Heated vest and/or heated gloves

[GreatLakesWreckDiver]

I have been reading posts about folks using heated vests. Not a big thing in the Midwest but when in Rome I thought I would try to find out more. I typically don't have an issue with general coldness, but have to surrender when I can't feel my hands anymore and then pay the price as they warm up again later

I'm hoping to find out more when I get out there and start diving but thought I would start my research now. Typical dives that get to my hands are water below 50 degrees and a dive longer than 20 minutes. Example would be the traditional Pearl Harbor Day dive coming up at the local marina what is starting to ice over so water temps will be in the high 30's but we'll only be in 20' of water so could be down for an hour or better.

Any suggestions on keeping the fingers warm and how the electrical systems work for heated garments would be greatly appreciated.

[GreatLakesWreckDiver]

Guess I should say - I am a dry suit diver with dry gloves as well.

[selkie]

I think you will find our saltwater to be a balmy 42 to 52 depending on depth and time of year. In the summer it will be even warmer near the surface. Sometimes we can get a cold layer of freshwater at the surface in winter when we have a snow melt event. The snow melt mostly affects Hood Canal.

[GreatLakesWreckDiver]

I am moving out to Port Townsend in a few weeks. Bringing my dive gear right away. Hoping to get in the water.

The temps you describe are very similar to our summer diving in the Great Lakes. 42 degrees for a longer dive will take its toll on my hands. I picked up some carbon resistive cloth tape. Was going to make a pair of heated gloves. The issue I hadn't really figured out was powering them so I could switch them on and off.

[CaptnJack]

Better hood, better socks, and better glove liners if you're cold once you get here...

The 12mm Otter Bay hoods are popular and custom for your noggin. If not at least have a newish hood, they do wear out and break down.
400 gm thinsulate or weezle socks
I am partial to the 50/50 wool/polypro liners at Seattle Marine. I think they crush alot less than mere fleece liners. They are also cheap and its easy to have spares to address condensation on repetitive dives.

Heat is expensive, not entirely risk free, one more fiddly thing to keep working in salt water.

FYI for a moderately experienced diver, 20 mins would be a short (recreational) dive around here. Typically recreational single tank bumble is probably 45 to 70 mins depending on the site/conditions.

[GreatLakesWreckDiver]

12mm hood! WOW - that is a chunk of rubber. I do have a 7mm hood. I have found Seal Socks to do a great job keeping my feet warm. Really my only issue is hands. I have tried different liners and went to dry gloves quite a while ago. Still have my issues. Think I had a touch of frost bite when I was a kid.

I should qualify those 20 minute dives are at depth for 20 min and depth being 100'+ on shipwrecks in the great lakes. Typically Lake MI or Lake Superior are in the high 30's to low 40's below 50'. Don't get much relief from the cold till you get back on the boat.

[BillZ]

Have you tried the hand warmer heat pads similar to these:

http://www.rei.com/product/829216/grabb ... kage-of-10

My wife has renauds (which is where the blood in your hands drain when exposed to cold) and she swears by the hand warmers in her dry gloves.

Unless your doing long deco dives, most folks get by with a good set of undergarments and maybe argon in the winter months.

[Jeff Pack]

I have the waterproof 10/5m hood, wear REI expedition weight merlino socks and 7mm neoprene socks. Plus an electric vest.

[ljjames]

Waterproof 5/10 hood is amazing... 4th Element gloves are best wet gloves i've found

[mpenders]

Waterproof 5/10 hood is amazing...

+1. Upon surfacing from a dive, I can feel the WARM water draining out of it. I just started wearing it again here in Nov, otherwise I use a 6mm hood during warmer weather.

[GreatLakesWreckDiver]

I tried the hand warmers but ran into two issues - first they were just thick enough that it made it almost impossible to get the SiTech glove ring off my hand (thought I was going to have to break it!) and second, it seemed the lack of air movement in the dry glove hindered the heating ability of the pack. They work great when I am out hunting and they are just in a pocket.

To those using headed vests - how do you power them and turn them on and off? I am a motorcyclist and thought I could basically use electric motorcycling glove liners but there is no 12 system on my dry suit to plug into like the motorcycle and no access to a control unit clipped to my belt.

