Antares rings glove options

[decidedlyodd]

For several years I've been using various Atlas gloves (495, 660) with the SiTech Glove Lock QCP system on my old suit without much trouble. However, my new suit has the SiTech Antares oval ring system built in. While I like the low profile, these rings have been the source of several frustrating problems for me. Now that I've figured out how to stop them from leaking intermittently (make sure they are completely latched by trying to pry them apart after closing them up), I'm still struggling with another issue.

With certain sizes/models of gloves (e.g., with Atlas 660's in size XL), I have to seat the oval ring on the glove so close to the fingers that the glove ends up being too short and tight/inflexible once attached. This isn't as much of an issue with the smaller sizes because the flange of the glove is narrower, but the larger sizes have wider flanges where the circumference of the glove exceeds the circumference of the ring. In this case, I don't see how it's possible to seat the ring in a water tight way since there would have to be folds under the ring.

Is anybody else successfully using a different brand or type of gloves where this isn't an issue? Maybe something with a longer, narrower flange?

I'm considering trying some basic pullover gloves too. Anybody else had luck with those on this system?

 

[decidedlyodd]

Not long after I started this thread, I probably spent an hour in the parking lot fighting with my gloves and rings. One of the gloves was just not latching. I tried swapping them around since the troublesome ring seemed to attach fine when I swapped it to the other arm. Since it was raining, the gloves got fairly wet which caused the inner ring wrapped with the glove to slip out of the outer ring when put under tension. Somehow I managed to get it all working again although I was still facing the issue mentioned above where the glove was too tight and short in the wrist.

A couple days later the same drama started to unfold with the ring not latching again. This time I'd brought a pair of wet gloves with me, so I just gave up and went wet. After some numb, clumsy hands on that dive, I ordered some $10 pull over gloves. They look good so far but I still need to try them out (hopefully later today) to see how they hold up.

I have to say I'm fairly unimpressed with the Antares system as of late. The low profile is great but it's really impractical when I need to wear thicker liners to deal with the colder water we have here at this time of the year (low 40s). If the pull overs don't work satisfactorily, I may have to look into putting the larger SiTech round rings on the suit instead.

 

[Dive Right In Scuba]

The pullovers don't work the best with the Oval with the bigger glove sizes. There isn't a good, uniform ridge on that system to really prevent the water from coming in.

What gloves are you using with the system? I haven't had any issues setting them up with the ones we use, and I typically have the ring about 1" from where the gloves goes from smooth to textured. That is usually a good location.

 

[decidedlyodd]

I'm using size 10 pullovers, but I can see how they may not seal ideally. If they're no good, they were pretty cheap so no huge loss there.

Up until a few weeks ago, I was using the Atlas 620s in size L. These worked fine with a thinner liner, but as the water's gotten colder I've switched to a size XL pair of Atlas 660s to accommodate a thicker glove liner. The ring is about 2-3 inches from the smooth/rough transition. If I were to put it only an inch from that boundary, I'm pretty sure it would be too short to get the glove ring and suit ring together. I'm also wondering if the bulk from doubling the liner over is what's inhibiting movement. I hope the arms aren't too short. I just spent 8 weeks or so waiting for Santi to turn the suit around with other unrelated modifications.

Even with all of that, I'm still having trouble getting the one side to snap. I managed to locate a spare glove-side ring (the one with the prongs) to see if replacing it will help but I still need to try that out too.

 

[Alf1]

Hi,
I have the Antares system on my Santi e.motion as well.
Had also big problems to put the drygloves including the oval glove rings into the ovel stiff ring, until I heard that there are new red support rings.
See: ANTARES Support Ring - News - SI-TECH

Since I have the support rings, no mayor problems at all. Works fine.
However I´m still looking for the right dry gloves, because sometimes the dryglove get lost from the oval glove ring/spanner rings. I use those: Mapa JERSETTE 301, Hervorragendes Tastempfinden durch flexiblen Latex, 1 Paar, Größe: 8 or Mapa HARPON 321, Naturlatexhandschuh, 1 Paar, Größe: 6
If you use rubber or latex gloves there is an alternative way to fit the glove onto the glove ring. Please refer to the Antares user manual.
Hopes that helps.

 

[Redshift]

I have just installed the Antares dry gloves. Have had the oval system for a long time just for the ease of changing seals and having the silicone ones. But now finally got the dry gloves. And tested them today without incidents!
I have Showa 660 XL gloves and they fit fine. They don't become very wide quickly so the ring size is not a problem. Maybe you just have to shop around for gloves.

 

[decidedlyodd]

Just for an update….

I ended up not having much luck with the pullover gloves. One hand was totally dry while the other leaked very slowly resulting in my hand being fairly wet at the end of the dive. After switching out a new liner for the second dive, my hand was pretty wet for a second dive too so probably not just a random leak. The surface of the oval rings just isn't quite even enough I guess.

After getting my hands on the new red ring, my gloves are latching again which is great. I'm still back to some thinner liners though. I'm pretty sure that with thicker liners my hands are just a bit too big for this system. Folding over the gloves and the liners to fit lengthwise just results in even more bulk in the wrist which in turn contributes to less flexibility. I may try trimming the liners and gloves down a bit to reduce the fold over bulk, but with the water already starting to warm up, I'll probably be fine with my thinner liners until next winter.

That said, on the first dive with the red ring my hand got wet. I made sure the liner wasn't interfering with the o-rings, got 4 clicks (1 for each side on each hand), tried to pull each apart to make sure it was latched--the same ritual I always try to perform before heading to the water to make sure everything is sealed. As soon as I got in the water, I felt water running into my right hand. Doh. Waded to shallower water, popped the glove off, checked it, put it back on. It didn't seem to be leaking anymore but it's hard to tell once the liner is already a little bit wet from a leak. By the end of the dive, my hand was pretty soaked so definitely still leaking. No idea why it leaked. The second dive, no leaks at all.

Unfortunately, I just don't have good luck with these Antares rings. Probably half my dives I've had wet hands. In contrast, I can count on one hand the number of times I've had wet hands with my Glove Lock QCP directly on the seals. I love the silicone seals and low profile, but dry hands seem paramount. I'll probably be replacing the Antares system with the round rings once I've got some time to wait for the work to be done on my suit.

 

[Redshift]

You are worrying me with those hit and miss stories...

 

[SeaInFocus]

I've been having the same issues with my Antares system. It's a pain to get the gloves to properly "click" into place - although the new red support rings helps a lot. The issue now is intermittent leaking and getting the gloves off. Usually what happens is the gloves completely separate from the quick cuff ring. Not cool. I'm in the process of switching the Glove Lock QCP system since, although it's larger, is tried-and-true and easy to use.

 

[decidedlyodd]

I did end up swapping over to the round rings combined with the QCP system (which I already owned from using it directly on the seals). I miss the low profile of the Antares but my hands have been dry every dive since and there's been no frustrating fiddling either. Wish I had just gone with the round rings first. It would have saved me a bunch of money, time and most importantly frustration.

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---------- Post added May 13th, 2014 at 08:46 AM ----------

Oh, also FWIW, when I moved the silicone seals from the old to new system, I did find a small hole in the seal where it's pinched by the ring. I think this was probably the source of my regular, slow leaks right before I had the system swapped. Still, locking the QCP is much less fiddly than the Antares in my experience.

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