DC ring glove installation tips

[LG Diver]

Hey all,

I just picked up a pair of Diving Concepts ring gloves to install on my DUI CF200. As I was paying for them, one of the guys in the shop asked me what kind of suit I was putting them on. When I told him, he started laughing and said "good luck getting them on!". So, is it really that bad to get the rings in there? What tips/tricks have you discovered to get the rings up the sleeves and into position? Should I slather the whole ring in talc or KY? Is it possible to stretch the latex wrist seals enough to feed the rings in from that end instead of putting them up the sleeve? He got in my head and has me all worried now. :huh: I'd hate to trash a brand new set of wrist seals trying to get these things on there.

Edit- also, as I mentioned, the seals are brand new. Should I trim them first and then install the rings, or put the rings on first and then make the final trim to size? Do the rings affect the sizing of the wrist seal opening?

 

[Mo2vation]

Claudette and I installed her DC gloves onto her Bare crushed Neo suit while sitting in my truck in the parking lot of a dive site in 9 minutes. Its no biggie.

Go to the DC website - its an excellent tutorial.

I'm a photographer, so I brought along some O-ring lube... just a teeny bit makes pulling the O-Rings on way easier.

Cut the seals, for sure. Get the seals to the fit you want, then do the install.

Seriously - it won't take more than a few minutes.

You'll never dive with wet hands again. These things change everything!!! I love mine.


---
Ken

 

[jepuskar]

LOLOLOL!!!! I just went through this last night. I would trim your latex seals first, but this is not going to ease your pain I brought the suit connector in from the sleeve (while it was turned inside out) and turned it 90 degrees like they tell you to to make it upright...this part wasnt too bad. It stretched the latex seal pretty good...then you put the one o-ring on towards the ridge and now the fun part...

You now bring your sleeve right side out and all goes well until you hit the ridge. I tried with help to get it over the ridge, but I did not feel comfortable doing that to my suit so i backed out. It was a pain in the arse to back out to because of that one o-ring (the removal of it).

Anywho....I am trying my Si-Tech system this weekend..if that goes well (the installation sure did) then i am returning the Diving Concepts system. While it does look more secure, the installation is not worth a torn seal etc. I think the Diving Concepts system is more of a once its on dont take it off kind of a system.

Ohh by the way, and I speak from experience...dont take the glove off of its ring system otherwise you will cuss your brains out trying to get it back on...I called Diving Concepts and the guy laughed at me...basically said good luck with that. The instructions make it seem soo much easier.

If you get the system on ok, let me know any tricks.

Thanks,

BTW, do you have the neoprene gloves as well, instead of the blue ones?

Jason

 

[LG Diver]

LOLOLOL!!!! I just went through this last night. I would trim your latex seals first, but this is not going to ease your pain I brought the suit connector in from the sleeve (while it was turned inside out) and turned it 90 degrees like they tell you to to make it upright...this part wasnt too bad. It stretched the latex seal pretty good...then you put the one o-ring on towards the ridge and now the fun part...

You now bring your sleeve right side out and all goes well until you hit the ridge. I tried with help to get it over the ridge, but I did not feel comfortable doing that to my suit so i backed out. It was a pain in the arse to back out to because of that one o-ring (the removal of it).

Anywho....I am trying my Si-Tech system this weekend..if that goes well (the installation sure did) then i am returning the Diving Concepts system. While it does look more secure, the installation is not worth a torn seal etc. I think the Diving Concepts system is more of a once its on dont take it off kind of a system.

Ohh by the way, and I speak from experience...dont take the glove off of its ring system otherwise you will cuss your brains out trying to get it back on...I called Diving Concepts and the guy laughed at me...basically said good luck with that. The instructions make it seem soo much easier.

If you get the system on ok, let me know any tricks.

Thanks,

BTW, do you have the neoprene gloves as well, instead of the blue ones?

Jason

You're not helping!!!! I want to hear more posts like Ken's about how easy it is, and how my beagle could to it with one paw tied behind her back. I've read the instructions on the DC site a few times and they make it look so easy... too easy.

No, I have the blue smurf gloves. I heard the neo gloves were leak-prone, so I opted for the blue ones since they're also cheap to replace. Now, easy to replace is another story but there's a few threads around here somewhere on making a glove installation tool out of some 4" PVC pipe. That's the next project after installing the rings.

 

[Mo2vation]

You're not helping!!!! I want to hear more posts like Ken's about how easy it is, and how my beagle could to it with one paw tied behind her back. I've read the instructions on the DC site a few times and they make it look so easy... too easy.

No, I have the blue smurf gloves. I heard the neo gloves were leak-prone, so I opted for the blue ones since they're also cheap to replace. Now, easy to replace is another story but there's a few threads around here somewhere on making a glove installation tool out of some 4" PVC pipe. That's the next project after installing the rings.

Search for my thread and pics. I've replaced enough of these gloves that I got it down to about 10 minutes or so for getting a pair off and back onto the glove-side rings.

These are so easy to repair with PVC cement, the only time you'll need to replace them in the next couple of years is if you want to change size (XL to L, for example) or if you want to go from lined gloves to unlined. Apart from that, I can't see ever needing to take them off.

As divers, there are many things that a much tougher to accomplish than installing or doing an R & R on dry gloves...

---
Ken

 

[JeffG]

or if you want to go from lined gloves to unlined.

Just cut out the lining. No need to replace the gloves for that. Going the other way you would have to.


Hints.

Make sure the entire ring is in the latex wrist seal.
KY does help.


It isn't tough once you figure it out.

 

[jepuskar]

Sorry LG..hehe

I'm not giving up on them yet....i just didnt like the way the installation was going. I was done in 5 minutes with the SI-Tech system and I posted a thread..its just below this one about not understanding how the system worked...it was very clear once in front of me.

The DC system is not hard to understand, i just had a tough time installing it.

 

[LG Diver]

This may call for the same installation tool that I used to put the p-valve hole in the DS... a few cold beers. Let me tell you, punching a hole in a perfectly good suit was a little nervewracking, but it went beautifully. In relation to that, this can't be anywhere near as bad.

 

[JimC]

Forget the sleeve stuff.

Take an o-ring, place it inside the wrist seal where you want it and fold the seal over the o-ring.
Take the folded over o-ring and place one spot inside the grove on the cuff.
Work the o-ring around the cuff grove, You may want for 3 hands for this step, but I can do it with two in about 30 seconds now.
Once the o-ring is in the grove all the way around, pull the second o-ring overtop and work it into place.

A similar system will work with the glove rings. This technique works will all suits, no mater what size.

 

[JeffG]

You may want for 3 hands for this step, but I can do it with two in about 30 seconds now.

Since I didn't have three hands I always found this method frustrating.