Did I buy faulty BC's or is the design just not right for me?

[mcace007]

My wife and I own Mares BC, I have a Dragon and she has the Kaila. They are weight integrated and in general have been pretty good and are darn comfortable!

This problem that I have had is with the weight pockets. There are now 3 of them on the bottom of the sea and I am getting more than a little tired replacing them and the lead.

I discovered that I can not put more than one weight in either pocket on my BC because if I ever roll over and there is hard lead in there Velcrolcro won't hold the weights apart, they smack together and out comes the weight pocket. In the tropics this is not that big of a deal as I only have to put 4Lbs in each pocket and the rest of what I need in the trim pocket. That being said my pocket has come out over 6 times where I was able to recover the pocket and continue my dive. There were 2 times that I was not aware that the pocket came out as it is forever gone. One of those time I was getting back on the boat so something may have been bumped.

My wife has lost her weight pocket twice,once getting back on the boat and once in the middle of a dive, I saw it drop and she was simply coasting over the reef and rolled over. Both time we were able to recover the pocket.

The problem is more of an issue when I am doing cold water dives and have to have a little more weight in there. It seems that the pockets hang way out of the slot on the bc and almost want to come out all the time, I find that I have to swim with my hands over the pockets to make sure that they don't pop out. Well this last weekend the worst happened and I lost a pocket at 70 feet, suddenly I wauncontrolledontroled luckily, luckly I was able to dump air and hold on to a rock until my buddy found my pocket. I put it back in and aborted the dive. On the boat I removed weight redistributed and went on the next dive. This time my pocket came out while I was dsafetyy saftey stop. I turned to confirm with my buddy we were ready to surface and out it came, down in to the depths of Monterey Bay.

At first I thought it was me, but I have replaced the pockets, chpocketse posckets from one side to the other and it seems nothing is helping. Both sides and both BC's have had this issue? This is getting to be expensive. It's to the point that I don't want to put any weight in the BC at all and dive with a belt? Kind of negates the point of a weight integrated BC.

Can anyone help me or is it time to look to a different setup?

Thank!
Michael

 

[alohahonu]

i've been diving with a kailah. my problem is the opposite. the pocket snaps in really tight. i guess this is a happy problem compared to yours. i put 2 2lb weights in each pocket and 2lbs in the back trim pockets for a total of 12lbs. so far so good. what does your mares dealer have to say about this?

 

[gcarter]

I discovered that I can not put more than one weight in either pocket on my BC because if I ever roll over and there is hard lead in there Velcrolcro won't hold the weights apart, they smack together and out comes the weight pocket.

This sounds like the root of the problem. Make sure that you use a weight combination that fills the pocket, so they are not sliding in the pocket and smacking each other.

Having said that, my BCD is a SeaQuest Balance - I have no idea how the Mares WI mechanism compares. Nonetheless, the above is what I have always done and i have not had a problem yet.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

I have a student's dad who has a Mares bc and the weight pockets are an ongoing issue. If they are not falling out the clips are breaking. Unfortunately his model is no longer supported by Mares and he has had to go to ebay for replacements. I now have him looking at other models and other mfg while changing his weighting set up. He now carries no more than 3 lbs in each one and distributes the rest in the trim pockets and on a belt. Your BC may be defective and after that many lost pockets which are not cheap I'd seriously consider getting rid of it. I stopped using an integrated BC a few years ago. Not because of the pockets falling out but because they were just so damned inconvenient. Compared to my BPW's, Back inflate Zeagle Express Tech, and a weight belt an integrated BC made little sense.

I dive cooler to cold water and lifting a BC with 20 lbs of weight shoved in it was just getting too old. The BC had 4-5 lbs of positive buoyancy to offset on top of my own requirements. As an instructor I have to demo weight belt off and on anyway so my pockets ended up never getting used. Having the weight distributed between a belt, the plate, and steel tanks is so much easier and more secure.

Some pockets are rated to hold up to 10lbs. This is stupid IMO as if you need say 28 lbs with a 7 mil or drysuit you shove 10 in each pocket and the rest in the trim. If you lose one pocket you've lost 1/3 of your weights. Not good as you found out. Even with pockets you should never put more in one than you can afford to lose and still do a controlled ascent. Even if that means adding a weight belt to your set up. If I were in your place I'd contact Mares and insist on a replacement for you and your wife or get something else entirely. No way would I trust it.

And personally if diving Monterey on a regular basis and needing the kind of suits you do, no question a steel plate and wing would be my choice. With a belt or weight harness for any extra needed.

 

[gcarter]

Some pockets are rated to hold up to 10lbs. This is stupid IMO as if you need say 28 lbs with a 7 mil or drysuit you shove 10 in each pocket and the rest in the trim. If you lose one pocket you've lost 1/3 of your weights. Not good as you found out. Even with pockets you should never put more in one than you can afford to lose and still do a controlled ascent. Even if that means adding a weight belt to your set up.

What he said.

I added a weight belt and distribute between the belt, the ditchable pockets, and the trim pockets.

 

[WaterV]

I had this problem once with my Bare Curve of the pocket hanging out (not loosing them). Solved it by adding a plexiglass (or any other plastic that is rigid enough) rectangle in the pockets, to keep them straight. You can get it at your local hardware store for about 20$ for a whole sheet, way more than you need. You can cut it with any electric saw.
Never had a problem since and I usually have about 8 pounds in each of the pockets (dry suit and heavy underwear...).
Good luck!

