UKC

What is the going rate? I've got some really nice Quechua fleeces which were a real bargain and are in good condition, but after a lot of use the zips are starting to go and I just got a quote of £35 to repair, which whilst understandable is more than what I paid for the whole fleece. 

Does that sound about right? I'm guessing I just have to accept UK repair costs are not Chinese production costs if I want to be sustainable and repair not replace, but curious if there are any more cost efficient options out there?

Sadly I suspect it would cost almost as much to buy a new zip with the intention of doing it yourself as it would to buy a new fleece.

Not at all. E.g.

http://www.pennineoutdoor.co.uk/haberdashery

Depending on the garment, zip replacement is easy. (One obviously needs a sewing machine to do it, of course.)

If the zip looks in good condition but teeth come apart, its always worth a go trying to squeeze the puller with some pliers, gently at first! 

Otherwise buy and stitch in a new zip.

In reply to purplemonkeyelephant:

I had a new zip put in on an ME down jacket a few years ago for £25 at The Tailors Workshop, Kendal.

In reply to Rick Graham:

Last week the same woman at The Tailors Workshop replaced the puller on a Montane down jacket for £10. I asked her whether I could have squeezed the puller shut with pliers, and she said yes I could have done, but it would have soon ended up in the same state as had made me bring it in in the first place, i.e. the zip kept opening from the bottom when zipped up. All works fine now.

It would be good to have a 'sticky thread' (or similar) which recorded good repair companies for all sorts of outdoor gear, including the current one.

In a very similar situation a local place that does clothes alterations and repairs quoted £30 to replace a jacket zip or ~£10-15 if he could repair it.

I managed to repair it myself by replacing the pullers with some that I'd kept from an old bag as it turns out that it was just the pullers were worn out. I love it when some random junk I've collected comes in useful. I'm not sure I'd have got away with just squeezing the sides of the pullers together as they'd worn to a sharp edge that would now have cut  through the zip fabric if squeezed together.

I went to zip up my ski bag on the night before flying out, only to have the zip pull fall apart; seemed to have corroded, possibly due to salt from being carried on a car roof.

The second zip pull had come adrift some years before, but I managed to cut the zip end open, and re-thread the zip pull. Then fused the end of the zip together to stop the zip unzipping.

Fortunately it survived the flight.

Just remembered that the lady at alpkit hathersage replaced the zip in my rab vaporise a couple of years ago. The price was quite reasonable maybe 20 pounds. They also did repairs on my alpkit jacket for free, but they will do repairs on any garment. 

Ask how much your local dry cleaners would charge you. I'd hope for £15 to £20

Alterations guy in our town charges £18 for a zip on a single layer item. It's a little more for the likes of a quilted jacket.

I just got a half-zip replaced on a Rab smock for £19 in my local alteration shop.

There is always the option of buying a " zip puller repair kit".  About 50 p each.

In the best traditions of UKC I should declare never using any but surely worth a punt.

Shout out for Mulch And The Broken Thing who are based in Sheffield and have been really helpful for me in the past.  Anna specialises in outdoor gear, rather than being a generalist.

https://www.mulchandthebrokenthing.com/about

As other have said you can find someone to do it a little cheaper, but getting something repaired in the UK will feel expensive compared to buying new because we've gotten used to some new clothes being extraordinarily cheap.

If you think about the cost for someone to repair your item:

1. 30 mins for the repair itself
2. 30 mins time spent on the rest of the order (any customer communication, sorting out return postage or arranging a collection time etc.)
3. Materials (zip and thread)

Say you take it to a small scale operation, they're probably only going to be doing work they can charge for ~50% of the time so your effective hourly rate is half what you are charging.

If they want to pay themselves minimum wage of £11.44 / hr they will need to charge you at least £22.88 before you take into account any of the overheads like renting a workshop space.

I suspect anyone charging you less than £25 would be losing money on the job.

Very likely to be just the puller not the whole zip - as already mentioned you may be able to squeeze it together temporarily but probably wont last long. They are pretty standard (size probably written on it), cheap and pretty easy to replace yourself vs a big job putting new zip in. A mixed kit of zip pulls and top closures a couple of quid and 5 minute job.

Scottish Mountain gear did a great replacement zip on my synthetic Montane jacket for £85. Expensive but the replacement jacket would have been more than twice that.

Good post!

I've bought these two part pullers that clip on the zip. 

They are total junk. They don't work 

AVOID! 

Indeed. If the OP could provide more information about the way their zips 'are starting to go', we could provide more directed advice.

Unfortunately the plastic teeth strip is delaminating and unsewing from the fabric strip connected to the fleece, so it definitely will be a new zip job. I have considered trying to repair it, but I think it would just be a short term bodge. 

Sounded very appealing but their website says £65!

https://alpkit.com/products/zip-replacement?srsltid=AfmBOooWjeEA3Jy1LFItcNq...

It might be worth going to a specialist for things like a taped seam waterproof but for anything else a local alterations/repair place will be far cheaper and probably just as good.

Yup; sounds like a replacement is needed, then.

A simple fleece doesn't need specialist outdoor work; any high street repairer will do. Or anyone you know with a sewing machine...

That's interesting, jacket was around 90 pounds so no way I'd have paid that! It was less than 5 years ago but not sure exactly. 

I got a zip replaced on a Rab softshell jacket by Lancashire Sports Repairs quite a few years ago and it was at least £25 then (quite a bit more for the same job now).

They did an absolutely first class job, with a solid zip (probably better than the original) and an almost perfect colour match too.   Well worth it as it is a very good jacket for which there wasn't a replacement available at the time.

A few weeks ago the zip went on my 25 year old Patagonia fleece which still had loads of wear left in it. Patagonia replaced the zip at no cost (sending a pre-paid postage label). The repair was done by Lancashire Sports Repairs in Burnley who did a great job.