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Post by hikerjer on Jan 15, 2022 18:32:30 GMT -8
I don’t know how many people experience this but it’s extremely frustrating. Through the years I have purchased numerous pieces of top quality - I thought - gear. It seems that the first thing to go is the zippers. I find this extremely aggravating since when the zipper fails, the rest of the piece of gear is perfectly fine and would be fully functional except for the zipper. I know zippers can be replaced but it’s expensive. It just seems zippers should last as long as other components of the gear. Anyone else experience this or is just me?
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zeke
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Post by zeke on Jan 15, 2022 18:42:02 GMT -8
They could use self repairing zips for very little extra. The thing that got me recently was on a bike jersey bought online. Zipper worked the other side, so my wife tells me it is a female zipper. I knew buttons worked on the opposite side from men's wear, but had no idea zippers did also.
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BigLoad
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Post by BigLoad on Jan 15, 2022 19:29:58 GMT -8
Zipper worked the other side, so my wife tells me it is a female zipper. It's pretty standardized that way in the US, but less so in Europe. My Barbour Ashby jacket zips on the "wrong" side, as does my full-zip Norwegian sweater. The Barbour is a typical outerwear double zipper configuration, which I find very hard to operate on the opposite side. The sweater isn't so bad because it's less complicated.
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franco
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Post by franco on Jan 16, 2022 0:12:40 GMT -8
The US use the right hand side , European, Australian and NZ brands use the left. To add.. You get used to either and the one you grow up using will feel natural to you. At the same time it seems to me that using the right hand is more natural than using the left (to use the slider).
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rebeccad
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Post by rebeccad on Jan 17, 2022 7:58:52 GMT -8
Replacing the slider is a fairly easy fix and will usually solve zipper problesm. The super light-weight zips used in our UL gear are inevitably fragile.
As for things buttoning or zipping one size or the other… since I use a mix of men’s and women’s clothes, I’m not disturbed by it either way. Since I’m also left-handed, I’m used to things being awkard.
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BigLoad
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Post by BigLoad on Jan 17, 2022 8:09:16 GMT -8
since I use a mix of men’s and women’s clothes, I’m not disturbed by it either way. Since I’m also left-handed, I’m used to things being awkard. I don't know what it is about double-slider zippers that makes them hard to use on the wrong side. I don't feel like my left-handedness affects it, since regular zippers on the wrong side are no problem. It could just be that the zipper on that particular coat is balky.
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Post by High Sierra Fan on Jan 17, 2022 16:21:10 GMT -8
A while back a lightweight shelter I purchased (a Mountain Laurel Designs DCF SoloMid) came with some free zipper lube. I took the hint and used it, and found it useful for most of my recent outerwear buys whose zippers have all been far lighter than I’d be comfortable with given much of a choice.
The trend that’s really got me tired is the effectively universal use of seam welding instead of stitching in mountain parkas; turning very expensive gear into disposables.
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Post by leadbelly on Jan 22, 2022 17:15:45 GMT -8
In the drive to make quality gear increasingly lighter-weight, zippers are a stress point. Super light weight zippers can sometimes fall apart.
If the zipper was damaged during wear, eg clipped by an ice axe or other hardware, not a manufacturer’s defect, you’re right, the repair is on you. I’m not sure how expensive that would be. If it’s a manufacturer defect, something just falls apart like a coil or the little ‘male’ part at the bottom, or if a zipper pull falls off, this is a situation where buying gear from a company that offers a limited lifetime warranty pays off. A number of big outdoor companies have such warranties, and if a zipper fails, they’ll fix or replace free of charge.
Mountain Hardwear put a new zipper on a down jacket for me a number of years ago when the ‘male’ piece at the bottom of the zipper disintegrated and a few of the lower coils pulled loose, making it impossible to zip the thing up. This happened after i had owned the jacket for a few years, but it was otherwise in great shape. Pro tip - read each company’s warranty and return policies thoroughly. A number of them require you to launder the garment before sending or ask to package them a certain way, and reserve the right to reject the repair if you don’t follow the instructions.
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Post by swmtnbackpacker on Jan 23, 2022 10:03:07 GMT -8
Anymore I’ll try to go with a quarter-zip or even crew neck option partly due to this on non-winterish wear. Some companies like Patagonia may be more amenable to fix a tough zipper repair.
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Post by autumnmist on Jan 24, 2022 8:37:41 GMT -8
Check the pull piece on the zipper and see if's it's faded, scratched, or obviously doesn't appear as new. I bought some jackets a few years back and they were well made, except for the zippers, which stuck repeatedly at the base and couldn't be pulled. From the appearance, it appeared as though they had been used, and recycled. Rather than replace the zipper myself (which I've done before since I sewed for years), I just left the zipper where it was and pulled the jacket on over my head. I did notice that some zippers have a shorter base below the teeth, making it more difficult to engage and be pulled up.
For years, purchased zippers for making clothing were cotton, with metal teeth. Then polyester entered the picture, the sides were poly and didn't match fabric on the sides. The teeth were horrible; I learned quickly that polyester zippers were worthless, and went back to metal zippers. (This was for home sewing though, not purchased jackets, etc.)
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gabby
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Post by gabby on Jan 24, 2022 11:09:11 GMT -8
I just left the zipper where it was and pulled the jacket on over my head I have a pretty old GoLite synthetic puffy jacket which has a double slider zipper (for ventilating, I guess, while leaving it zipped up to the top - go figure - I never really understood the things; the jacket also has no outside pockets, which I thought was a great weightsaver, but which irritates me greatly when I just want to put it on and go out without searching for gloves, which is yet another irritation that this totally disorganized person suffers). I'll wear it occasionally when we get a burst of cold air here (rare), so it lives in the downstairs closet by the front door. I finally gave up on the zipper - it was just too hard to align both sliders and get enough zipper into both to get the zipper to track - so do the same thing you do: zip it down just enough to get it off the hanger, then pull it on over my head.
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Post by hikerjer on Jan 24, 2022 12:38:16 GMT -8
zippers, which stuck repeatedly at the base and couldn't be pulled I've experienced this but the main problelm I run into is the teeth in the zipper coming out redering the zipper worthless. It can't be repaired. The whole zipper has to be replaced and that's expensive. Really frustrating when the rest of the garmet is perfectly fine.
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ErnieW
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Post by ErnieW on Jan 24, 2022 12:48:27 GMT -8
You may already know this but sometimes if you take two pliers and then gently squeeze the sides of the main zipper body. This makes the zipper slightly tighter but more importantly makes the zipper teeth line up correctly. You just want it to be wide enough that the fabric backing the teeth just fits through. Don't do this too much. It will work harden the zipper and eventually will crack then game over.
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rebeccad
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Post by rebeccad on Jan 25, 2022 18:25:02 GMT -8
You may already know this but sometimes if you take two pliers and then gently squeeze the sides of the main zipper body. This makes the zipper slightly tighter but more importantly makes the zipper teeth line up correctly. You just want it to be wide enough that the fabric backing the teeth just fits through. Don't do this too much. It will work harden the zipper and eventually will crack then game over. I think he's talking about the teeth coming out of the binding.
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Post by hikerjer on Jan 27, 2022 19:21:10 GMT -8
Right. You are correct. Nothing much you can do when a tooth goes out except replace the entire zipper. It’s extremely annoying to have to pay $50+ to replace a zipper on an otherwise perfectly good garment.
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