me if i surfed daily.
On August 31st I started the warranty process by filling out an online claim form. I then sent the suit along with a copy of my receipt to Xcel in California on the 2nd of September. They responded back to me via email 12 days later with a repair status. The suit finally showed up on the 30th of September. All in all the process took about a month.
The repair job is awesome. They went above/beyond what i was expecting. I sent the suit in specifically for the the seam blowouts around the arm pits. They replaced the whole chest piece on the front. The seams around the arm pits where there was blowout look solid. There happened to be a rip on the neck inside the hood–they fixed that too. Super stoked.
The couple times i called customer service to check on the status went well and i got to talk to Hawaiian girls. Xcel’s warranty process went pretty well for me. Didn’t have deal with any dickheads, didn’t get jerked around. No complaints.
If you do have one of these X-Zip suits and it’s taking a shit on you, send it in. They do good work.
What i learned:
1. Have a back-up suit.
2. Keep your receipt.
3. Don’t try to fix the suit yourself with seam glue, dental floss, magic, etc. (Voids the warranty).
4. Send your suit in for warranty when there’s no swell.
During the warranty process i started researching various company’s wetsuit lines. I focused only on suits that had a fixed hood and were either a 5/4 or a 4/3. Being as i expect to destroy my next new wetsuit, i read up on each company’s warranty/guarantee. From what i found almost all companies have a maximum 1 year warranty on seams and rubber. Rip Curl and West guarantee their stitching for life, and aside from improper care, Patagonia guarantees everything forever.
The table below summarizes what i came up with. Note: Info was current as of Fall 2010.
| Company | Name | Thick | Warmth | Warranty | Price | Link |
| Billabong | SG5 | 5/4 Hooded | 47°+ | no idea | 344 | Link |
| Body
Glove |
Vapor | 5/4/3 Hooded | 1 Year | 399 | Link | |
| Body
Glove |
Fusion | 5/4/3 Hooded | 1 Year | 299 | Link | |
| Hotline | Ultra Hot | 5/4 Hooded | 32-52° F | ? | 360 | Link |
| Hotline | Reflex | 5/4 Hooded | ? | 399 | Link | |
| Matuse | Tumo | 5/4/3 Hooded | 1 Year | 475 | Link | |
| O’Neill | Psycho Freak II | 5.5/4.5 Hooded | 50°F | 1 Year on Seams/Materials | 579 | Link |
| O’Neill | Mutant | 5/4 Hooded | 40°F | 1 Year on Seams/Materials | 339 | Link |
| Patagonia | R4 | 5/4/3 Hooded | 38-48° F | Forever | 599 | Link |
| Patagonia | R3 | 3mm Hooded | 48-55° F | Forever | 575 | Link |
| Quiksilver | Cypher DS | 5/4/3 Hooded | 1 Year | 459 | Link | |
| Quiksilver | Cypher 5/4/3 | 5/4/3 Hooded | 1 Year | 344 | Link | |
| Quiksilver | Cypher 4/3 | 4/3 Hooded | 1 Year | 334 | Link | |
| Rip Curl | F Bomb | 5/4 Hooded | Lifetime stitching, 12 Months on materials | 419 | Link | |
| Rip Curl | Insulator | 5/4 Hooded | Lifetime stitching, 12 Months on materials | 319 | Link | |
| West | Lotus | 5/4 Hooded | Lifetime stitching, 12 Months on materials | ?310 | Link | |
| XCEL | Drylock | 5/4 Hooded | 1 Year | 460 | Link | |
| XCEL | Drylock | 4/3 Hooded | 1 Year | 450 | Link | |
| XCEL | X Zip | 5/4 Hooded | 1 Year | 350 | Link |
On a side note i took one of my older Xcel suits in for a repair at Underwater Sports (a dive shop) up on Aurora Ave in Seattle. The inner seam around the cocknballz area had blown out. They were able to replace the seam tape with a similar flexible and non-abrasive dive suit version. They charged me $25 bucks, did a good job, only took 2 days, and were pleasant to deal with. The repaired seam is probably 95% water tight (compared to 5%) and doesn’t feel like a gaping hole any more. I’m gonna try to get my hands on some of the seam tape they used and seal it myself next time. DIY.
Also, I tried on a hooded Patagonia R3 the other day. Damn, those suits are friggen sick. Think i’m gonna sit tight with the two beat up Xcel suits i have for now, stack cash for a bit and look into getting that R3 in a few months…
I’d be curious to hear anyone’s experience with a Patagonia warranty.
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whats “talk hawiian girls”
ha! woops…typo.
my bad…what a retart.
sofa king
Just curious
A) How often do you piss your suit?
B) Do you drive 3 hours with a piss and salt soaked suit stewing in your bin?
A) Every chance I get.
B) Sometime leave it in there for days after too.
A) Sometimes i whip out and piss in my suit before even getting in. Hot piss works great on a cold morning. Try it!
B) Bin? I just throw my salt/piss soaked suit on my passenger seat and crank the heater.
Check this video out from patagonia. Look like any local stuff?
http://www.patagonia.com/us/fb/index.jsp?id=3#/6
I’ve seen that vid. Pretty rad. I like that it takes em 6 hours to make a wetsuit. Be stoked to get into one someday when i have 6hundred extra bucks.
All those spots are in Canada.
So when you go “trying on” wetsuits for fun do you leave on a courtasey barrier or do you go comando?
not sure why you thinking about dudes junk this early…but keeping a barrier between your salty ballz and the rest of the world is prob a good idea.
While I’m quite comfortable with my sexuality and am ok thinking about dudes junks at anytime of the day including my own, I just wouldent wanna be that dude who threw down $600 for a Patagucci that someone elses sweaty sack was all up in. Gald to hear you use protection when wetsuit modeling. Thanks.
no sweat bro. always thinking of you.
Thanks. But not me mang. Not gonna throw down 6 hundy on a suit. Xcell Infinitys work just fine. Rather spend that extra money travelin when I dont need wetsuit.
Shit man. New infinity suits aren’t much cheaper. But good point.
Think I mentioned this before, but right now you can get last years Infinity’s for 20%-30% off as several stores are clearing out for the 2011′s. I usually pay about $230 so….minus $600 = $370 which goes nicely towars a tickey to Mex or spending $ if I got an AK Air free ticket.
6 hours to make a suit, at least that justify’s the price. That comboed with the warranty makes it a pretty good deal.
i don’t know man…6hundo is 6hundo. a pretty good deal is relative…
patagucci warranty on anything seems to be retarded good. bring it into shop, swap it out there or get gift card in amount of it. if you want to save $ on a ‘gucc (though it’s a crapshoot) the outlets do x50% off outlet prices on labor day, 4th of july, pretty much any long holiday weekend. they don’t always have suits in stock though. wrd.
nice. i’d be really surprised if a pat suit ever made it into an outlet. if it did it’d prob be XL short or something.