The very first day I started collecting was an icey cold January Saturday morning.  I went to Kmart and bought a $10 pair of stocking foot chest waders.  I wasn't at the beach for more than 10 minutes when I snagged them on a fallen tree and tore one knee area completely open.  THere was no repairing that piece of junk.  However, since then I've invested in the more expensive, but still cheap, rubber hip/chest waders from Sports Authority.  I progressed to some from Cabella's and some other hunting/fishing stores, eventually getting the nicer breathable kind for my summer hunting.  In 12 years of colelcting, I've probably gone through 25 pairs of waders due to small holes or leaks in the rubber boot portion of the waders.  I refuse to buy those booty kind, but maybe I should.  In any event, I've tried almost every stupid concoction of glues, liquid nails, bicycle tire patches, wader patches from the store, poly-somethingorother glues from the store, but nothing would seem to hold up in the Ches. Bay salt water.  Well, until last year.  God Bless my friend John for somehow recommending I try Rhino liner, yep the stuff they spray in the beds of pickup trucks!  First, you need to clean the area around the leak real good.  He recommended some stuff called Xylol (Xylene) that I found at Home Depot in the paint thinner section.  Pour some on a rag and rub the area of the rubber boot that has the leak real well to clean any surface crud.  As for the Rhino liner, you can buy small jars of it from Pepboys automotive parts stores up here in MD (the rest of you can google it).  Stir it real good and use a small brush to spread it on the hole/leak area.  Don't put too much though, just one layer like you are paiting it.  Let it dry for several hours before you repeat the second application of it.  THhen let it dry for at least one day.  While drying, be sure to prop the boot up so the stuff doesn't run off and drip on the floor.  Warning:  This stuff will stain anything, even Superman's leotard, so don't get any on you because it won't come off.  Once dry, it has a rubbery/maleable type of feel to it, but stiff enough to not fall apart.  Because it is flexible, I have found the repairs last longer, if not permanently.  I don't remember how much the stuff costs, but between the Rhino and Xylene I spent around $30 total.  But there's enough there to last for years.

If someone has a good/cheap/reliable method for repairing waders I'd like to know what it is.  Because I seem to get so many leaks, I'm afraid to spend more money (like hundreds of $$) on some waders that are made of Gortex etc.

Daryl.

How about a tube of repair goo that works like a charm and holds for four years and counting??? This is what I use to repair my dive suits. It's called Aquaseal. A 1 oz tube is around $6.00 or $7.00. It isn't runny, sets up in less than 12 hours on an average repair, and it works. You still have to clean the area to be repaired, I use alcohol, and the repair area must be dry. On waders I use a piece of sandpaper to roughen up the repair area to achieve maximum adhesion. For small holes a little goes a long way. For larger tears I put a piece of wax paper inside the waders/scuba suit to keep the goo in place and I put the Aquaseal on the edges of the tear, then I put a thin seam of goo along the tear after the sides are matched up as well as possible. At this point I usually put some weight around the repair to hold it in position. It is flexible in small doses, but if you put it on really thick it will loose some of it's flexibility. Aquaseal can be found in most dive shops or purchased online.

Thanks BWD & BRM for the additional tips & products - I had never heard of Aquaseal before.  I aleady checked it out online (http://www.trisports.com/aquaseal1oz.html) but will check Sports Authority in town to see if they carry it first.  I tried shoo goo before on my rubber waders but it fell off after a few minutes of being in the water. 

Ditto on the surface preparation.  besides the product you're using, this is probably the most important step in the process of repairing the leak.  I learned the hard way by rushing the repairs, not making sure my waders were completely dry (inside), trying to fix them the night before and not giving the goo enough time to cure etc.  You definitely have to roughen up the rubber wader surface with something like sand paper etc. to give the goo something to adhere to. 