[BillZ]

Most of the heaters I've seen are plumbed through the drysuit inflator. Here's a video of how to setup the UTD system which shows you how they work.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kO9X66-Jc7c

[KneeDeep]

The wife and I were in San Diego last week and stopped by UTD. Met Jeff and talked for abit about the heat system, looks nice, but not a vest. Plus side is it can dive wet.

[GreatLakesWreckDiver]

Most of the heaters I've seen are plumbed through the drysuit inflator. Here's a video of how to setup the UTD system which shows you how they work.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kO9X66-Jc7c

Thank you. Now I see how it works. Pretty cool system really. Would just have to setup some type of Y-cable to go to gloves and setup gloves with the correct connectors.

[GreatLakesWreckDiver]

The wife and I were in San Diego last week and stopped by UTD. Met Jeff and talked for abit about the heat system, looks nice, but not a vest. Plus side is it can dive wet.

Maybe I'll need to take a trip to San Diego to visit my niece and swing by there to talk to Jeff. Doesn't look like he has gloves but that is the minor part once the power and controls are in place.

[Jeff Pack]

the big trick as I see it with gloves, is getting those wires down your arms, and then once attached to gloves/insert, coiling up left over wire.

I have the Golem Gear Vest, and they make a heated glove insert which I've been looking at, but the above has been whats been stumping me. An integrated system like DUI or Santi makes more sense, but at the cost of more power usage. The Santi Suit, versus my vest, is 4 hours out of of my 20ah battery, versus 2 hours. Meaning I cant run it solid for a 4 hour dive.

I wound up with a Size Regular Golem Gear vest thats brand new in the package if anyone is interested.New is on sale for 380, I'll let it go for 300$

[GreatLakesWreckDiver]

the big trick as I see it with gloves, is getting those wires down your arms, and then once attached to gloves/insert, coiling up left over wire.

I assumed a very short cable on the glove and the cable from the chest would go down the arm with just enough to plug into the glove so the connector would actually sit on the back side of the hand inside the dry glove. Any extra cable would be in the arm or body area of the dry suit. All theory of course. The cable running through the wrist seal would also act as the air exchange area to get air in the dry gloves.

[CaptnJack]

I think most people using heated undies skip heating legs, arms, feet, and hands. Just a vest is used by probably 99% of the powered heat users out there. I would start with a vest and only add heated gloves if your hands are still cold.

You do need to be able to turn it on/off outside of your suit so a seperate canister with an E/O port is the typically used. The inflator ports are nice although the UTD one will cut the wires over time. The Santi version is much better but pricey. A glue in port is functional for awhile too, but flexing of the wires on the inside will also cause them to break over time.

"E/O" ports are pretty pathetic (corroding etc) compared to proper wet mate-able connectors like the impulse type. But they are more expensive and non-standard for diving :(

[GMan]

The system sold by Santi is described here: http://www.oceanedgeoutfitters.com/Heat ... -s/130.htm
It includes heated gloves, pass-thrus, splitter, etc...
I have the heated undersuit and love it in the winter months

[GreatLakesWreckDiver]

I think most people using heated undies skip heating legs, arms, feet, and hands. Just a vest is used by probably 99% of the powered heat users out there. I would start with a vest and only add heated gloves if your hands are still cold.

My issue is pretty isolated to only my hands. It isn't just a water thing - happens anytime I work in the cold. Believe it has to do with freezing my hands when I was a kid.

[LCF]

Heat is wonderful, but spendy. I have the Santi heated vest with throughport and canister and battery, and by the time it was all done, I had about $1000 into it. It does make a HUGE difference in doing repetitive dives in the wintertime, but you really need to be careful how one is used. There is VERY good research that if you are warm at the beginning of the dive, and cold at the end, you significantly raise your chances of DCS. And one must always consider that no electrical device is foolproof underwater, and that the battery draw on the heating garments is quite high. I have used my vest only for the last third of any given dive, and I may go to doing even less in-water time, and running it more during surface interval.

[GreatLakesWreckDiver]

Understood. I am just looking for warming my hands. My core is fine.