 

[rafal1676]

After loosing three pockets in my Dragon AT I sold this pice of sh...t. Mares jackets are dangerous, (I lost one of the pockets , when i was about 110 feet deep and start uncontroled ascent). Only thanks to my friend who is also scuba instructor it didn't end with accident becouse he help me to stop. Right now im happy owner of Halcyon Eclipse. When people ask me about mares jackets I always tell them to be very carefull.

 

[zoranb]

I'm diving with Mares Dragon AT with integrated weights, and here are some of my thoughts on the issue of the integrated weight pockets.

I've been diving with the Dragon for a year now, and had a couple of issues with the weight pocekts. Not wanting to go into details of ever single one of them, I'll tell you about the last one a month ago, as it is the most recent.

I've always found it annoying having to put the pockets into the BCD after putting on the BCD, and then ONLY if there's nothing in the pockets. If I have something already in the pocket, the weight pouch will be harder to insert as opposed to when there's nothing in the pocket.

This last dive, I put my weight pockets in as usual making sure they were tight just in case. After having one pocket drop out some time ago, I always make sure the pockets are inserted properly to aviod accidental release.

I jumped in the water (GFS) and while on surface, tightened all the BCD straps (as usual), including making sure that the pockets are firmly in place after the entry in the water. Both pockets felt tight and secure. After submersion I dove horizontally down, and after some depth I dove head first. At that point one of the darn pockets fell out. Luckily this was close to the bottom and I retrieved the weight pocket easily, and fitted it back in the BCD.

This dive was a series of some 10 dives, 6 of which were drift dives near coral reefs, where a dropped weight is NOT retrievable due to depth. I realised that most of the other dives I kept "fidgeting" (term my buddy used) with the pockets during the entire dives. At that point I realised that I constantly have this need to check pockets are in place, which is stupid and I refuse to do it anymore. I'm diving to enjoy myself, not to quadruple-check the equipment all the time.

This made me think about the weight pockets and how they fell out on previous occasions. As I remember almost all instances were when I dove head-first, so the pockes definitely come undone when the weights in the pocket bump each other. The velcro has no role here, as I always press on the velcro when inserting weights, but if you shake the weight the velcro comes lose as it can't hold a 2 kg weight. The inertia of a 2 + 2 kg weight bumping into each other is enough to overcome the tension of the security mechanism and the weight comes off underwater.

Oh, and do you want me to tell you how many times it took me to learn NOT to bend forward after putting the weight pockets in the BCD on dry land? Three times. All three times the pocket WITH the weights inside fell out when I bent forward to pick something up off the floor. And all three times the pouch landed smack on my TOE. With the weights in. It HUUUURTS!

I don't know if this happened before with the MRS system, but the MRS plus system is definitely susceptible to this.

On another note, I witnessed when a small pebble got stuck in the release system making it impossible to detach the pocket from the BCD. It took 3 grown men an hour to release the pocket, and cutting the damn thing out with a huge knife was contemplated several times during the process.

Shame. I really like the Dragon. It's comfortable and the AT is easy and convenient to use (even though I'm still pretty sure every single component will rust quickly), but I refuse to be a slave to a faulty weight system.

So I have a choice that is no choice. I can wear my weights on my belt which I hate as it huts my back, or I can continue fidget-diving.

On the other hand, I could buy a new BCD...

Anybody wanna buy a used XL Dragon AT?

@Mares Development Team: It's a simple test. Take a MRS Plus pouch and put 3 × 2 kg (as rated), or 2 × 2 kg of weights in the pocket. Insert the pocket in the BCD, turn the BCD upside down, and tug the whole BCD.
If the pocket falls out: Your system is not working!!!
If the pocket doesn't fall out: Use a used BCD/pocket, not one off the production line.

 

[currier]

I discovered that I can not put more than one weight in either pocket on my BC because if I ever roll over and there is hard lead in there Velcrolcro won't hold the weights apart, they smack together and out comes the weight pocket. In the tropics this is not that big of a deal as I only have to put 4Lbs in each pocket and the rest of what I need in the trim pocket.

The problem is more of an issue when I am doing cold water dives and have to have a little more weight in there.

Michael, I think that you shouldn't load more weight into the pockets than what you have already proven will hold. It may seem silly and/or redundant to use both WI and belt, but it's actually more comfortable, and judging from your own experience, safer.

Some pockets are rated to hold up to 10lbs. This is stupid IMO as if you need say 28 lbs with a 7 mil or drysuit you shove 10 in each pocket and the rest in the trim. If you lose one pocket you've lost 1/3 of your weights. Not good as you found out. Even with pockets you should never put more in one than you can afford to lose and still do a controlled ascent. Even if that means adding a weight belt to your set up.

I added a weight belt and distribute between the belt, the ditchable pockets, and the trim pockets.

Can't speak about the Mares BC with WI, but I use integrated pockets myself, and refuse to overload them. IMHO integrated weights only add comfort by removing some from a burdened belt ...

Tomorrow morning I'll require 10kg due to 7mm shorty w/hood under 3mm full suit ... but there will be only ONE 2kg in each pocket, another 4kg on a belt, and 2kg secured to the tank band.

The inertia of a 2 + 2 kg weight bumping into each other is enough to overcome the tension of the security mechanism and the weight comes off underwater.

There's your problem ...