Dry Gloves - Inner Seal or not?

[jc2]

You put me on the fence again. While your response is in the minority, it was what my gut first thoughts on this was when I initially considered the issue. I've donned and doffed the suit at home since installing with inner seals once. They are a pain to get on and off your wrists with those big rings around them - had to use lots of talc - but the suit is brand new. Actually putting the rings on the suit isn't that hard so I can always switch from no seal to seal if I choose.

If I'm diving in 48-50 degree water and I have a leak which is essentially an equipment failure, although a minor one, I'm going to end the dive whether I have wrist seals on or not and in the range of severity of equipment failures, this one is probably towards the bottom of the spectrum.

I usually do like to drop down to below 100 feet on most dives the initially few minutes and then come back up a bit. I'll need the tubes for that if I keep the seals. Seems like why bother with the tubes that are going to leak anyway if I get a glove flood. Just forget having inner seals for ow rec dives and enjoy the comfort.

Since All you're doing id non overhead stuff - if you do get a leak in a glove ( A rather rare thing as long as you use alittle common sense) Then you go up. The amount of time you'll have a little water coming in is a few minutes. Weigh that against the PIA a inner seal is and it just isn't worth the trouble to use the inner seal.

The consideration is different if you plan to do deco dives. Spending 2+ hours with a leaky glove is a real pain, but it's not like it's going to flood your suit, It's just going make your arm a little more wet than if you had a leaky glove and a wrist seal. Lets face it- if you take the glove off to remove the equalization device Then you will likely be as wet or wetter than if you just left it alone.

Just enjoy the gloves and forget the inner seal idea for now.

 

[CIBDiving]

.... I usually do like to drop down to below 100 feet on most dives the initially few minutes and then come back up a bit. I'll need the tubes for that if I keep the seals. Seems like why bother with the tubes that are going to leak anyway if I get a glove flood. Just forget having inner seals for ow rec dives and enjoy the comfort.

While you may not NEED the tubes until 60 or so feet down, You'll know they aren't there in the first 10ft! The more you keep off the squeeze the warmer your hands will be.

You're using DCI gloves right? You can get replacement gloves at the hardware store for ~ $20 ( ~$15 for the orange ones). You can probably find a used set of rings (with gloves) on Ebay for $30, that way you can always have a spare ready to go. Glove replacment is simple (but does take practice) with a few 'spring clamps' - the oversized closepin type that wood workers use, get the 3" ones. Oh and you can get those ORings at the local sears store for a few cents each.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Go with the inner seals. last dive I was on my glove came apart from the ring, (my fault) and even tho it flooded somewhat my arm stayed nice and dry.