Jumpsuit or Farmer John/Jacket?

[Tropic Thunder]

Just asking for peoples' advice or experience:

What is considered to keep you warmer, a jumpsuit, or farmer john/jane and step-through jacket combo? I've heard differing opinions.

Thank you for your responses.

[Norris]

I was under the impression that the farmer John setup is warmer due to the Doubling up on the Torso. Actually creates more insulation???

I have a farmer John and when I dove wet last winter, it hooked me up just fine.

[FlyinV]

Before I went dry

I had a jumpsuit and then a vest/hood combo unit.
I found this kept me a lot warmer then the (rental) farmer john unit I was using for the classes.

This one


And then the hood/vest for it


The most important thing is whatever wetsuit set up you go with make sure it fits tights.
Your goal is the lowest water exchange inside the suit.

[Sockmonkey]

Go wool or go home!

+1 for a vest beneath your full jumpsuit. A wool lined vest with a hood even.

I just noticed that pinnacle was bought by zeagle. I sure hope they don't screw up my favorite kiwi provider of neoprene products.

-Eric

[sunnydude]

Before I went dry

I had a jumpsuit and then a vest/hood combo unit.
I found this kept me a lot warmer then the (rental) farmer john unit I was using for the classes.

This one


And then the hood/vest for it


The most important thing is whatever wetsuit set up you go with make sure it fits tights.
Your goal is the lowest water exchange inside the suit.

Before going dry, I had the Bare Arctic full suit and hooded vest. Dove it during the snow last december and was toasty warm (for a wetsuit).

[Kalatin]

I have never heard a big debate about warmth between the two, it seems to be a matter of personal preference coupled with quality of the suit and proper fit of the wetsuit. When I was diving the full suit/vest and hood combo I envied the folks in their farmer john's for the ability to get out of the maximum amount of neoprene in the shortest possible time. If you are a little claustrophobic (I am) think about ease of getting out of the pesky thing as well as warmth. It matters in both winter (getting out of a suit and into warm clothes as soon as possible, preferably before the neoprene starts to freeze solid) and in summer (getting out of black neoprene before spontaneous combustion takes place).

[Geek]

I wear a Mares IsoTherm semi dry all year and it works great, The Isotherm keeps water from exchanging, it's wet but YOUR warm, if anything I'm too warm... Tighter is better , just this side of feeling like you can't breathe will give you the most out of a wet suit...

[Nwbrewer]

What will keep you warmer? A drysuit.

Unless you're some abnormal size, watch CL carefully for a used drysuit and you should be able to pick one up for what you'd spend on a good wet or semi-dry. I did 2 winters diving a lot. I did it, it can be done, but freezing your off gets old.

[Joshua Smith]

What will keep you warmer? A drysuit.

Yeah....yeah. Dive wet however you want to. I had maybe 50 or 60 dives in the ol' farmer john getup before I broke. I was never very cold underwater, but changing out of that damn thing really sucked after a while. I (heart) my drysuit.