Heated Undersuit batteries

[AJMcc]

Hello all,
Got a Santi BZ400 heated under suit from Santa and am wondering what battery most use to power the suit?
I know about the Light monkey battery's and a few other "big name" manufacturers but am wondering what else is out there that people have had good experiences with.

Something in the 18 - 30 Ah range.
Also wondering what voltages most people use , I have heard some folks using 14v batts.

The suit is designed to run at 12 volts, so I assume that all the 11 volt battery's wont heat enough?

Thanks for your input.

 

[insomnia]

Hello,

I am using Santi heated vest (in extreme conditions also w/ heated gloves) together w/ this battery Heating systems - Light For Me What I like on LFM battery is that the switch is on the bottom, so it is super easy to switch ON/OFF. You can also connect both the heating and the light to the battery if that is of your interest.

You can't use 14V batteries unless you have something that reduce the voltage to 12V ... i.e. this Heating systems - Light For Me

Enjoy your heated undersuit .)

 

[BazzaB]

I have a 2 x 10 Ah from light monkey with a pitkin switch.
This allows for 100, 80, 60 and 30% power.

 

[tbone1004]

UWLD battery pack with the vest controller. I prefer it to the Pitkin controller because it is a piezo instead of a toggle switch and it has an LED power indicator to you know what setting it is on. The controller also maintains stable output voltage regardless of input voltage which means 30% is always 30% where the LM will start to taper down as the battery goes. I also like the stack caps that allow me to use my light on the same canister and remove the controller if I don't need it without an extra cord coming out.

realistically you can scavenge any old battery pack and canister as long as it is nominal 12v and put an EO cord on it, but the vest controllers are nice because you aren't cycling between full power and nothing. The nice thing about the UWLD controllers is that they use a much higher voltage pack which has a lot of benefits on the canister and controller side, and then it kicks the voltage down to whatever the vest wants which makes them much more efficient.

that said, the pitkin controller is much cheaper, and you can also get it integrated into the lid of the canister if you have a dedicated canister for about half the cost of the UWLD, so have to weigh it. If you already have a LM canister that you want to use, $300 to replace the lid with the heater controller is a great deal, if you already have something with an EO output, then $300 for just the inline pitkin controller is great.

LM is very deceiving in their numbers because they are quoting amps for the canisters, which is not the best unit because it ignores voltage. Their 10ah packs are 115wh for reference, so make sure you are comparing apples to apples when you look and compare pricing. The biggest thing with their integrated lids is to make sure that you don't have an e/o light or your buddy doesn't have an e/o light because if you plug that into the vest controller lid, you'll fry the light.

Can't go wrong with either option, I'd go with UWLD because I can get the vest and light off of one battery pack and make it a modular system vs always having two cables coming out or having two separate packs. You also get the LED indicator on the power output, and the power output is flat across the full range of the battery pack discharge cycle instead of tapering off like the LM will.

 

[AJMcc]

Thanks for the replies everyone, I have a few specific questions to the quoted reply's below.

You can't use 14V batteries unless you have something that reduce the voltage to 12V ... i.e. this Heating systems - Light For Me

Including the link you provided to reduce the voltage into the equation, would a 14v/20Ah battery provide a longer burn at 12v than a 12v/20Ah battery?

Also, wouldn't an 11.1 nominal battery be under the required voltage for full heat and run under 12v most of its burn?
(cooler suit)

.

realistically you can scavenge any old battery pack and canister as long as it is nominal 12v and put an EO cord on it,

This is exactly what I am looking to do and the reason I am asking about the battery alone.
I do know about the UWLD, Pitkin and the LFM controllers and if required I will take that route.

My question could have been phrased a bit better, I have a specific size canister and am looking for more choices for the stand alone battery to fit this canister (3.6" x 10.5"). I am having a hard time finding a battery of the correct voltage and size with enough watt hrs to ideally give me around 2.5 - 3 hours burn @ 110 watts.

I have found LI-ION dive light battery's with just over 300 watt hrs online, but cannot get them shipped to Canada.

Again, thanks for the replies.

 

[tbone1004]

you want nominal 12v, the vest doesn't really care what you feed it the voltage directly correlates to temperature. Without a controller of some kind it will be really hot in the beginning and taper off as the voltage drops. 14.4v is fine just hotter, it's the closest you'll get to 12v in a normal sized battery pack if you want full heat.

If you already have the canister, LM can retrofit it with the pitkin controller in the lid and change to EO for around $160.

Finding something to put out that much power is going to be difficult and you're probably going to be roasted to a nice medium rare. Physically you won't get enough battery inside that canister for that much burn time. Just not going to happen. If you had a higher voltage you might be able to get there, but then you need a controller to kick the voltage down.

That canister is probably designed for a battery like this
Li-ion 18650 Battery: 11.1V 20.4Ah (226.44Wh, 21A rate) for Diving Light
that will get you about 2.5 hours on almost high, so you probably won't roast, but it won't be at full output.

 

[insomnia]

Thanks for the replies everyone, I have a few specific questions to the quoted reply's below.




Including the link you provided to reduce the voltage into the equation, would a 14v/20Ah battery provide a longer burn at 12v than a 12v/20Ah battery?

Also, wouldn't an 11.1 nominal battery be under the required voltage for full heat and run under 12v most of its burn?
(cooler suit)

Yes, 14v/20Ah will provide a longer burn because it has more Wh. However 12v/20Ah doesn't need any extra devices, cables, Pitkins, etc. (which I don't like) and can bee connected directly to vest thru E/O connector.

11.1V will IMHO work pretty much the same as 12V.

 

[insomnia]

you want nominal 12v, the vest doesn't really care what you feed it the voltage directly correlates to temperature. Without a controller of some kind it will be really hot in the beginning and taper off as the voltage drops. 14.4v is fine just hotter, it's the closest you'll get to 12v in a normal sized battery pack if you want full heat.

If you already have the canister, LM can retrofit it with the pitkin controller in the lid and change to EO for around $160.

Finding something to put out that much power is going to be difficult and you're probably going to be roasted to a nice medium rare. Physically you won't get enough battery inside that canister for that much burn time. Just not going to happen. If you had a higher voltage you might be able to get there, but then you need a controller to kick the voltage down.

That canister is probably designed for a battery like this
Li-ion 18650 Battery: 11.1V 20.4Ah (226.44Wh, 21A rate) for Diving Light
that will get you about 2.5 hours on almost high, so you probably won't roast, but it won't be at full output.

100% power w/ 12V is fine, I never had a problem w/ really hot Santi heated vest ...and heated gloves are never hot, you just don't feel cold or your hands. Do you have experience w/ Santi products or you have experience just w/ UWLD only?

 

[tbone1004]

UWLD doesn't make a vest only a controller, but I have experience with Santi's vests and they aren't a vest that I would ever buy or recommend to someone to buy.... I am a textile engineer and have quite a bit of experience in heated apparel, and that is not a design I would ever use personally because I don't believe it is a good design as compared to other cheaper options out there that are much safer and more durable

 

[insomnia]

UWLD doesn't make a vest only a controller, but I have experience with Santi's vests and they aren't a vest that I would ever buy or recommend to someone to buy.... I am a textile engineer and have quite a bit of experience in heated apparel, and that is not a design I would ever use personally because I don't believe it is a good design as compared to other cheaper options out there that are much safer and more durable

OK, what would you recommend then?