Best bcd in the market now?

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I am not sure that I understand why water temperature is a big factor in selecting a BC. I live in Hawaii and during different times of the year use different thicknesses of wetsuits. I started out diving horsecollar BC's and did a lot of drysuit diving in scuba. As a commercial diver I never wore a BC. Now that I dive a lot I have the opportunity to dive a lot I BC2 which I have only taken in twice so far so I will reserve too many comments on until I have a chance to get a few more dive with.
 
I am not sure that I understand why water temperature is a big factor in selecting a BC. I live in Hawaii and during different times of the year use different thicknesses of wetsuits. I started out diving horsecollar BC's and did a lot of drysuit diving in scuba. As a commercial diver I never wore a BC. Now that I dive a lot I have the opportunity to dive a lot I BC2 which I have only taken in twice so far so I will reserve too many comments on until I have a chance to get a few more dive with.

It's not the water temperature, it's the amount of different gear and weights you have on in the different temperatures.
In 40-50F water, you'd probably be wearing a drysuit, good thermals, and steel tanks. The first two to keep yourself warm and the last to take weight off of your belt. Even then, the drysuit divers I know use 30-40 lbs of weight to counter the drysuit. So a BCD that only has 25-30lbs of lift won't keep you out of the water, or will only barely keep you up.

In warm water, you could be diving a 3mm or even just a rashguard or swimsuit and aluminum tanks (more common in tropical dive ops and steel would be too heavy) and only need maybe 5-10lbs of weights. There, a BCD with 25-30lb of lift should do fine.
 
I would avoid the Aqualung Pro HD, its heavy and bulky and a bit rubbish.

The Aqualung Axiom (not I3) is good and well made (£339), I have one I use for teaching and treat it hard

Or The AL Rogue (£445) might be just out of budget or Outlaw (£380) are both good
 
+1 for the Aqualung Rogue. I bought two for my boys and so far they have dove in chilly lake quarries nearby. Next year we'll be taking them to SE Florida.
 
I have a Zeagle Ranger and i cannot recommend it enough. It's very versatile and i cannot think of a situation where it would not be suited to. Not to mention the fact it has a patented integrated weight system that can all be released very quickly with the pull of one handle. The ranger has a great personal fit system so you can make sure the BC fits very comfortable and it's adjustment range is huge. Me & my girlfriend both dive it (size MD/LG) and we are of very different body shapes and sizes. We both love diving it. It has more lift than you could ever need (better than not having enough) The ability to dive with singles, or doubles. You can easily add a crotch strap (i did). If you want to dive doubles you can very easily just attach a backplate to the system and then your off, then remove it again with the twist of two nuts and your back to single backmount. The zeagle is very durable, god only knows what you would have to do to destroy this thing. It has a pull inflator dump on the shoulder, trim pockets, and it weighs just slightly over 3.5KG, along with the fact it doesn't have a hard back support so you can fold it up to take it away easily for travel diving. They can be had quite cheap second hand on eBay.
 
I have a Zeagle Ranger and i cannot recommend it enough. It's very versatile and i cannot think of a situation where it would not be suited to. Not to mention the fact it has a patented integrated weight system that can all be released very quickly with the pull of one handle. The ranger has a great personal fit system so you can make sure the BC fits very comfortable and it's adjustment range is huge. Me & my girlfriend both dive it (size MD/LG) and we are of very different body shapes and sizes. We both love diving it. It has more lift than you could ever need (better than not having enough) The ability to dive with singles, or doubles. You can easily add a crotch strap (i did). If you want to dive doubles you can very easily just attach a backplate to the system and then your off, then remove it again with the twist of two nuts and your back to single backmount. The zeagle is very durable, god only knows what you would have to do to destroy this thing. It has a pull inflator dump on the shoulder, trim pockets, and it weighs just slightly over 3.5KG, along with the fact it doesn't have a hard back support so you can fold it up to take it away easily for travel diving. They can be had quite cheap second hand on eBay.
Would have to agree with this for a BC. I dove a Zeagle Tech for ~20 years. These are tough BCs. Just switched to a Ranger and have done about 18 dives in the Channel Islands with a neoprene drysuit and steel tanks. Ranger has plenty of lift to offset that neoprene crush below ~90’ and trims nicely with or without a pony etc. Have not dove with the Ranger in warm water yet, but the Tech was wonderful in Sipadan, Roatan, Bahamas etc. Ranger is much more configurable than the Tech for fit. People may dive other BCs or configurations, but I have not really ever met anyone that dove a Ranger or Tech that did not love them. Someone will jump up now and tell me how terrible they are. :bounce:
 

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