Blew a glove

[Diver0001]

This post might be of interest to people wearing drygloves.

Made a dive today with a group of people preparing for the ice dives next weekend. We were laying out line and working on the team (IANTD treats ice diving a little bit like a cave). The water was 3-4C (about 38F) and as luck would have it I cut open one of my gloves.

The way I wear it, I put light thinsulate gloves on before I get in my suit and put the gloves through the seals. This allows for easy pressure equalisation in the drygloves but I had often wondered how fast the suit would flood if you lost a glove.

The answer is promising. The glove was completely flooded for 45 minutes and my arm was only wet until just below the elbow. I managed to keep a fair amount of overpressure in the glove by holding it behind me like a speed-skater whenever I had the chance. I did cool off faster than I would have otherwise and given the temperature of the water I was experiencing a fair amount of pain in my hand by the end of the dive but I was able to finish.

It should probably also be mentioned that if you're one of those people who wear drygloves without an inside latex seal for this contingency that a similar problem could have put you at serious risk of under-cooling.

R..

 

[ththooft]

I'm just about to take Ice diving with a similar glove set-up, so it's great to know that I won't be flooded if my glove does blow.
Glad to hear that no major problems occurred.

 

[Diver0001]

I'm just about to take Ice diving with a similar glove set-up, so it's great to know that I won't be flooded if my glove does blow.
Glad to hear that no major problems occurred.

I think the key was keeping the overpressure on it. This is the part to remember. Most of the water that got into the suit got in when I was reeling in my line and couldn't keep my hand above my middle.

Swearing didn't help at all despite my best efforts...

R..

 

[PacketSniffer]

When wreck diving in the cold, I've been thinking of not using the thinsulate gloves but wearing 5mm neoprene or kevlar wet gloves over the dry glove. Has anyone tried this? Success?


Richard

 

[gcbryan]

I'm glad your suit didn't flood more than it did but I wouldn't count on that always being the case. It may have been a function of how big the cut was.

I've had a leak develop in my dry gloves due to bumping into a barnacle and I had minimal leaking (similar to your experience).

I have also had slightly bigger holes develop which caused my entire suit to flood. I don't wear my liners as you do and I was using small tubes to equalize but I would be careful with your system. If you get a bigger hole and get a bad leak there is no way to try to reduce the leak with your method. At least with an equalizing tube you can quickly pop them out.

For the most part I've now realized that I don't need even the equalizing tube since tightening your wrists will allow some air to pass from your glove to your suit and vise versa.

Just a thought.

 

[gcbryan]

When wreck diving in the cold, I've been thinking of not using the thinsulate gloves but wearing 5mm neoprene or kevlar wet gloves over the dry glove. Has anyone tried this? Success?


Richard

It would kind of defeat the purpose of the dry gloves in that you wouldn't be able to have air in your glove due to the tightness of the neoprene and it would be extremely bulky.

I have some buddies that like to scavage lakes for treasure (junk) and they never know what their hands will be touching as they drag them along in the silt and they use large, heavy duty leather garden gloves over dry gloves. They aren't tight fitting so the dry gloves can still retain air and if they drag their hands across some broken glass the leather can handle that.

I think that would work better for your situation. In other words still keep the thinsulate undergloves.

 

[PacketSniffer]

It would kind of defeat the purpose of the dry gloves in that you wouldn't be able to have air in your glove due to the tightness of the neoprene and it would be extremely bulky.

I have some buddies that like to scavage lakes for treasure (junk) and they never know what their hands will be touching as they drag them along in the silt and they use large, heavy duty leather garden gloves over dry gloves. They aren't tight fitting so the dry gloves can still retain air and if they drag their hands across some broken glass the leather can handle that.

I think that would work better for your situation. In other words still keep the thinsulate undergloves.

I haven't tried it yet and was just wondering. My hands got cold in 52f with the Thinsulate (40g) liners. I'm going to give it a whirl and see what it gets me. I've tried it out of water and the dexterity didn't seem to be bad at all when wearing the Kevlar gloves (Eurotech).

 

[gcbryan]

I haven't tried it yet and was just wondering. My hands got cold in 52f with the Thinsulate (40g) liners. I'm going to give it a whirl and see what it gets me. I've tried it out of water and the dexterity didn't seem to be bad at all when wearing the Kevlar gloves (Eurotech).

Go for it and report back One thing I noticed when I first started using dry gloves was that they were drier but not necessarily warmer. Whether or not your hands are warm depends on the thickness of the under gloves and on having a little air in the glove.

My hands were colder at first and in the winter in particular I now use a thin polypro liner glove, then 100 wt fleece liner, and then the dry glove. That worked for me. The polypro seems to trap a layer of air and the fleece keeps it warm. Keeping air in the dry glove is hard since it equalizes if you move your hands around very much and the air just goes back into the dry suit.

 

[Diver0001]

I'm glad your suit didn't flood more than it did but I wouldn't count on that always being the case. It may have been a function of how big the cut was.

I've had a leak develop in my dry gloves due to bumping into a barnacle and I had minimal leaking (similar to your experience).

I have also had slightly bigger holes develop which caused my entire suit to flood. I don't wear my liners as you do and I was using small tubes to equalize but I would be careful with your system. If you get a bigger hole and get a bad leak there is no way to try to reduce the leak with your method. At least with an equalizing tube you can quickly pop them out.

For the most part I've now realized that I don't need even the equalizing tube since tightening your wrists will allow some air to pass from your glove to your suit and vise versa.

Just a thought.

Well....I wouldn't call it minimal leaking. The cut was about a cm long and the glove was totally flooded. Keeping as much overpressure on it as I could limited the amount of water that got in. I think if I hadn't done that then the flooding would ahve been much worse. I also agree with you that this is a game of diminishing returns. If the leak is bad enough you'd have to remove the glove and pull the liner out from under the seal. I think if it were that bad I would have called the dive. We were close to shore but a suit full of freezing water isn't my idea of a good time.

I've tried equalizing the way you do it but I don't like it as much.

R..

 

[moneysavr]

[but wearing 5mm neoprene or kevlar wet gloves over the dry glove. Has anyone tried this? Success?


Richard[/QUOTE]

Hey Rich,
I have used like a 3mm neo/thinsulate water proof glove on my non ring system dry Gloves= homemade and they work fine even with a leak. I cant use a 5mm due to They dont fit into my smurff gloves
Brad