Anyone making a air/water tight soft weights?

[Bob3]

Is anyone making soft weights with an air/water tight plastic sack? Some folks are doing water sampling & don't want any extra lead seeping into the water.
Poseidon has them (called the ERGO weights) but they don't ship the critters to the US.

 

[MB]

Interesting question Bob. I've never come across this one before. I suppose an alternative could be to fill bags with granular stuff that's not lead and doesn't leach. Let's see... sugar? Nope. Salt? Nope. Hmmm... gonna have to think about this one. I'll bet Tadpole will have an idea or two...

 

[crpntr133]

I have seen a couple of divers that have made homemade weights by putting metal (?) in a vacuum bagger bag...normally used for food storage. They aren't 100% air free since they used BB's and scrap metal that weren't flat. The little bit of trapped air shouldn't be an issue. As for durability..don't know. Their weights were bigger since lead weighs more than the other metals that they used.

 

[StSomewhere]

Interesting question Bob. I've never come across this one before. I suppose an alternative could be to fill bags with granular stuff that's not lead and doesn't leach. Let's see... sugar? Nope. Salt? Nope. Hmmm... gonna have to think about this one. I'll bet Tadpole will have an idea or two...

Great question, I had always assumed that the bb's in my SeaPearls soft weights wouldn't leach lead anymore than the hard weights used with standard weighbelts.

Edit: Huh, live and learn I guess:

http://www.scubapro.com/products/accessories/eco_weights/eco_weights.asp

The weights even come in convenient metric whole numbers, for those who like to work with 2.2, 3.3 or 5.5 lbs (1.0/1.5/2.5 kg). I guess sealed lead weights must be an EU thing....

 

[Chad Carney]

When washing off bagged lead weights you'll see a lot of leaching at first, but then it slows down substantially. Probably vinyl coated hard weights would be the easiest to find and least contaminating for this special purpose.

I bet they wouldn't be too happy if the diver had to pee or blow his nose either!

 

[Bob3]

If I can't get the ScubaPro ones I may have to break out the old Seal-a-Meal.