Whites Diving Bullet Fusion - Review

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I purchased the Whites Diving Bullet Fusion during the summer of 2011. It took two weeks to take delivery of the drysuit and dive one for the first time, I was excited. The first dive in the suit ended up with me thumbing the dive early due to to a leak. After taking it back to the dive shop they said it was due to a stuck exhaust valve, dive it again and it should be fine. Dive two was the same, I ended up getting soaked and thumbing the dive.

This time the dive shop actually decided to take a closer look and troubleshoot the leak. After securing all the seals they inflated the suit full of gas and began to spray down the suit with soapy water. We ended up finding a hole in a brand new suit near the exhaust valve about the size of a ballpoint pen in diameter. We called up Whites Diving to explain the matter and they said they'd send out a patch kit ASAP. What they didn't tell us was that the dive shop owner would have to take a class on how to properly patch the suit before they would let him work on mine.

Another two and a half weeks go by before they are finally ready to patch the suit. Meanwhile I used gorilla tape to seal the hole and dive. For the most part it would work and half the time I'd be lucky if I finished the dive completely dry. The repair took literally 30 seconds. You cut the patch to size, apply heat with a heat gun, and presto, you're done! They handed over the remaining patch kit for future use and said have fun. I found it interesting that a dive shop owner had to take a class in order to fix my suit, but I could fix it on my own without any training.

Over the next two years the suit had been trouble free. It was comfortable, easy to dive, and kept me dry! It developed a second leak on the right leg and I thought it came from the P-Valve I had installed. I removed the P-Valve, cleaned the suit and re-glued the valve back to the suit, it still leaked. After further investigation I found the smallest leak in the right foot on a seam. The leak was so small that I was surprised I even found it. I happened to look at the right place at the right time and saw exactly one bubble form over the leak. To this day it's been leak free after repairing it myself.

This is the first and only drysuit I've ever used. I've heard stories on how the Whites Fusion drysuits are easier to dive then other drysuits made. I cannot imagine what they mean but I'll take their word for it. The only complaint I have about the drysuit is the exact same complaint on every other Whites Diving product I've used to date. The quality of construction on their products is poor. The outer skin developed multiple broken seams. I would fix them with high strength sewing thread and after that the seams would be fine. Either whites quality control is really bad or the quality of materials they use is really poor. In the photo above you can see one of the pockets starting to fall off. I haven't had a chance to repair it yet.

I'm on the fence if I'd purchase another Bullet Fusion. I do enjoy diving it and it's really comfortable. It's easy to repair and I like the fact that I can use gorilla tape in a pinch if I had to. If Whites Diving payed a little more attention to the small details like reinforcing the seams then I think they would have a killer product. In that case I'd probably buy a second suit.

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