suits are discontinued and 750 new at Austin kayak so it you want it why not buy new for another 250.
You get what you pay for in drysuits. Kokatat is guaranteed for life. How long will this Level 6 last? Can you get it repaired by manufacturer? How does the material breathe? Look at the zipper difference between kokatat and level 6. As I said before you may be talking about your life. I thought it was nuts when I started looking to kayak to spend for an Kokatat Expedition suit over a thousand dollars. I have it 7 years and with a little care it still looks like new. Bet I could sell it for 750 or more. That means say 7 years of use for even 500 bucks is well worth it for me. Cost me little over 70 bucks a year for total confidence and comfort. I paddle down to about 30* F air temp and water here can go to 37* F. I paddle alone a lot so how long would I last with a suit failing? When it comes to safety I never scrimp I can’t trade it in when I am in trouble.
Level Six makes nice stuff, but for a drysuit, there’s other considerations, i.e. drysuit math, kind of a weird formula.
As already mentioned, one way of looking at it is how much you use it, and how quickly are you going to wear it out? It is a big investment, and the more you use it, the faster it can wear out and require maintenance. Few garments last forever. If you take good care of your gear, rinse and lube and keep it clean, the longer you can get between needing it serviced.
If you’re just using a suit a handful of times a year in the shoulder seasons to get out, then a less expensive suit might work. If you’re wearing it every time you paddle, from labor day to mid June, then investing in something with a bomber warranty is probably the way to go. Gore-tex carries a lifetime warranty on it’s fabric, and the manufacturers using the fabric will back you up if the fabric fails, and needs to be replaced. You’ll probably get a new suit. You never know what coverage a fabric specific to a manufacturer will carry, or if they can perform maintenance, and repair a garment. Or if you’re handy and willing to take on replacing gaskets or pin pointing leaks as they pop up then maybe you don’t need a manufacturer with the bomber warranty.
I suspect I will be more or less Labour Day-Mid June user. Short weekly/biweekly trips, not a lot of paddling but a lot of getting in and out for sure.
I’ve only had a Kokatat Expedition so my perspective is very narrow. But for what it’s worth, I have been very satisfied. When I made the original purchase, I was calculating an approximate 10 year life span on the suit itself. Only considering the cost of the suit itself that breaks down to something near $120 CAD per year (2013 price). Wanna compare that to buying cups of coffee, or how much you spend in fuel getting getting your boat to the water? I replaced the original gaskets this past summer, after about 4 years of use. My time was “free”, and the gaskets were much less than the other things that seem to drain my money.
Around the same time I plugged up some pinholes in the socks with Aquaseal. I didn’t even realize the socks were leaking until I performed a full-suit leak test. I just figured the dampness was my feet sweating, plus the leaks from the old broken-down gaskets pooling at my feet. Easy fix and totally water tight once again.
I’ve seen the way that many others treat their suits, and have come to the conclusion that I treat it pretty well. Between you and me (and the rest of the Internet…), I’ve been hoping for a fabric failure so that I can get it replaced before it wears out but so far it’s not looking good… which you can take either way.
@SpaceSputnik said:
Pulled the trigger on Kokatat Meridian. My wallet hates me.
Your feet and body will love the Gore-Tex. Great choice. It’s so nice to have dry feet and socks at the end of the day.
A good tip given to me when I got my Kokatat Radius was to keep a towel handy to step on when taking off wet shoes, to protect the booties from abrasive stuff.