Dry suit gloves,

[rhephburn3900]

Got really frustrated the other day trying to put on my wet suit gloves over my
New cd/4 bare dry suit. Can anybody out there give me the heads up on who makes, what they think, is the best dry suit glove set/up . Looking for a locking or clip type of wrist connection and what type of glove is available (heavy or light insulation) any opinions will be gratefull
Rhephburn3900

 

[grazie42]

I like my si-tec ringsystem with "smurfgloves", they are reasonably priced and work...for real warmth I can recommend the si-tech 40g thinsulate "innergloves", they keep you warm even if you flood the dryglove...I´ve done 50 minute dives in 32F water with flooded drygloves and still gotten out, feeling just "chilled"...

 

[Ber Rabbit]

I have the Si-Tech rings also. I wear a pair of thinsulate winter shooting gloves under them for warmth, the yellow liners were too big on my little hands and for me they weren't warm at all. I wear a pair of silk glove liners under the shooting gloves to make it easier to don/doff them if my hands happen to be damp. Just make sure whatever glove you wear under the dry gloves doesn't extend very far down your wrist or they will get hung up in the rings and cause a leak.
Ber :lilbunny:

 

[dsteding]

I have SI-Tech and they've worked fine, but a lot of people like the Diving Concepts rings as well, and they may be a bit nicer because of the lower profile of the rings, depending on your hand size.

Whatever you do, buy your gloves from a place like Seattle Marine, www.seamar.com, rather than a dive shop-you'll save a ridiculous amount of money on them, even if you have to buy a couple sizes to figure things out.

The Atlas 620/660s (same glove size, different chemical resistance) work well, the 495s (the classic blue smurf gloves) come with a thick liner and the gloves themselves are therefore a bit larger sized. This reduces dexterity in my experience. For reference, my hands are 8 inches from wrist to end of middle finger (middle finger length is 3.5 inches) and the XL 620s work well for me with a wool liner. TSandM (on the board) has small hands and uses a medium 660, I think. I wore a pair of large 495s before switching to the more streamlined 620 or 660s, so you have to go a bit bigger with the unlined 620/660s as compared to the lined 495s.

For liners, to your local army surplus store and find a pair of cheap wool gloves, or even thin fleece ones. As people have noted, you can adjust your liners for warm, but my wool gloves have worked well in water that is 50 degrees or a bit less.

 

[SwimJim]

I have a scitec ring system and large hands. Not a good situation. Once I'm in them I'm okay, but getting there is a bummer. I'm switching to the Viking system which I was able to slide though easily, at least on the demo. I haven't got them yet, so I can't offer a field report as of yet. If you have normal size hands, the scitec system works just fine.

Jim

 

[TSandM]

I absolutely LOVE the Viking ring system. I was able to install it myself with very little fuss, and once I figured out what to do with the gloves, that was easy, too. The gloves lock on, and although easy to remove at the end of the dive, there's no way they would ever come loose while diving. I use Atlas 600 gloves, which are $5.99 at the local hardware store, and fit well while leaving enough room underneath for a polarfleece or thinsulate glove.

The only complaint I have is that the rings are quite large and do hang up on harness straps.

 

[cummings66]

I dive a Viking ring system as well, but there are a couple styles. You have the non twist and lock kind where you slip the glove over the ring and then a twist lock style.

I use the system where you slide the dry glove over the large ring, it's a friction fit and I've never had it leak. The other ring and bayonet type is commonly used on the Viking for Chemical/hazardous water and will not leak either, it's not supposed to be able to be pulled off accidentally. I've got buddies diving other brands and they've since gone to the Viking rings, good system IMO.

The only drawback is you can catch the rings on the harness straps of a BP/W so it's a bit tougher to suit up quickly. I never had an issue with that with a traditional vest style BC for what that's worth to you.