Since not too many people are reading this thread I'll admit to something else I tried one time to "plug" a hole in one of my waders.  You know how when you get a nail or screw in one of your car tires, they can sometime "plug" it with a rubber plug, well, I tired this technique on my waders once.  I didn't have a rubber plug available like they do at the auto repair shop, so I got to thinking as to what I could use that was rubber - aha - a rubber band!  I found a large thick rubber band, cut it to size and jammed it in the hole until it went all the way through.  I squirt some kind of glue in the hole as well to glue the piece of rubber band in place.  The next day it seemed dry so I pulled on the piece of rubber band (before trimming even) to see how well it was holding.  Well, it sorted pulled out a little and I was once again frustrated with repairing these waders.  But then I got another thought, maybe if I melted the rubber band it would become "one with the rubber wader".  So i found some old matches and went to work trying to light the rubber band.  It wouldn't ignite at first, so I put a nice dollop of fresh glue all over it.  Man, what a fire, and boy did it stink!  By the way, my kids weren't around to watch me do this stupid stufff, I would have given them a couple pop-knots if I caught them doing something like this.  Anyhow, the end result was not a sealed up hole, but rather, a larger hole because not only did the rubber band melt, but so did the rubber in the waders.  Needless to say, that boot got tossed in the trash and I saved the other boot in case I could match it later on with another boot from my next pair that got a leak.  At one point I've had many different waders (some lefts/some rights) down in my shed.

At some point I gave up trying to repair the waders and just went and bought another $25 cheap pair at one of the local sporting goods strores, but most of them didn't come with felt soles.  I will never ever never go back to rubber shank/sole boots again.  For the type of colelcting I do along Calvert Cliffs (walking along on/across large slippery wet clay boulders), or slippery rocks in streams etc., nothing beats the felt bottom boots.  I can practically run across green slimy slippery wet bolders without hesitation now.  Plus they are so much more comfortable.

I just got my two new pair of waders in last night from Cabella's - both with felt soles, one hip, one chest, all for under $95 with shipping.  Aquaseal will be coming next.

Daryl.

Daryl I agree.  The Cabelas waders that your talking about are the best deal going.  I have the exact same pair, with the felt bottoms, and they are great.  I did go to Bass Pro last month at Arundle Mills and get a nice pair of Red Ball (I think thats what they are called) felt bottom hippsters for only 40$...very nice.  Small and I can keep my work clothes on for those early morning "breakfast before work" hunts.

BRM, if that story was funny, here's a pitiful one.  A few years ago, I was shark tooth hunting like a mad man.  Sometimes going for a couple days in a row, up to 4 times per week.  As a result, if one of my waders developed a leak, I either didn't have enough time to stop by Dick's or Sports Authority for a new pair, or if I did make it there, they were almost always out of size 13.  Therefore, I would go collecting, knowing full welll that within a couple seconds of stepping into the water, my wader would be fileld with water, and as luck would have it, this usually happened in thew Winter when the water temp was near freezing.  So, I'm an engineer, I can figure something out in the meantime right?  Well, after a few futile attempts at repairs (shoe goo, liquid nails, patches, etc that just fell off anyway), I would then get creative.  If I can't keep the water out, then how can I still keep my foot warm and dry?  Aha, just slip my leg/foot into a hefty trash bag, then slide it into the wader - problem solved!  Or not.  What would almost always happen is the bag would tear (without me knowing) as I pushed my foot into the boot, so instead of getting wet instantly, it was usually delayed by a few minutes - woopty doo.  I remember one time I ran out of the house without my trusty garbage bag in the car.  Half way to the beach I realized it, but didn't want  to turn back and loose precious minutes on the beach collecting.  I noticed a Lowe's plastic bag in the car and thought my problem was solved - or not.  Those stinkin bags are so thin, you can per near see through them.  Of course it tore when I put my foot in, you didn't think it was going to work better then a Hefty sinch sack did you?  The worst of it wasn't that my foot at times would be nearly frost bit/numb from the icey cold water.  The bad part was that my buddy collecting with me was aware of my plight, and kindly reminded me from time to time how his $300 pair of Gortex waders were nice and dry and warm.  It's funny, when he woke up in the hospital, I told him that a clump of matrix had fallen and hit nim on the back of the head, and the fact that the impression looked like the back of my shovel was pure coincidence - just kidding of course.  After collecting, I used to have to take my wet sock off, and on the 45 minute drive back home, I would crank the heater to high, direct to the floor, and about stick my foot up into the hole where it blows out to warm my foot up.  Usually by the time I got home, I could wiggle my toes and feel them.

I'm proud to say that I don't resort to stuff like that any more - putting my feet in garbage bags that is. 

Daryl.